Most travelers to Belgium treat Ghent as a side trip from Bruges or Brussels, a city to squeeze into an afternoon between train schedules. They photograph the Graslei waterfront, eat one waffle, and leave. The food scene they miss is among the most distinctive in the Low Countries, a city where medieval guild traditions, Flemish stubbornness, and modern ethical eating converge in ways that Brussels, for all its grandeur, cannot replicate.
Ghent is Belgium's self-declared vegetarian capital. Since 2009, the city has promoted Donderdag Veggiedag, Thursday as a meat-free day, a civic initiative that started with city employees and spread to schools, restaurants, and residents. The movement has genuine depth here, not marketing gloss. On any Thursday, cafés that serve ribs and stoofvlees the rest of the week switch to root vegetable stews and seitan preparations. The initiative began with the nonprofit Ethical Vegetarian Alternative and took hold because Ghent, unlike Brussels, is a city of manageable scale where civic experiments can actually permeate daily life.
Start at the Vrijdagmarkt, the Friday Market square that has anchored Ghent's food trade since the 12th century. On Friday mornings, the square still fills with stalls selling North Sea fish, Flemish cheeses, and seasonal vegetables from the surrounding East Flanders farmland. The market opens around 7:00 AM and runs until roughly 1:00 PM. Arrive before 9:00 AM to avoid the tourist crush that descends by mid-morning. The fishmongers here sell herring, mackerel, and North Sea shrimp that appear on local plates within hours. A paper cone of fried kibbeling, battered and deep-fried whitefish chunks, costs around €4 and is eaten standing at the stall, as market food should be.
Around the Vrijdagmarkt, several establishments deserve attention. Belga Queen, housed in a restored 13th-century grain hall with vaulted ceilings, serves Belgian cuisine at fine-dining prices (mains €28-42). The building itself is the experience, though the kitchen produces reliable, if not revolutionary, Flemish preparations. For something closer to the ground, Pakhuis on Schuurkenstraat occupies a former warehouse and specializes in grilled meats and seafood in industrial surrounds (mains €22-34). The charcoal grill is visible from the dining room, and the kitchen sources from the Friday Market directly.
For the vegetarian and plant-based cooking that defines modern Ghent, Le Botaniste on Hoornstraat is the reference point. The small chain, which now has locations in New York and Paris, started here in 2015. The Ghent original remains the best. The menu is entirely plant-based and organized around bowls and small plates. The "Tibetan Mama," a peanut-coconut stew with brown rice and steamed greens, costs €14. The wine list features natural and biodynamic bottles. The space is small, about 20 seats, and fills quickly at lunch. Arrive by 12:00 PM or expect to wait.
Loving Hut, near the Dampoort station, is part of the international vegan chain but the Ghent location has adapted to local tastes with Flemish-style stews and a weekday lunch buffet (€13.50, 12:00-2:30 PM) that draws office workers and students from the nearby university district. The quality exceeds what the corporate branding suggests.
The Graslei and Korenlei waterfront, Ghent's most photographed street, is also where tourist trap density peaks. Avoid the restaurants with laminated menus in five languages facing the water. Instead, walk one street back to Soul Kitchen on Jan Breydelstraat, a small bistro serving seasonal Flemish cooking with precise technique (mains €24-32). The menu changes every two weeks based on market availability. A typical winter plate might feature pheasant with endive and parsnip, while summer brings North Sea sole with samphire and young potatoes.
For the Flemish classics that visitors expect, De Gouden Hart on Oude Beestenmarkt is an honest bruin café, a traditional brown bar with wood-paneled walls and nicotine-stained ceilings from the pre-smoking-ban era. The carbonnade flamande, beef stewed in dark abbey beer, is served with frites for €18. The stoofvlees here is proper Flemish home cooking, not restaurant approximation. The beer list runs to 60 bottles, with a focus on East Flanders breweries. A 33cl bottle of Augustijn or Poperings Hommel costs €4-6.
Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant, despite its tourist-frequented location on the Groentenmarkt, is a serious beer destination. The bar stocks over 200 Belgian beers and the bartenders know the inventory. Ask for a recommendation based on preference rather than defaulting to the Trappist bottles every tourist orders. A draft De Koninck or Gentse Strop, a local Tripel, costs around €3.50. The terrace overlooks the Lys canal. In summer it is packed by 6:00 PM.
