Mechelen

Het Anker comprises not only a brewery and a hotel, but also a large brasserie serving a typical Belgian beer-based cuisine. Each dish is prepared with one of Het Anker’s beers. The brasserie was recently renovated, but still exudes the authentic atmosphere of a ‘brown café’. The speciality of the house is the ‘Mechels stoofpotje’, a stew prepared using Carolus beer. But Mechelen’s most typical dish - ‘Mechelse koekoek’ - is also on the menu and well worth trying.

De Zondvloed is a unique concept in Flanders. The shop is stacked floor to ceiling with new and second-hand books and remainders and on the top floor is a coffee salon, serving healthy juices, but also novelties like Iranian tea. So here you can enjoy a quiet drink, while leafing through the newspaper or just chilling out.

Kaffee-ine is sometimes referred to as the Mechelen (but cheaper) alternative to Starbucks. However, it is best known for its organic slow coffee. Above the coffee bar is a pleasant lounge area. Be sure to try the Hollywood: a coffee with cream and Malteser flakes. And non-coffee-drinkers will love Kaffee-ine’s delicious hot chocolate.

The founder of the Le Pain Quotidien chain, Alain Coumont, so longed for the sort of rustic bread made from natural ingredients he had loved as a child that he opened a bakery that bakes bread in an artisanal and labour-intensive manner. Take a seat at the communal table and try the brownies-with-a-difference, made without flour, or an irresistible chocolate bomb.