Où manger des moules frites à Bruxelles : nos neuf préparations

In Brussels, you do not ask whether a restaurant serves mussels. You ask how it cooks them. Here they arrive in a casserole, with the fries served separately, and there are nine ways to order them.

Why Place Sainte-Catherine and not somewhere else

This neighbourhood has a reason to exist for anyone looking for mussels. It was the port of Brussels: the docks were filled in during the nineteenth century, but the old Fish Market is still a hundred metres away, and the area kept its link to fish, stalls and counters. It is also one of the few places in the centre where people from Brussels still go out to eat, five minutes on foot from the Grand-Place and Rue des Bouchers, without the touts.

Three things to know before ordering

The season. Tradition says mussels are eaten during the months with an R in them, from September to April. That is when they are at their plumpest. The ones served in Belgium usually come from Zeeland, in the Netherlands, two hours up the road.

The technique. Take an empty shell and use it as tongs to pick up the next ones. It is faster than a fork, and it is how it is done here. Empty shells go in the bowl provided, not on your plate.

The broth. This is what separates a good pot from an ordinary one. It should be drunk with a spoon at the end, or mopped up with bread. And a mussel that did not open during cooking is not eaten. That is the one rule with no exception.

The three classics

Plain, at 24 euros, is the version that forgives nothing: celery, onion, pepper, and the taste of the mussel. There is nowhere to hide, so it is the one that tells you everything about how fresh the produce is. White wine, at 25 euros, is the most ordered, the one Belgians have known since childhood and which is called marinière elsewhere. Garlic, at 25 euros, for those who want it loud.

The creamy ones

Cream at 26 euros, garlic cream at 27, roquefort at 27. These are the ones you choose when it is cold outside, the ones where you end up mopping the bottom of the pot with bread. The roquefort often surprises people who had not thought of it: blue cheese and iodine answer each other better than you would expect.

The two that surprise

Spicy Thai, at 26 euros, for those who have been through the classics and want something else. And the Brussels style, at 27 euros, with chicory, garlic and mushrooms. That one is ours, and it is what we suggest to a visitor who wants to taste something they will not find elsewhere. Chicory is the Brussels vegetable par excellence, it grows in the dark, and it holds up very well in a mussel broth, where its light bitterness balances the richness.

If you are not very hungry, the mussels gratinated with garlic and cheese are served as a starter, at 16 euros. One guest wrote in a review that she came in without being hungry, just to taste, and found the portion generous. That is roughly the intended effect.

And the fries

They are served separately, as they should be, so they stay crisp instead of going soft in the broth. A Belgian fry is recognised by its double cooking: once at a low temperature to cook the inside, then a second time at high heat just before serving for the crust. That is what separates it from a fast-food fry, and why it arrives a few minutes after the pot.

What to drink with them

A wheat beer, Hoegaarden on tap, if you want to stay light. A gueuze lambic if you like acidity to cut through the cream. A blonde Trappist such as Westmalle Triple if you go for the garlic version. Or a glass of sauvignon, which always works with the white wine preparation. We serve more than fifty Belgian beers, so the question is a real one, and the waiter will answer it better than a menu.

And at lunchtime they are 14.90 euros instead of 24

Same pot, same fries, half the price. The beef steak is at the same price and the Colonel, lemon sorbet with vodka, is 12 euros. It is the moment to come if you want to taste without paying dinner prices, and it is the deal the local regulars take, the ones who work around the square and start again at 2pm.

If you do not like mussels

There is still the Flemish carbonnade slow-cooked in brown beer, the vol-au-vent, the stoemp, the chicory gratin, the meatballs and the rabbit in cherry beer. Plus nine homemade burgers, including a vegetarian one made here. Nobody has to follow the rest of the table.

The Beer's Garden is at Place Sainte-Catherine 5/7 in Brussels, two minutes from Sainte-Catherine metro station, lines 1 and 5. Open seven days a week from 11am to 11pm, kitchen non-stop. Two terraces on the square and an indoor garden with a fountain at the back. In the evening and at weekends, it is better to book.