24 Hours in Antwerp: A Foodie’s Guide, Antwerp, Belgium

On a beautiful autumn weekend, three of my friends turned 40. Well, realistically, they didn’t all turn 40 on that exact weekend, but close enough. So instead of crying about getting older, we took the train to Belgium to celebrate. Unsurprisingly, we’d done quite some research about restaurants and bars in Antwerp, so the weekend was as gourmet as it was fun-filled. While we were technically there for longer than 24 hours, we spent some of the weekend in our Airbnb apartment eating takeaway pizza (yes, even I am guilty of this). So with that in mind, the following foodie discoveries would be just about right for anyone staying 24 hours in Antwerp…

A word of warning: 90% of “weekend brunch” places are not actually open on Sundays in Antwerp. Go figure. So make sure you catch Barchel on a Saturday (or stay in Antwerp mid-week). They do an excellent stack of American-style pancakes, flavoursome huevos rancheros, and other well-executed international brunch dishes. Plus the usual fresh juices, good coffee and so on. The service was a little slow but certainly friendly, and the location has a light, airy, botanical feel to it.

You can’t visit Belgium without sampling the country’s national treat: chocolate. And while there are any number of spectacularly high quality chocolatiers in Antwerp, we certainly found that Goossens fitted the bill. They had a selection of less traditional flavours, as well as their signature “Antwerp diamond” chocolates (their shop is in the city’s famous diamond district). ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).