Sakagura (rue du Marais)

Have a look at the picture below: what do you see? Nothing? Try again. Still nothing? Don't worry: this is a photo of an establishment that I initially managed to walk past three times, convinced I'd got the wrong address. Tucked away in a nondescript street not far from the rue Neuve, surrounded by office blocks, Sakagura - a.k.a. possibly Brussels' most anonymous restaurant - is unlikely to be a candidate for much walk-in custom.

Restaurant de la Bourse (rue de Flandre)

Le Pré Salé, tucked away between De Brouckère and Sainte-Catherine, is apparently a bit of a Brussels institution - so much so that I've never been able to get a table there. All is not lost, though, as a few doors down (many of them leading into other restaurants that we suspected might deserve a visit of their own) we found Restaurant de la Bourse.

La Terrasse de l'Hippodrome (chaussée de la Hulpe)

I'm not, by any definition, a member of the 'gilded youth' of Brussels, but if you are, La Terrasse would be an excellent place to spend the evening quaffing from bottles supplied by its sponsor Moët, having your photo taken in the special posing area (tenue correcte exigée, warns the website), and lounging round its knee-deep pool. 

(only 2600 euros)

Mamma Roma (place Jourdan and elsewhere)

There are various articles about 'Brussels' best pizza' and where to find it. I'm not interested in undertaking such a large-scale quest, despite a few preliminary inquiries (in the Schuman area, I advise you to try La Brace and not to bother with The Meeting Point). That said, I see no reason not to draw attention to good pizza when I find it.

(good picnic food, too)

Kasbah (rue Antoine Dansaert)

This time, back to Brussels, and indeed to rue Dansaert, right in its traffic-heavy, slightly scruffy centre. It's a bit clichéd to say that the Kasbah restaurant, with its curtained-off entrance and dark and lantern-lit interior (not good for blog photography, alas), is a blessed retreat from the noise and disorder of the city.

[Out of Brussels] Au Flan Breton, Tervuren

If you go down to the woods today...you'll find Tervuren, a pleasant if faintly sleepy town about twenty minutes by tram outside Brussels. Its main attraction, Belgium's Africa Museum, is currently closed for restoration, but it still proved to be a nice spot for a woodland walk. Initially, however, there didn't seem to be many options for lunch (one café was advertising steak and chips, but it turned out that we would have to wait until the following day for this weekly - monthly? - treat) so we were relieved to find Au Flan Breton, a small café with a bakery next door.

Les Marmites du Monde (rue St Boniface)

Some areas of central Brussels are a bit low on decent restaurants, but the St Boniface district is not one of them. After a morning wandering round Etterbeek and Ixelles, the Firestarter (an occasional presence on my old blog), his fiancée (congratulations!) the Perfumer, and I were faced with far more choice than we needed. In the end curiosity won out, and we decided to try Les Marmites du Monde, which claims to serve cuisine from Belgium and Mauritius.