20 restaurants to celebrate the International Day of Italian Food
It’s one of our favorite days, especially after such a crappy Blue Monday! This Tuesday, January 17, the world celebrates Italian cuisine. A gastronomy that appeals to the four corners of Belgium.
Gastronomic
Bread & Oil
At Msgr. It calls itself a micro-restaurant but is big on its love of Italian cuisine! And the city of Mons can be proud to have this little place within its walls! Pane & Olio is 14 places where you can taste typical and gastronomic dishes of Italian cuisine, prepared with inspiration by chef Angelo Galasso offers a 6-course menu for €78 and you will have traveled the country! Reservation required and we can say that this restaurant manages…
www.paneolio.be – Booking +32(0)477 77 78 78 or [email protected]
Aiming
In Brussels, Châtelain district. Chef Alessandro and his sister Maria Concetta tell the stories of their family and their region, Basilicata, through their cuisine. Tasteful, little-known products form dishes that we have rarely eaten elsewhere and that’s a real plus! A three or four course lunch and a tasting menu from €45 to €58. Italian wines are carefully selected. www.mirandacucinaitaliana.be
Roots
Chaussée d’Ixelles, on the edge of Place Flagey. In Racines gastronomy flies high with the pride of seafood and vegetables but not only. Ugo’s cooking is sometimes a moment of grace! A grocery store at the entrance to Racines also allows you to stock up on high-quality Italian products (order online and collect). After the Covid crisis, the restaurant has changed its way of working to become more intimate: Racines is open from Tuesday to Saturday evenings and on Fridays for lunch with a single 2 or 3-course menu, from €32 to €46. https://rootsbrussels.squarespace.com/
Roman tavern
Avenue Legrand, not far from Avenue Louise, near La Cambre. You can’t miss this chic and rock n’ roll restaurant with divine recipes and products. Carbonara with ultra tasty products is the best of the best. But the menu is vast and very delicious. The highlight of the show, Filipo La Vecchia, the chef tattooed by the devil, a talkative man who doesn’t just hide in his kitchen and you will see him walking around the room casually, his eyes black and proud, who lacks nothing he it’s happening. going on. www.osteriaromana.be/
La Cucinelli
Center of Liège. Flagship dishes of the father who delivered to his son Julien. And cuisine reinvented by the new chef. Liège residents are lucky enough to be able to go to La Cucinella, which prepares fine Italian cuisine. Linguine with octopus ragù, capers, anchovies and Taggiasca olives still make us salivate just thinking about it. Rue de la Cap 26, 4000 Liège. www.lacucinella.it/
Mattia & The Sea
Near Charleroi, in Tarciennes, you can also taste the dishes of the catering of Matthias & the Sea, the restaurant of the emblematic chef Mattia Collu with top quality products. A true gourmet who experiments. www.matthiasandsea.be/
Canteens and good restaurants
Casually
Center of Charleroi. The menu is regularly updated on the Facebook page of this Italian restaurant in Charleroi, rue du Cazier, where the pasta is pampered and the prices are low. On the seconds side, just classic but well executed. www.facebook.com/restaurantminederien/menu/
The erudite
In Grand Bigard/DilbeekWe, Italy, know what it’s like with La Dotta: tasty appetizers, perfectly cooked pasta, and hearty fish and meat dishes. Lunch for €35, tasting menu of 3 to 4 courses between €55 and €68! www.ladotta.be/fr
Dante
Uccle, Vanderkindere district. The welcome is warm, the atmosphere welcoming with that slightly more trendy touch that makes it a “place to be” and above all you can already smell here and there some scent of Italian cuisine that makes your nostrils quiver. Dante would not change a winning family recipe for anything in the world: the ingredients used are carefully selected from small producers who have a deep-rooted respect for good products. Olive oil and tomatoes, which are still the basis of Italian cuisine, are produced in Puglia for the restaurant. And to combine pleasure and professional discoveries, the two brothers leave every year to cross Italy in search of new partners. The wines come from Piedmont, from the cellar of chef Stefano’s parents. Dante
Gabriella, the restaurateur
This restaurateur in Uccle (opened this summer) has known how to distinguish itself thanks to the good Italian products available in the grocery store, but above all for its home-made dishes, from a pure Italian! Lasagna, calamari, pasta, cold cuts, Italian cheeses, … only good things to be enjoyed every day. Chaussée de Saint Job 666 – 1180 Uccle www.gabriella.cocina.be
Villa Castelli
Located in Jamioulx, south of Charleroi, this restaurant cooks gourmet style and truffles and other mushrooms have their place there. Spaghetti with black truffle cream, tortiglioni alla carbonara, spaghetti alla puttanesca or tortiglioni all’Amatriciana? What a dilemma at Villa Castelli!
