The renowned French restaurant guide Gault&Millau has published this year's edition of the best restaurants in Belgium and Luxembourg, featuring the Chef of the Year 2025 and several other winners.
For its 22nd edition, Gault&Millau launched its 22nd edition at Brussels Expo on Monday 4 November compiled a guide comprising over 1,400 establishments. This includes no fewer than 135 newcomers and 163 upgrades.
Having crowned Maxime Collard of La Table de Maxime in Paliseul (Luxembourg province) last year, the prestigious title of 'Chef of the Year' has this time been awarded to Glenn Verhasselt of Restaurant Sir Kwinten in Lennik (Flemish Brabant). The judges praised him for the "great maturity" and elegance in his cooking.
"Glenn is without doubt one of the best of his generation. Gault&Millau has a duty to bring such an exceptional talent to the fore. His cooking is classic and elegant, and at 33 he is already one of our best sauciers. Glenn never ceases to create dishes that demonstrate great maturity and a fine balance of flavours," the guide stated in a press release.
"At Sir Kwinten, you can choose between a competitively priced menu, given the quality on offer, or à la carte dishes. This is something we particularly appreciate. Unfortunately, this freedom of choice is not usually the norm these days," Gault&Millau CEO Marc Declerck added.
Chef of the Year 2025 Glenn Verhasselt. Credit: Gault&Millau
As in previous years, a 'Young Chef of the Year' was awarded in each Belgian region: Alex Verhoeven for Flanders (restaurants Hert and Bink in Turnhout, and Seir in Kasterlee); François-Xavier Simon for Wallonia (Bistrot Blaise in Marche-en-Famenne); and Elliott Van de Velde for the Brussels-Capital Region (Entropy).
This year's notable newcomers were awarded to Haut in Ostend for Flanders with a rating of 15.5/20, Le Beau Rivage by Curtis in Dave for Wallonia with a rating of 14/20, and Quartz in Brussels with a rating of 14/20.
Restaurant rankings
In terms of restaurants, there were a number of changes on the leaderboard this year. Hof Van Cleve in Kruishoutem (East Flanders), under the leadership of chef Floris Van Der Veken, was awarded an impressive 18/20 – albeit lower than its record score of 19.5 which former chef Peter Goossens held for 20 years.
Bozar Restaurant in Brussels, La Table de Maxime in Paliseul and Sir Kwinten in Lennik came in joint second place, scoring 17.5/20. In joint third place were Colette in Averbode, Cuines,33 in Knokke-Heist, and Menssa in Brussels (17/20).
Oak in Ghent was awarded 16.5/20 this year, while four establishments were rated 16/20: Arden (Rochefort), Eed (Leuven), Nebo (Antwerp) and Willem Hiele (Oudenburg).
Sir Kwinten in Lennik, which received a score of 17.5/20. Credit: Facebook
Brasserie of the Year was awarded to La Table du Tribeca (Gerpinnes), while Nicolas Campus (Les Gribaumonts, Mons) was crowned the best sommelier, and Le Grand Verre (Durbuy) was praised for its wine list.
The guide also picked out three "discoveries" for each region: Jean-Philippe (Ingelmunster) for Flanders; Babam for Brussels; and Maison - Lieu de Partage (Jodoigne (Mélin)) for Wallonia.
Gault&Millau launched two new awards this year. Firstly, the 'Cheese Experience of the Year', which was handed to Attablez-vous (Namur), and secondly the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' to Jean-Pierre Bruneau. The Brussels-based chef retired in 2018 after 42 years at the helm of his three-starred restaurant Bruneau in Ganshoren.
Discover the full selection of restaurants included in this year's guide on the Gault&Millau website.
Credit: Gault&Millau Belgium / Facebook
