Restaurant de l'Ogenblik

A cat has free roam of the place. It sat next to me and licked itself mere inches away from my food. I found this extremely disconcerting, while others liked the cat. Despite having a reservation, the host tried to force me to sit outside on the hottest day of the year. I had to insist multiple times before he would sit us at one of the many empty tables. The food was good.

If you want Michelin star food at a portion of the price, this is where you go. We were blown away, everything was so delicious. I can tell you exactly why it’s just Michelin recommended and not Michelin star though, it’s because the servers arn’t super welcoming and there’s a cat walking about. But seriously I couldn’t care less about those things because the food was PHENOMENAL. I’d come back every time I’m in Brussels.

Established in 1960. Located a mere stroll away from Brussels' Grand Place within Les Galeries Royales SAINT-HUBERT, this bustling yet intimate restaurant serves exquisite dining cuisine. With its blend of delectable food, quality wine, and inviting ambiance, it encapsulates life's simple pleasures. For those exploring Brussels, adding this restaurant to your itinerary is highly recommended ; it promises a delightful experience😃. We strongly advise making reservations in advance to secure your spot.

This is a small restaurant with vintage atmosphere. It feels quite crowded and sometimes you have to struggle to get out of the seat. Still, I quite enjoyed the atmosphere. The entrecôte steak is satisfying, and the andouillette is also good. The fries are slim and crunchy, though I prefer larger ones. For dessert I like better the chocolate than rhum.

I really want to give this a 5 star review - flavorful dishes fast and attentive service - but the tuna might have been mishandled during that day. Both my wife and I shared plates. She ate a sashimi sized slice of the tuna steak while I ate the whole thing. The texture of the center part of the tuna didn't feel ok (I prep and make a ton of sushi at home so I have an idea) but I was hungry and didn't have proper lunch. Come later that evening, the diarrhea starts. I had to go 6-7 times throughout the night. I had it worse than my wife because she only had a little piece. It is unfortunate that I have to leave a negative review but excellent food prep is important. Someone else with a weaker stomach could have ended up in a hospital.

Not the most welcoming waiters, who are constantly chit-chatting with each other in an almost empty restaurant (lunch time). The location and the interior are lovely and full of character, the food is good, but not mind-blowing either. Prices are on the high side. I will not come back.

Historic and cozy bistro in the heart of Brussels. The staff are friendly and service is fast. We enjoyed their recommendations. I would recommend the hand cut beef carpaccio, scallops with passion fruit and entrecote with mushroom sauce. Will visit here again for sure.

The food was delicious the atmosphere was also lovely very welcoming. Top service definitely recommend!

This place is awful. Servers are rude, service is slow, place is dirty. I can't believe it ever had a good reputation. The food was just okay, I think that it may have been good long ago but something changed.

Fantastic restaurant! Wow! It was recommended to us by our concierge from Hotel Amigo and it was the best meal we had in Brussels. Friendly French staff, delicious crispy bread, for appetizer we had fried calamari and for main I had duck which was finger-licking delicious. And it comes with some cheesy baked potatoes in a pot. So good! Husband had some beef tenderloin steak which was perfectly "medium" done. Ambiance of the place wonderful.

Came here for dinner with VPs from the company I work for. It was our team dinner to celebrate the ISICEM conference. The food was delicious but I can only give 4 of 5 stars because the menu is only in French.

Amazing! The restaurant is very quaint, family/friends oriented, with lots of charm! Unfortunately, the hubby & I don't speak French so the menu was a challenge, but the waiter made the perfect recommendations! Fish loving hubby had the sea bass with risotto & I had the filet with mushroom wine sauce & a side of fries. Then we had Creme brûlée for dessert! It was all amazing!! Highly recommend!

A good friend, whom I usually share taste in food with, recommended this restaurant for me, before I went to Brussels on an oval weekend with my sisters. With a late arrival, we needed a restaurant that was open late, and after having checked in to the hotel we walked over for our table at 10 pm. The entrance area was very small, so with a group of five, we almost had to leave the outdoor open, or block the passage for the waiters and other guests. Although we had called in to confirm our reservation, they did not have a large enough table ready for us, but they quickly moved a couple that probably arrived just before us, and seated us next to the kitchen. The restaurant is quite packed with tables, so guests have to cooperate to allow passage, but as soon as we were seated, we could start enjoy the restaurant. To say that the waiters were super nice, would have been an overstatement, but they definitely had their charm. The menus are in French only, and only one of the waiters present were able to translate the bits that we did not understand. However; one was all we needed and we ordered both starters and main courses from the very tempting menu. For starters we had tuna tartar with avocado majo, as well as carpaccio of langoustine and a mix of tuna, salmon and scallops. It all tasted as good as it looked! Perfectly seasoned to emphasize its flavours, the fish melted in the mouth. For main course I had halibut on flavourful risotto. Around the table it was ordered various fish dishes, as well as a main of entrecote. Everyone was very happy with their choices, and with the wine that we ordered to it. We shared a local specialty for dessert, ice cream with some crackers (with ginger?) that we should get to know well during the long weekend. With some coffee it was fine, but compared to the other dishes it was surprisingly boring. The restaurant has a central location, but is luckily not on the horrible, touristy restaurant strip. The prices as reasonable, the atmosphere is nice and you will not regret having your dinner at Restaurant de l'Ogenblik.

