🇧🇪Brussels, Belgium

The Moules-Frites Pilgrimage

A steaming black pot of mussels, a paper cone of the world's best fries, and a beer brewed by monks. This is Belgium's whole personality on one table.

Photo: Fooby

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Why this dish?

Moules-frites is deceptively simple: mussels steamed open in white wine, celery, onion and butter - moules marinière - served in the pot they cooked in, with a mountain of fries on the side. But the fries are the point. Belgian frites are double-fried in beef fat, thick-cut, crisp outside and fluffy in, and eaten with mayonnaise, not ketchup. Argue about it at your peril.

London does mussels. London does chips. It does not do this - the ritual of prising the first shell open, using it as tongs for the rest, dunking frites in the broth, washing it down with a Trappist beer poured into its own branded glass. You fly for the whole performance, not just the food.

Our Picks

Chez Léon

Address: Rue des Bouchers, Brussels (off the Grand-Place)
What to order: Moules marinière (or the Moules Léon), frites, and a Belgian blonde.
Book ahead: Walk-ins fine off-peak; book for a weekend dinner.
Pro tip: Don't fill up on the bread basket - the frites are bottomless on some orders.

Maison Antoine

Place Jourdan, Brussels

The frites stand Brussels lines up at - eat your cone standing at a bollard with a beer from one of the surrounding cafés that let you bring frites in.

What to order: A cone of frites with andalouse sauce; a Trappist beer next door at the café of your choice.

Good to know

Mussel season runs roughly September–April (months 'with an R'). Outside it, the pots may use frozen or be off the menu - check first. Rue des Bouchers is touristy and some places aggressively tout; Chez Léon and a few neighbours are the real deal, the rest you can skip. Frites are a religion: order them on the side, eat with mayo.

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