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The brainchild of restaurateur Frederic Nicolay, this uber cool restaurant has zinc tables and dramatic lighting to set off its fabulous wall of stained glass squares. Some diners have found the food bland, portions lean and the waiters amateurish, but a cosmopolitan set pack it out most nights, enjoying an international menu of French, Italian and Spanish dishes.
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The city’s best new [address] is probably a former theatre in the art deco arcade Galerie de la Reine. Serge and Pascal Van Hamme – the masterminds behind Le Mess – opted for a flexible hot and cold buffet with world dishes. Diners can choose any size, from a tapas portion to a larger helping. They can eat it the marble gallery itself or pick one of three rooms funkily decorated by Philippe Guillemin, using art by Emile Vercruysse to evoke surrealism and the personalities of Victor Hugo, Karl Marx and Engels, who all used to come to the gallery.
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Vegetarians are in paradise in this Tibetan restaurant, which runs an allyou-can-eat buffet lunch and supper. Trendier vegetarian restaurants have come on the scene like Tan (95 Rue de l’Aqueduc, Ixelles, Tel: 537 87 87) where ingredients are dried or steamed at below 100 degrees to preserve the nutritional benefits of food.
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One of Brussels’ more established Indian restaurants, this was opened in 1986 and is [name]d after the queen for whom India’s majestic Taj Mahal was built. The much-praised food is cooked in the balti style and offers all that you’d expect from a top-notch Indian restaurant anywhere. Tandoori dishes are a speciality. Note, though, that the “continental” version of Indian food is cooked to a palate less hardened than the average British expat’s.
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Traditional Belgian cooking, in an intimate, minimalist space. Christian Baby offers diners light, unusual dishes where seasonal vegetables often take centre stage. Baby is an advocate of the Slow Food movement, which is anti-fast food, and prides himself on using quality ingredients, especially fish, and organic wines. Not recommended for big eaters.
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