Antwerp eats like a port: Flemish stew and steak-frites next to Hasidic bakeries, Cantonese noodles and two-star tasting menus above the Scheldt. Three days of markets, breweries and neighbourhood tables, with a Bolleke at every stop.
Antwerp's oldest market spreads across Theaterplein and Oudevaartplaats every Sunday from 08:00 to 13:00: some 300 stalls of Flemish cheese, smoked eel, marinated olives, hot smoutebollen and paella cooked in metre-wide pans.
Amerikalei 6, open since 1962 and barely altered — dark wood, white cloths, waiters in waistcoats who have worked here for decades. The steak with béarnaise is the order, frites served in a metal cone with mayonnaise on the side.
Dominique Persoone's chocolate shop occupies Napoleon's former palace on the Meir, with the lab working behind glass. Flavours run to wasabi, Cuban cigar, fried onion and bacon, alongside the shooter that fires cocoa up your nose.
The tree-shaded square at the centre of Zurenborg where the neighbourhood drinks before dinner. Zeezicht and the surrounding cafés put tables across the cobbles and keep serving grey shrimp croquettes and cheese sticks until late.
Korte Gasthuisstraat 31, baking since 1884 in a shop the width of a corridor. One product matters here: the rozijnenbrood, a dense raisin loaf pulled from the oven all morning and sold warm to a queue that never quite disappears.
A 17th-century convent courtyard off Reyndersstraat where classical music plays over lunch. The kitchen cooks konijn met pruinen and stoofvlees braised in Westmalle Dubbel, plated with frites, bread and a pot of sharp mustard.
Appelmansstraat 5, the pâtisserie of the diamond quarter since 1949. The upstairs tearoom serves millefeuille and éclairs with its own chocolate; downstairs the counter packs pralines into the recognisable blue-grey house boxes.
Two Michelin stars on the ninth floor of the MAS, with the docks and the Scheldt filling the glass wall. Viki Geunes builds tasting menus of six to nine courses around langoustine, smoked eel and North Sea turbot.
Provinciestraat 206, a kosher bakery run by the same family since 1903 in the heart of Antwerp's Jewish quarter. Come for pletzl onion rolls, cheese and spinach bourekas, poppyseed cake and the plaited challah baked for Shabbat.
Behind a red pagoda gate near Astridplein sits Belgium's only official Chinatown, three short blocks deep. Hand-pulled noodles, Cantonese roast duck hanging in the windows, Vietnamese pho, bubble tea and shelves of dried mushrooms.
Mechelsesteenweg 291, brewing since 1833 and the source of the Bolleke. A self-guided route crosses the brewhouse and fermentation hall before the tasting room; the same yard holds a cheese ager, a butcher and a bakery.
Vleminckveld 32, a cluttered beer café whose cellar holds vintage bottles going back decades — aged Westvleteren, Chimay Bleue and gueuze, catalogued in a thick binder. Draught choice is small; the cellar list is the reason to come.