The Best Places to Eat in Ghent
This is a short page and it is short on purpose. The best places to eat in Ghent, as far as we can honestly say, are three, because three is how many we have eaten at and rated well. It is not a top ten and it is not trying to be.
What makes three useful rather than thin is that they are three different things: tacos, a brewery kitchen and a coffee bar. Put together they are a day in Ghent rather than a ranking, and each one comes with the thing to order.
The three best places to eat in Ghent at a glance
| Place | Address | What to order | Our rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taco Santo Dos | Joremaaie 1 | The salsa verde enchilada | 4.5 |
| Dok Brewing Company | Dok-Noord 4B | The burger, with the beer | 4.5 |
| WAY Specialty Coffee | Voldersstraat 58 | Cappuccino | 4.5 |
Taco Santo Dos: order the enchilada, not just the tacos
Joremaaie 1. Rated 4.5. The tacos are the reason most people walk in and the enchilada with salsa verde is the thing we would order again: the green salsa against the white cheese is what makes it, and it is the plate we were still talking about afterwards.
Order both if there are two of you. The tacos are good and the enchilada is the one you will remember.
Dok Brewing Company: a brewery whose kitchen is not an afterthought
Dok-Noord 4B. Rated 4.5 for the burger, which is not a sentence you get to write about most breweries. Usually the beer is the point and the food is there to keep you upright.
Here both hold up, and the combination is the recommendation rather than either half: a good burger with a good beer from the people who made the beer. It is out at Dok-Noord, which is a deliberate trip from the centre and worth it.
WAY Specialty Coffee: award-winning, and bring an open mind about milk
Voldersstraat 58. Rated 4.5 for the cappuccino, and they are known as award winners, which in specialty coffee usually means the roast is the serious part.
One thing to know before you go, and it is why this is a 4.5 rather than a 5 from us: they do not serve cow's milk. Our cappuccino came with oat and it was still very good, but if you were expecting dairy that is a surprise better had in advance than at the counter. Whether that costs the place half a star or nothing at all depends entirely on you.
Doing all three in a day
They divide up cleanly by time rather than by geography. WAY in the morning on the Voldersstraat, in the centre. Taco Santo Dos for lunch or an early dinner. Dok Brewing in the evening, out at Dok-Noord, which is where you want to be at the end of a day rather than the start of one.
That is a complete Ghent day out of three entries, which is the argument for a short list built from real visits over a long one assembled from other people's reviews.
Why only three
Because we have eaten at three and rated them 4.0 or higher. Ghent is a serious eating city and most of it is missing from this page, which is a statement about our records rather than about Ghent.
We rate every place we eat in our own app, dish by dish, so this comes out of a record rather than a memory, and nothing gets added on reputation. A ten-item Ghent list from us today would have to come from somebody else's data, and that is exactly the kind of page this cluster exists to avoid.
If you are in the region, our Antwerp guide is longer, though it is built differently: nine addresses handed to us by a local rather than places we have eaten at ourselves, and the page says so.
Keep your own list
The useful part of a list like this is not that our taste is definitive, it is that it was written down at the time, per dish. Three entries you can trust beat fifty you cannot. Our guide to keeping track of restaurants covers the habit, and a wishlist holds the Ghent places you have been meaning to try.
Frequently asked questions
Where should you eat in Ghent?
Of the places we have eaten at and rated: Taco Santo Dos at Joremaaie 1 for the salsa verde enchilada, Dok Brewing Company at Dok-Noord 4B for a burger with the beer, and WAY Specialty Coffee at Voldersstraat 58 for a cappuccino. All three rated 4.5 for us, and together they make a full day rather than a ranking.
Why does this Ghent list only have three places?
Because three is how many we have eaten at and rated 4.0 or higher. Ghent has far more worth eating and it is absent here because we have not been, not because it is not good. Padding the list with places we have only read about is the thing that would make it worthless.
Where do you get good coffee in Ghent?
WAY Specialty Coffee Shop at Voldersstraat 58, rated 4.5 for the cappuccino, and known as award winners. Worth knowing before you go: they do not serve cow's milk. Ours came with oat and was still very good, but it is a surprise better had in advance.
Is Dok Brewing Company worth the trip out of the centre?
For us, yes. The burger rated 4.5, which is unusual for a brewery kitchen, and the point is the combination of a good burger with a good beer from the people who brewed it. It is out at Dok-Noord, so treat it as an evening rather than something you drop into on the way somewhere.
How does this compare to your Antwerp guide?
Antwerp is longer, nine addresses, and it is built differently: those came from a local who lives there rather than from our own visits, and that guide says so in every locale. This Ghent page is first-hand only, which is why it is three.