We like it
The Italian aperitif is happening at CiPiaCe. It’s a cozy little address in Saint-Gilloise where you can drink a cocktail to die for, all accompanied by nice plates of bruschetta, grilled vegetables, ham… On Sundays, you can also have brunch there from 9am. La dolce vita, we tell you.
Parvis de Saint-Gilles 49A, in Saint-Gilles.
Pizza and pasta
The Pizza is Beautiful
Brussels, Sablon district. This Italian restaurant offers the experience of 100% traditional Neapolitan cuisine in Brussels. In 2020 it was crowned 5th best Neapolitan pizzeria in Europe (also an Italian recognition!) and first in Belgium. What to break, right? We order through Uber Eats or pick up after ordering over the phone. lapizzaebella.be/en
First
Ixelles, district of Vleurgat. Pasta or pizza, that’s always the big question. If we focus on second courses then we are knocking on the right door at Primo which offers classic but renewed and always surprising recipes. the Italian sausage ragu boiled in Chianti will win you over. Originality and flavors banging guaranteed. Facebook First
Kitchen Aperitif bar & Pizzeria
A bet that paid off in the Flagey neighborhood: thin-crust pizzas with a nice puffy round and crispy crust are bursting with color and available for take-out or take-out every day of the week, lunch and dinner. www.cocina.be/
Myth
The place is known for its blue chairs overlooking the pretty Tenbosch park, but above all for its divine pizzas. Made with Pietra flour, the delicious and light dough (you can also request it gluten-free) is embellished with the best of Italy: fior di latte, straciatella, gorgonzola… Added to this is a tailor-made cocktail that goes perfectly with your pizza, and you’ll hear yourself screaming “mamma mia!” all around the square. Rue Washington 151-153, in Ixelles.
Rascal
Next to Racines, Flagey district, Brussels. Monella, you need nothing less than the Italian way: fried pizza (the one with which Francesco and Ugo started the Brussels markets) fried bombe, these balls of dough filled with meat and vegetable stuffing. You can eat panzerotti (pasta crescents filled with mozzarella and tomato) or schiacciate (a type of wheat flour focaccia with an airy crumb, extra virgin olive oil cooked on stone) at the counter on the street. eat by the nearby ponds or spend your lunch or evening sharing these gourmet and generous little fried foods on the back terrace, where you feel like you are somewhere else than in Brussels. All between 6 and 9.50€ per portion.
Honored by the Italians
Italians don’t joke with their almost national dish. Every year, specialists who have traveled the world deliver the “50 Top Pizza” which brings together… 100 pizzerias in the world recognized for the quality of their products and their menu… At the end of 2022, in 35th place, we we find La Piola pizza from Place Saint-Josse and at 61st place Pizza at Bella Gourmet, rue Froissart in Etterbeek, not far from Place Jourdan. She is the little sister of Pizza è Bella in Sablon. These two restaurants had also achieved even better positions in the ranking of the best pizzerias in Europe outside Italy: they ranked 8th and 19th respectively.
