The story
Hau is a Vietnamese restaurant at Avenue Salomé 1 in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brussels, and Gault&Millau awarded it 12.5 points in 2026. The kitchen is built around a tasting menu that draws on the Vietnamese background of chef Hau Nguyen.
The set menu follows the chef's inspirations and reworks his Vietnamese roots with a contemporary hand. Le Fooding describes one evening of eleven courses, including scampi ravioli in a mussel and shellfish broth and lemongrass chicken feet. Five-spice beef and crispy pork with sesame sauce make up the savoury middle, and a calamansi sorbet with ginger and coconut foam closes the meal.
The restaurant occupies the upper floor of a large bourgeois villa dating from the early 20th century. Fireplaces, wood panelling, parquet floors and paintings fill the space under subdued light. Le Fooding calls the setting audacious and luxurious, a relic of another era that suits the Vietnamese kitchen well.
Recognition
Details
History
Open wide, both eyes and your mouth! Perched on the upper floor of a large, bourgeois barrack in a sleepy neighborhood, Hau, a suave spot ran by Van Hau Nguyen for the past 20 years, looks like the dining room of the Titanic. Fireplaces, woodwork, parquet floors, carpets, paintings galore: everything exudes the audacity and luxury of another time. As for the set menu, it’s dictated by the chef’s inspirations as he reinvents his Vietnamese origins with genuine contemporality. That evening, among the 11 finger-licking courses: super soft scampi ravioli in a mussel and shellfish broth that was like the open sea; drool-worthy lemongrass chicken feet; five-spice beef so tender you’d almost be afraid to hurt it; crispy pork with sesame sauce; and a snappy calamansi sorbet with a ginger and coconut foam. Before being rapped on the knuckles by a famous Parisian mainstay, Hau had named his liner La Tour d’Argent. With good reason! // Toni Negroni
Location