Restaurants & dining – All our local tips

In a small alley next to the St Vincentius Hospital you can find this quiet and cosy day time lunch-bar. It’s quite new but that doesn’t change its charm.

The interior feels warm & cosy. The food is homemade with care and you just take it out of the counter and pay at the counter.

A very down to earth place and ideal for a relax lunch or just to read your newspaper during lunch.

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22b | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Lunch) | Meal € 10.00
Sint-Vincentiusstraat 22B | Zurenborg | +32475674930
Mon – Fri (check website for hours)

Let’s be honest – going to a concert in the Sport Palace in Antwerp is not always synonymous for having enjoyed a great concert and a fantastic gastronomic dinner, but luckily it is possible to have both on the same day or evening.

Bonten Os is a relatively new kid in the neighborhood of the Antwerpen Dam. Since then they have loyal gourmand-followers, and I am definitely one of them. The quality of the food is rare to see, everything is fresh and homemade (even the cookies served with coffee), the presentation of the dishes deserves pictures and the taste deserves an ovation to the chef. Almost everything about the restaurant is proudly Belgian and you can notice it in the preparation, care and love they put on to every plate.

The restaurant also has a lounge to relax and enjoy the evening. In the summer the veranda is open. My favorite feature about this place is that it is not boring, the menu changes every month, the prices are fair, and clients

get rewarded for being a VIG (Very Important Gourmands), more info in their website. You will be amazed with how much you can get!

For the attentive lovers, Bonten Os offers a Valentine 4-time menu and reservations are mandatory.

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Bonten Os | Restaurants (Belgian) | Menu from € 20.00
Bredastraat 107 | Eilandje | +32032323330
Wed – Fri 11:00 – 23:00, Sat – Sun 18:00 – 23:00

There’s only one restaurant in Antwerp that serves real biological and macrobiotic food. Honest food with an honest taste. You can find it in the Cullinan.

Restaurant Cullinan (named after the biggest diamond ever found) lies in the Jewish quarter in Antwerp. This is by the way also an interesting part of the city that is worth seeing… But now we’re talking about food and this little restaurant offers the best. It’s a simple kitchen, no haute cuisine, but the quality is great and you’ll get the most healthy pumpkins, carrots and beans. Vegetables are not only decoration here: it is the most important thing on the plate. And: it tastes great!

The cook – Jan Lansloot – and his wife Lutgard have 35 years of experience with macrobiotic cooking and they still love good and biological food. They guarantee that the food is 95% biological. They serve meat, fish or vegetarian dishes and everything is very fresh. They don’t have a microwave and try not to use deep-frozen food.

The furnishing in the restaurant is not very hip or funky, but the food is so good that – after a while – the salt lamps don’t matter anymore. You even start to like them…

The vegetarian vegetable dish is my favorite. This plate variates every time because they follow the vegetables of the season. It is a surprise every time I go there. They cook really surprisingly…

They have also delicious desserts: cakes and pastry with or without sugar…
Mmmm. Why can’t I cook like that?

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Cullinan | Restaurants (biological) | Main meal € 16.00
Isabellalei 1 | Stationsbuurt | +3232301660
Tue – Thu 12:00 – 14:00 & 18:00 – 21:00, Fri 12:00 – 14:00 & 18:00 – 21:30, Sat 18:00 & 21:30, closed on holidays

Somewhere deeply hidden in the Zurenborgh area is a little store that sells high quality food. Locals come here to fulfill their little Sunday morning needs at the breakfast/lunch table. Fruit, bread, vegetables or a variety of delicious home made items…

But there ’s more. If you walk to the back of the store you’ll find a cozy and calm place to enjoy breakfast or lunch. It’s a great environment with a great service. And everything in this store is for sale: the food, the plates, tea cups, tables, chairs, …

And there’s even more: they also have a bead and breakfast service upstairs. So actually, this could be your ideal base to start your Antwerp citytrip from!

Worth a visit when you’re in the neighborhood!

The website is still under construction but will be online soon.

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Frais Divers | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Breakfast/lunch) | Main € 16
Grote Hondstraat 5 | Zurenborg
Tue – Fri 08:00 – 18:00, Sat 08:00 – 16:00

This is absolutely my new favorite in Antwerp! It’s not known by many people but a real treasure to cherish. Il Gallo Nero is an Italian restaurant owned by a Belgian – Italian couple. It’s Italian, but the Italian man handles the service, his wife takes care of the excellent dishes. You ‘ll find some great Italian dishes here with a touch of Belgian influences. The food is of great quality here.

What adds more to the charm is the nice man who serves you. He’s Milanese born and only speaks french & Italian (fluently). He explains everything he serves in a way only an Italian can. The food, the people: honest, nice and excellent quality.

And while you are there, take a moment to enjoy the nice scenery you’ve entered. Some nice paintings and some traditional Italian kitsch…this all served with carefully selected music by Italian crooners.

