The best unintentionally intimate bar

Le Belgica
32, rue du Marché au Charbon. (no phone) http://www.lebelgica.be

The Belgica has become legendary as the coolest weekend meeting place before you hit the dance floors and, whilst it's seriously gay, it's friendly and welcoming to all. Set around the carcass of an old 20s bar, it's difficult to tell what's new and what's not; designer distressed or just plain run down. Whatever, this place gets packed solid, buying a drink involves intimate squeezing and the toilets are a nightmare. But the atmosphere and hard house music makes it a winner every time.

The best Belgian beer bar

 

Sitting in the shadow of the St Gilles town hall, this tiny wooden tavern, with its benches and scrubbed tables, its racks of comic strip books and Scrabble with half the letters missing stocks over 1,000 beers. Yes, it is here that the serious punters come to tuck into a Silly Saison or a Pee Klak. Nowhere else in Brussels can you find an equal range. It's dark, it's smoky, the music is dubious, but the atmosphere is as friendly as can be. Nothing to do with the 12 percent beers of course.

The best piano bar

Archiduc
6 rue Antoine Dansaert (Tel: 02 512 0652)

This is a classic. A small art-deco bar borrowing bits from ocean liners and New York jazz dives. Arty types sit comfortably next to old locals, singers get up and join in at the piano, or a small jazz combo will strike up at a moment's notice. It's all hit and miss and there never seems to be much of a programme. As the night drags on, the door is locked and an eye at a grid allows entrance, right through till the sun comes up.

The best chess bar

Le Greenwich
7 rue des Chartreux (Tel: 02 511 4167

One of the quietest bars in Brussels, the stark and undecorated Greenwich has attracted chess players for decades. All you can hear is the clack of a pawn across the tables. Magritte tried to hawk his unwanted paintings here in the 20s. The customers are still as cool as ever; a girl in black making a coffee last an hour, an elderly coiffured woman with her poodle, a business type working through his proposals. It's all a bit enigmatic; oh, ok let's get to the point, it's weird, but wonderful.

The best Art Nouveau bar

Le Falstaff
19-25 rue Henri Maus (Tel: 02 511 8789)

This is without doubt the most stunning Art Nouveau bar-café in the centre of Brussels. Its windows, its lights, its stained windows and — it seems — its waiters are original turn of the last century. A heated terrace remains open most of the year and the vast interior acts as both bar and restaurant. A great meeting place, a good beer-stop or a perfect place to wind up the evening; it's open till 3am each and every day.

The best surrealist bar

La Fleur en Papier Doré
55 rue des Alexiens (Tel: 02 511 1659)

 You can only find a bar like this in Brussels. Dusty, run down, full of flea-market finds, it is like a living museum. It was here that the penniless Surrealists and Dadaists came to drink and share philosophies; to pay their bills they doodled, sketched and signed their names on the walls. It's all still there, but the clientele is a mix of die-hard locals and bright young things who find the faded glory and the brush with greatness too hard to resist.

The best surly service bar

A la Mort Subite
7 rue des Montagnes aux Herbes Potagères (Tel: 02 513 1318)

This cavernous, loud and brash bar is a real set piece of Brussels life. Long rows of tables, yellowing walls, and mostly full of young types, it is the perfect place to meet for a beer and natter. The staff are recruited on their ability to remain cool verging on indifferent, all of them looking like part of the fixtures and fittings. They're efficient, but let's just say they prefer to stand at the bar with ciggie in hand. The beer list is surprisingly short, but you'll find something you want. A great place to take visitors, unless they're virulently anti-smoking.

The best bar to see and be seen

Mokafé
9 Galerie du Roi (Tel: 02 511 7870)

Being in the magnificent covered galleries, the terrace of this bar is open year round, though the wind can whistle through in winter. This doesn't seem to stop the arty crowd who gather here, especially on Sundays. Coffee, croissant, newspaper, dog at feet, they sit alone or with a friend passing silent judgement on all who pass. What's so strange is, the moment you sit there, you start doing the same. Good lunches too.

The best of the trendy set bar

Mappa Mundo
2-6 rue du Pont de la Carpe (Tel: 02 514 3555)

A difficult one this, for all the bars in the St Géry stable of Fred Nicolay attract the trendies and there's little to tell between them. The bars that is. Mappa edges ahead with its old-fashioned charm, its funky house and Latin-inspired music and its endless stairs onto upper floors. The service can be irritatingly slow, but the skeleton staff is friendly and well-intentioned.

The best Belgian bar in the EU quarter

Chez Bernard
47 place Jourdan (Tel: 02 230 2238)

Despite being surrounded by relative newcomers on this square, Bernard's remains resolutely traditional. Mirrored walls, Formica tables and an odd tea-room type conservatory at the back give it a freshly scrubbed but unpretentious feel. Buy your frites at Maison Antoine opposite, take them to Bernard's and they'll give you a napkin along with the beer list. A good place for a pie and a pint after the Sunday market.

The best air-kiss bar

L'Ultime Atome
14 rue St Boniface (Tel: 02 511 1367)

The staff do it to customers, the customers do it to staff, then they all do it to each other. Air kiss. And if you don’t do it, that shows you're not a regular. Heavy shoppers come here to rest their feet, business types take lunch, the hippest of bright young things take it over in the evening. The impossibly thin staff serve a great selection of world-inspired food and a vast menu of beers. This Art Deco-cum-Conran meeting place would be in Covent Garden if it were a Londoner.

The best philosopher's bar

Le Coq
14 rue Auguste Orts (Tel: 02 514 2414)

This bar represents one of the mysteries of life. Why a no-nonsense place can become a centre for hedonistic lovers and heady philosophers. It's just a bar. Yet it is populated with thinkers of the night, thirty-somethings who sip beer and discuss life, politics and what it's all about. The cat asleep on a beer tray on the bar has got it sussed and ignores it all.

The best package holiday bar

Le Gemeau
12 rue de Laeken (Tel: 02 219 2336)

This gay bar/disco welcomes a mixed crowd to its weekend parties. Resolutely geared to let-you-hair-down fun, the music is a mix of Abba, Gloria Gaynor and more contemporary classics including the much-loved Kylie. Drinks are bar prices, there is no entrance fee, though the doorman does expect you to cross his palm as you leave. As for atmosphere — well let's just say: huge dance-floor mirror-ball, top-hat light shades and tropical fish tanks. Got it?

The best old-charm bar

Cirio
18 - 20 rue de la Bourse (Tel: 02 512 1395)

A minute from the Grand'Place and you take a step back into the 19th century in this bar with its original wallpaper, lights and toilets. Usually busy at all times of the day, it attracts a permed elderly clientele in the morning, tourists and shoppers in the afternoon and a young eternal student set in the evenings. It's a perfect place to take visitors of all ages as the only noise is the buzz of the crowd. What's more, the staff are efficient and courteous.

The best hangover bar

Celtica
55 rue du Marché aux Poulets (Tel: 02 514 2269)

Why hangover? Because this place is open until 6am during the week, and 8am at weekends when it indulges itself with live rock and blues bands. The crowd who use this place tend to be big drinkers, though it's rarely rowdy. Let's get to the point; this is a bar to use if you want to get off your face with a crowd of like-minded friends. You've been warned.

Reader's best bars

Miladiou
Pl. Wiener, 1170 Watermael Boitsfort

Friendly, authentic, turn-of-last-century feel about it; customers of all ages, great for refreshments after Sunday market.