When I’m feeling hungry and longing for some good meat, I book a table at the famous restaurant “De Gekroonde Hoofden”. It is one of the famous spare rib restaurant in Ghent, located in the Burgstraat near the beautiful Gravensteen castle and close to the cozy area of Saint-Veerle Square.

“De Gekroonde Hoofden” is the Dutch translation for “The Crowned Heads” and refers to the Counts of Flanders. On the facade you can see the busts of the 14 Counts of Flanders who ruled over the wealthy area since the 9th century. One of the most famous one is undoubtedly Charles V. No wonder that besides a restaurant this is also one of the city’s finest renaissance buildings.

In Ghent it is common to discuss which restaurant serves the best spare ribs. Every man to his taste, but for me “De Gekroonde Hoofden” is my absolute n°1. The main reason for that are the 4 delicious types of spare ribs the restaurant serves: Maison (sweet-sour), Du Chef (spicy), Honey or Nature. Definitely try the Maison!

A tip: make sure you book a table in advance. The restaurant works with 2 seatings, on your reservation you will see a time slot of 2 hours.

My record are 5 full slab ribs. How many can you handle?