Coffee & tea

This bar/restaurant nearby the ‘Nieuwe Beestenmarkt’ just outside the city center can be considered an old fashioned café where you can have a good drink, a nice meal and even a great party afterwards. The décor is characterized by the retro wallpaper, the brown colors and the snake plants covering the walls.

In summertime you can enjoy your food and drinks outside on the terrace but I can appreciate the warm interior and their good functioning stoves more during the winter season.

The menu offers traditional dishes: pastas and salads but also some Grandma’s specials such as: meatballs in sauce Madeira, Rabbit with prunes…At lunch time you can enjoy a soup and main course at a very reasonable price and a wide range of beers is completing the offer.

As this restaurant is very popular I advise you to make your reservation beforehand! Good luck and see you there soon!

Note – this restaurant has recently been redecorated. You can now enjoy the new and improved interior of this place!

I personally very much enjoy a Sunday morning going out of house for brunching. It gives me 100% guarantee to good coffee and a variety of healthy and a nutritious food to star the active – or in most cases -lazy day…

One nice place to have an enjoyable morning experience is Brooderie: not only does it offer you the chance to a biological breakfast; you can also crash here for a fresh made soup or a delicious slice of cake in between shopping or after a visit to the Design Museum just across the street.

The warm brown and yellow colors in the interior makes you feel at home in a split second! I am a fan of their large variety of quiches and their several brunch formulas. If you want the feeling to last longer, you can also buy their bread or even better: sleep over! Yes, they even exploit a Bed and Breakfast to spend a lovely weekend in Ghent City!

One of my favorite activities is spending weekends wandering around antique markets. In Ghent we have many of them and the weekly venue for secondhand lovers is the square at Saint-Jacobs. A small market you can visit each Sunday morning surrounded by some nice vintage shops and coffee shops.

My personal hotspot is the mobile coffee bar: La dolce Barista. The owner of this great invention has combined her 2 passions: flea markets and coffee. She has been doing this for years now and with great success!

Apart from the large variety of coffee, macchiato and cappuccino you are being seduced by her homemade cake and chocolate buns. Yummy! Quite the high-calorie breakfast, but what the hell! In order to find some warmth and love during cold winter days, this is the place to be. Cu there soon!

You can visit the mobile bar on each day of the week on a different market: flower market, antique market…

As a pie-lover I just had to write something about this cute cozy pastry house that resembles a big dollhouse. One day I might open my own ‘Julie’s house’ together with my sister.

Located in the beginning of the patershol-district it’s an ideal place for a break during shopping or sightseeing. Since I think a piece of pie needs a cup of tea, I really like the fact that they have a wide variety of special organic teas.

My favorite pies are the raspberry-chocolate one and the blueberry cheesecake. Beside afternoon tea/coffee it’s also possible to have breakfast. I haven’t tried it yet, but it absolutely looks delicious. Since the place has become very popular it’s possible that it’s quite crowded, but you can sit down upstairs as well!

Maybe you already noticed that I’m quite a foodie. When visiting Belgium you probably would like to try some real Belgian dishes. I have a great tip: restaurant/brasserie Belgaqueen! Founded by the famous Antoine Pinto and located in a former grain storehouse in the ancient center of Ghent it’s the perfect place for a gastronomic night out. Now that spring has finally arrived it’s possible to have dinner on their terrace with a magnificent view over the Korenlei.

The prices are quite high (I always go there with my parents because the price range is too high for my poor student budget) but it’s definitely worth it if you want to try some real Belgian quality food. Pinto’s philosophy consists of using high quality local products. Even the wines come from Belgian winegrowers abroad.

Although I have never been in the ‘club part’ of the restaurant I think I should mention it. On the first floor there is a kind of lounge bar where you can have drinks and exclusive cigars. Every Thursday to Sunday evening there is a DJ playing music.

A bit strange to write about, but if you have lunch or dinner in the Belgaqueen it’s worth to pay a visit to the toilets. There’s something special about them. When the toilet doors aren’t locked the glass is see-through, but the moment you switch the lock, the door gets blurred and no one is able to see you. It’s a kind of magic!