Authentic french steak restaurant and a local favorite. You do need reservations, altho they will try to seat u if youre willing to wait for a good while. Smoked salmon was amazingly good, perfect delicately sweet/smoky flavor. They ran out of filet so got a steak called cote something with green peppercorn (poivre vert) sauce. Was good altho not exceptional. Maybe would try a less creamy sauce next time

This was a delightful place.... We were a group of 9 for dinner and they were able to take our orders and deliver the food in a timely fashion. Menu is in French and they were quite busy so don't expect them to translate everything. Food was delicious, from appetizers (fried calamare) to main course (salmon and spinach with sauce mousseline) to dessert (granita with Calvados liqueur). Good wine selection. Somewhat noisy but our crowd contributed to that. Tempted to eat there again tonight, but it was a little spendy.

Service was very bad for a Michelin rated and highly praised restaurant. My second course was extremely delayed and there was no acknowledgement or apology or a simple free glass of wine. The wait staff are all running around and the kitchen is pumping out food, but not mine. Tasty but don't bither

We seemed to have a fairly similar experience to many others here. Please read my other reviews, I try to keep them mostly positive. When I have something nice to say about a place, I will say it. Unfortunately, I cannot think of one nice thing to say about this establishment. I did not hold this place to standards that I would for a fine dining experience with multiple Michelin stars. I came in with a good mood and open mind. I left feeling bewildered and put out. The service was barely adequate (we watched other tables wait half an hour just to get drinks - and they eventually walked out), the food was sub par (almost uneatable) and I'm pretty sure their pheasant was actually pigeon. I can't prove that but I really think that might be the case. Not just pigeon - old street-pigeon, possibly diseased. And, you know what? I wouldn't have even minded that if it had any taste whatsoever. Nothing like old street-pigeon in watery brown gravy. Bon appetite! PLEASE BEWARE

Arrived in Brussel's on Monday, this is Thursday, tried many restaurants in the Grand Place area, nothing was as good as this restaurant. Need to try the Calimari, Croquette, Seabass with Risotto, chocolate mousse, Creme brulee. Need to go there if you want great food and great service. best to make reservations or go early, we went in at 7:00pm, no one was in there, when we left at 8:45pm, the place was packed.

Had a business dinner here last night. Great small place with nice ambience and brilliant fresh food. If they run out of something it's cause they only have limited fresh daily ingredients .

Very nice pheasant and pleasant service with funny waiters. Also had good risotto. I was with a large group the time I went and ordered a la carte but I next time I plan to go back for a full meal and really go through the menu.

We had the rack of lamb for two. Couldn't be better. Perfection. No need for a knife - it was like butter, no really! Comes with gratin (a-mazing!), and a large plate of melange of vegetables (snow peas, broccoli , cauliflower , tomatoes, green beans and endive , all lightly buttered and cooked to perfection). Highly recommended. Atmosphere is quite casual , with a busy group of young , nice waiters. Excellent night! (.. PS Just one little warning- if you are allergic to pets- there is a house cat there, and dogs I believe are also allowed. The space is quite intimate so for allergic people that could definitely cause a reaction).

Came here because Rick Steves' travel book mentioned it and the Yelp reviews were positive. They weren't happy that we didn't have reservations, yet they sat us at a table. Calamari was good, but overpriced. I ordered the sashimi which was good. We had to ask for bread, though everyone appeared to just get it. My husband ordered the cube steak and that was a big mistake. It wasn't edible. It was raw and fatty and he couldn't eat it. He didn't want to send back, because then you never know what's done to your food. He's had airline meals better than this . It was an expensive mistake.

This is a really nice brasserie. In contrast to the other restaurants in the area that are begging for customers, this one turns away people without reservations. The reason is they have phenomenal food. I've had the seabass there and a friend had a steak that looked amazing. I would highly recommend you check this restaurant out (make a reservation first).

Went here with a friend after seeing fairly high reviews for a restaurant in the area. We split the calamari appetizer which was fairly good, but not outstanding. For main courses, I had a bland Beef Stroganoff, and my friend had a salmon with mustard sauce which was ok but nothing special. For dessert we shared a Speculaas with ice cream which was phenomenal--really the highlight of the meal. I think this place is a bit pricey for the quality of food. It gives the appearance of a restaurant that was once quite reputable, but is resting on its laurels and not really delivering the same quality of food as it once had.

Had the Tuna Steak, it was so fresh and well prepared! They do not have menu in English but the server was nice enough to go through the menu in English for us. We went in at 8pm on a Tuesday night without reservation, but the restaurant was full house when we left around 9:30pm.

I had a wonderful rack of lamb and the vegetables were done to perfection. The waiters are fun and boisterous, but very professional. Glad we made a reservation as it filled up quickly.

I had a team dinner here while in Brussels for work. It was definitely a treat as this place is an authentic French steak bistro. It is very small but great quality. I had the tuna tartare as the appetizer with a filet mignon as the main dish. The tuna was delicious and fresh. The filet was tender and cooked perfectly. All of my colleagues enjoyed their dishes as well. Since we had 15 people, we took up several tables and all our dishes came out at the same time so, it took longer than usual. It was definitely a treat after working a long hard week and taking a walk through the Gallery after dinner to work off the meal was very beautiful at night. The shops were closed but window shopping was still available as the shops leave their lights on to showcase chocolates, macarons and other specialty items.

This was absolutely the worst restaurant that I have eaten at anywhere in the world. Being an airline pilot, I've been fortunate to have some fine meals, I ordered the Irish Roll, since it was €32, I thought the quality must be good. I was totally unprepared for the lack of quality that I received. Almost inedible. Had to chew like shoe leather. I couldn't even finish half , my jaws were so sore.

I have been going to this restaurant for last 20+ years. Never had a bad meal - both steak and fish. Small and intimate place and far enough away from Grand Place to make you feel you are not in a tourist trap. Good recommendations on wine. Staff are lifers here - some noted they may be difficult - but treat them with respect and they will return the favor and be helpful. Depending on the day and time of year, will need reservations.