Ghent's most famous edible export is the neuzekes, cuberdons, raspberry-flavored cone-shaped candies with a gelatinous shell and soft center. They are sold from stalls near the Graslei and Korenlei, notably by the vendor who has operated from the same spot near the Graslei bridge for over a decade. A small cone costs €2. The vendor will warn you that the candies must be eaten within three weeks of production or they crystallize and lose their texture. This is true. The raspberry flavor is intense and artificial in the best way, a concentrated childhood memory of sweetness. Do not buy the pre-packaged versions in souvenir shops; they are stale.
For chocolate, Ghent lacks the international marketing of Brussels, but Chocolatier Van Hoorebeke on Burgstraat has been operating since 1980 and produces pralines with unexpected fillings, speculoos, and local beer reductions. A box of 12 pralines costs €9. The shop is small and the owner, now the second generation, will explain the production process if the shop is quiet.
The Sint-Veerleplein, the square facing the Castle of the Counts, hosts a Sunday morning farmers' market (8:00 AM-1:00 PM) that is smaller and more local than the Friday Market. Cheese makers from the Ardennes, apple growers from Haspengouw, and beekeepers from the Scheldt valley sell directly. This is where Ghent residents shop, and the prices reflect that. A wedge of aged West Flanders farmhouse cheese costs €5-8 depending on the wheel.
For breakfast or mid-morning coffee, Clouds in my Coffee on sleepstraat serves flat whites and pour-over with beans from Belgian roasters MOK and Caffènation. The café occupies a corner building with original tile floors and opens at 8:30 AM. The pastries come from a local baker and sell out by 11:00 AM. A coffee and croissant costs €5.
The student quarter around the Overpoortstraat, near Ghent University, operates on different economics. Here, Frituur Jelle, a fry shop on Overpoortstraat itself, serves frites with mayonnaise for €3.50 in paper cones until 2:00 AM on weekends. The frites are double-fried in beef fat, the traditional method that Belgian law actually protects for products labeled "Belgian frites." The queue on Friday and Saturday nights extends onto the pavement.
For a sit-down meal in the student area, Amadeus on Plotersgracht offers an all-you-can-eat rib concept that has become a Ghent institution. For €24, diners receive unlimited pork ribs with baked potatoes and corn. The quality is adequate, not exceptional, but the concept and the medieval cellar setting draw groups. Reservations are essential for weekend evenings; call or book online at least three days ahead.
The Patershol district, a medieval quarter of narrow streets near the castle, has emerged as Ghent's most interesting dining neighborhood. 't Oud Clooster, in a former convent building, serves refined Flemish cuisine with a focus on regional products (mains €26-38). The beer-marinated rabbit with prunes is a faithful preparation of a traditional East Flanders recipe. Publiek, on the same street, is more contemporary, with a tasting menu (€55, five courses) that changes monthly and a natural wine list curated with genuine knowledge.
Ghent's culinary identity is inseparable from its civic character. The city is neither Brussels, with its grand institutional restaurants, nor Bruges, with its medieval tourism infrastructure. It is a university city of 260,000 where medieval guild houses share streets with vegan cafés, where a Friday fish market operates in the same square where executions once took place, and where the civic government actively promotes meat-free eating not as health trend but as ethical position. The food here carries that same stubborn specificity.
If you visit on a Thursday, eat vegetarian by default, not as compromise. If you visit on a Friday, buy fish from the market and ask the vendor how to prepare it. If you visit in December, the Kerstmarkt on the Sint-Baafsplein adds mulled wine and speculoos to the regular offerings, though the quality is variable and the crowds are dense. The better choice is to buy speculoos from Speculoos Confeurier on Kraanlei, where the cookies are baked in-house and the cinnamon-toffee aroma fills the street.
Ghent rewards the traveler who stays overnight. The evening restaurant scene is more relaxed than at lunch, when tourists dominate. Many kitchens close by 10:00 PM, so book early tables. The last trains to Brussels depart around 11:30 PM, but the city deserves a night. Stay, eat the neuzekes while they are fresh, drink a Gentse Strop where it is brewed, and understand why this city, not its more famous neighbors, became the one to declare that what we eat is a civic choice, not merely a personal one.
By Sophie Brennan
Irish food writer and historian based in Lisbon. Sophie combines her background in medieval history with a passion for contemporary gastronomy. She has written for Condé Nast Traveller and authored two cookbooks exploring Celtic and Iberian culinary traditions.