The story
Le Confessionnal is a French restaurant at Rue Rémy Himmer 4 in Dinant, Belgium, where Michelin awarded the 2026 Bib Gourmand for good-quality, good-value cooking. The kitchen is run by Philippe Gérard and serves traditional French dishes built around seasonal produce.
Dishes are cooked slowly and set on antique stoves, so the scent drifts through the dining room. The menu is a slate that changes with the season. Gérard visits local producers first, then adapts recipes to whatever he finds nearby.
Le Fooding describes slow-cooked lamb shoulder with roasted seasonal vegetables and confit garlic. Another dish is a supreme of fattened chicken with dauphine potatoes, morels and a vin jaune sauce. Portions are generous enough that leftovers are likely.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
good quality, good value cooking
What’s chef and antique dealer Philippe Gérard’s cardinal sin? Gluttony, of course, which he celebrates at Le Confessionnal nears the banks of the Meuse River, with dishes that are as hearty as those grandma used to make for Sunday lunch. The decor, busy but fitting with the theme, mixes rustic (antique ceremonial ovens, checkered tablecloths, old-fashioned soup tureens) and religious artifacts in good measure. On the menu, you’ll find the top of the food pyramid: extremely tender slow-cooked lamb shoulder, roasted seasonal vegetables and divine confit garlic; or generous supreme of fattened chicken with dauphine potatoes and morel mushrooms in a vin jaune sauce that was more golden than the pope. This place simply oozes terroir, and tastes like it too, and there’s plenty for leftovers the next day – if you manage to stop gobbling it all up, that is. // Jean Gourmand
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