The story
Barge, at Boulevard d'Ypres 33 in Brussels, is a contemporary cuisine restaurant that earned one Michelin star in 2026. The kitchen runs on seasonal produce from a rotating group of producers, and the dinner menu is built around what they supply that week.
Grégoire Gillard, a Belgian chef, spent four years as second to Sang Hoon Degeimbre at L'Air du Temps before opening Barge in 2019. He describes his cooking as creative and flavourful, balancing subtlety, complexity and finesse. Gault&Millau gave the restaurant 15.5 points in 2026, citing its combination of modern gastronomy and sustainability.
The evening menu has five or six services and changes from week to week with the seasons. Friday lunch offers a four-service menu at €80. Dinner costs €110 for five services or €135 for six, and Friday and Saturday evenings are six-service only. The dishes are not announced in advance, but allergies and intolerances can be adapted if you mention them when booking. A vegetarian menu is available on request.
Each menu can be paired with wine or with non-alcoholic drinks chosen for the meal. Wine pairings cost €55 with the five-service menu and €66 with the six-service menu. Non-alcoholic pairings cost €40 and €48 respectively.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
High quality cooking
From the large windows overlooking the wet cobblestones of Boulevard de Dixmude, Barge looks more like a solo liner than, well… a barge. Never mind: set against a backdrop of bare bricks and concrete, Grégoire Gillard (ex-Air du Temps) has been alone at the helm of the ship ever since the departure of Barbara Hoornaert, his associate-cum-sommelier. He sails this restaurant – booked up months in advance – through the storm as if it were the calmest sea. On the menu, lunch-farers were treated to salsify prepared cacio e pepe-style, before making way for slow-cooked monkfish flanked by carrot served in various guises, plus a fermented pepper sauce. What next? Dainty morsels of giant Aquitaine chicken, plated in a garland alongside onions stuffed with king trumpet mushrooms, aioli and the meat’s cooking juices; before landing on a dessert showcasing the apple in all its forms – including alcoholic ones. It would no doubt be dishonest not to say that everything smacks of starry perfection… But who’s going to complain about perfection? // Toni Negroni
This restaurant near the canal is a textbook example of the combination between contemporary gastronomy and sustainability. Local products and seasonal ingredients form the main source of inspiration, presented in a single menu...
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