I tell you… if you only have one restaurant opportunity in Antwerp, this should be it. Cozy, romantic, …

Some more pictures

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Il Gallo Nero | Restaurants | Main meal € 30.00
Grote Pieter Potstraat 36 | Meir | +3232311960
Thu – Tue evening (reservation is always safe)

I often come in the café/restaurant K. Zeppos. The name comes from a Belgian tv-programme for kids: Kapitein Zeppos. It played in the years 1964 till 1968 and was very successful.

When you enter the café you see a very big picture of the actor that played Kapitein Zeppos (Senne Rouffaer).

K. Zeppos is a very ‘practical’ café/restaurant. It’s in the middle of the city, but not in the heat of the tourist-zone. It has an enormous terrace on a big square in summer and in winter it is very comfortable inside. Good atmosphere, nice food for an okay price. It’s not cheap, but also not very expensive. Only their tea is way too expensive. That’s why I never drink tea in the K. Zeppos.

It’s a perfect meeting-place for little groups. If I want to see a bunch of my friends we think easily of K.Zeppos. Especially if some people have to eat. You can eat classic Belgian food, but they have also meals from all over the world. It’s a good place where I like to come from time to time…

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K. Zeppos | Bars, Snacks, Restaurants (Intern.) | Main meal from € 15.00
Vleminckveld 78 | Meir | +3232311789
From 10:00 daily

Amidst the upcoming grandeur near ‘t Eilandje is a small restaurant that reflects everything the neighbourhood should be about: small, cozy environment with a touch of quality and finesse: L’ile d’ Anvers.

One thing is for sure, the guys who run this restaurant are passionate about their business, and that will be about eight years now. Anyway, I felt comfortable and relaxed from the minute I entered.

They have friendly service with a big honest smile. And the food is great! They serve the slightly better dishes here and charge the right price for that. After dinner you can enjoy the nightlife around the docks and yacht club.

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L’ile d’ Anvers | Restaurants (French/Fusion) | Meal € 30.00
Verbindingsdok, Oostkaai 3 | Eilandje
Tue – Fri 11:30 – 14:00 & 18:00 – 22:30, Sat 18:00 – 22:30

In the most Southern point of Antwerp, with a great view on the new Court House of Antwerp you can find Restaurant The Lobby. This fresh and modern restaurant is a must visit for every overnight visitor in Antwerp. I really like the interior and the special big lamp centrally placed in the restaurant.

Their dinners are of high quality and every plate has an ingredient you never heard of before. Served with a great smile and passion for their “métier”.

If you have the time: take time to have breakfast… you’ll never find any better! Apparently they have a superb Bed & Breakfast.

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Lobby Antwerp | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (French) | Main Meal € 30.00
Jan Van Beersstraat 51 | Zuid | +3232336483
Tue – Fri from 08:00, Sat – Sun from 10:00

If you’re looking for a quick dinner or a casual location to dine, Marie is the place to be!

Marie is a small restaurant near “De Zurenborg”. Very cosy and well decorated interior. And the food is exactly what you expect from a place like this.

It looks plain and simple but it tastes just great. Very down to earth and honest, just as the people who work there. I like places and people like this. Check it out, that’s all I have to say!

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Marie | Restaurants (Mediteranian/French) | Main Meal € 25
Boomgaardstraat 42 | Zurenborg | +32475804022
Wed – Sun from 18:00 – …

A friend of mine started this restaurant a few years ago. I try to go there as much as i can, just because the food is so good and it’s not expensive at all! And it gives me the opportunity to catch up with Soufian (the owner).

my perfect dinner at Pastamore begins with the Vitello. Then the veggie lasagna and if i still have a little bit of space left, the tiramisu with a lovely café latte. My boyfriend adores the carpaccio di tonno and the Ossobucco… mmmm I think I’m gonna make a quick call for a reservation for tonight…

Pastamore is a great restaurant to go to after you explored Zurenborg. you can easily take tram 11 or 8 back to the city centre. I already took so many people there, and they all loved it!

When you go there, please say Hi to Soufian from me!

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Pastamore | Restaurants (Italian) | Main meal € 9.00
Draakstraat 12 | Zurenborg | +3232944981
Wed – Mon 18:00 – 22:00

When I’m looking for a descent yet quick meal, I go to Lunch Cafe Walrus.

It has an very good kitchen with honest prices. The service is mostly with a smile and you just get what you want here: something to satisfy your hunger!

Wether for a breakfast  – brunch – lunch or dinner … they got what you need! Don’t expect haute cuisine, but expect to be satisfied!

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Walrus | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Belgian) | Meal from € 15.00
Jan van Beersstraat 2 | Zuid | +3232383993
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 22:00, Sat – Sun 11:00 – 22:00