So, other than trying as many Belgian beers as you can during your stay, you don't want to go home without having a Belgian waffle. One simple piece of advice --- don't buy it at a street stand. Go to a restaurant. It will be of better quality and will save you a great deal of frustration. At a street stand your waffle will come on a small cardboard tray and you will be given a plastic fork that is about 2" long and half an inch wide. In that half inch are three tines on the fork, so you can imagine how flimsy it is. These waffles are not soft like pancakes, so breaking it into bite size pieces is quite a chore. The little forks bend and the tines break off somewhere in your food. At a sit down restaurant you will get regular cutlery. Also, do not be fooled by the street stands that advertise waffles for 1 Euro. That is for a plain waffle. Start putting toppings on and you are soon at 5.5 Euros.
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
Loved my food truck waffle! Served on a napkin, no cutlery, no toppings. Yummy.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, United States
873 posts
The best tasting waffles I've gotten on multiple trips to Brussels have always come from a truck or a kiosk in the Metro. And they're usually under 2 Euro at these places. Of course I only get plain (don't see the point in toppings since the waffles are already very sweet), so carrying them in a piece of parchment paper is no problem.
Posted by
Laflin, PA, USA
70 posts
I learned this the hard way. Make sure that you get waffles that are freshly made and served, and not just simply reheated. When taking the RS walk, there was a recommended place for waffles near the Mannekin Pis (I think the name was the Waffle Factory). When I saw this place, I immediately (out of hunger) ordered my waffle and just after I paid my two euro, I saw the preheated waffle being heated again before I was served. The taste was bad and I ended up throwing away. To make matters worse, the recommended "Waffle Factory" was the very next building and was a full restaurant and not a stand. It was busy with people and looked wonderful. I also agree (as with pancakes in Nederlands), that plain with syrup or plain with sugar are the best options.
Also, in my experience, not counting pubs, cafes, etc, single bottles of beer are much less expensive in Brugge than Brussels. With few exceptions, most bottles 330 ml were 1 to 3 euros more expensive in Brussles. One big exception was with Westvleteren. The blonde (Westvleteren 6) was 8 Euro in Brussels and 12 Euro in Brugge. I also found that grocery stores were generally less expensive than bottle shops, but the selection was far less. Of course, pubs and cafes vary in both areas.