Belgium or Brooklyn? 5 Bold New Places to Eat in Brussels.

Brussels, long the realm of stuffy French restaurants packed with gray-flannel-suited diplomats, has suddenly gone bold and bright. Thanks to a crop of young chefs with iconoclastic ideas about flavor and sustainability, the city, in thrall to the rich sauces of Gaul for nearly two centuries, has emerged as one of the most exciting, and affordable, places to dine out in Europe right now.

These exciting talents are transforming the city’s old-fashioned bistros and cafes with spices from places like Korea, Latin America and Morocco, and “putting a vivid modern spin on homey local comfort food dishes,” explained Michel Verlinden, a Brussels food writer and restaurant critic for Le Vif, a major Belgian weekly. At the same time, they’re making the most of local produce like cabbage, carrots, endives and, bien sûr, brussels sprouts.

Brussels may be the capital of Europe, but it feels more like Brooklyn or Marseille gastronomically. Casual, creative and multicultural, it’s a city that’s equally at home with bulgogi and duck breast — even together in the same dish.

Here are five Brussels restaurants worth a visit.

Anju, a Korean restaurant in St.-Gilles, an evolving area favored by young creatives.Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times

A Korean variation on steak tartare, which Belgians call filet américain, at Anju.Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times

Anju

Many of the most interesting new restaurants in Brussels aren’t found in Îlot Sacré, the high-rent heart of the city, but in outlying neighborhoods like St.-Gilles, an evolving but still more affordable area favored by young creatives.

This explains why the chef Sang Hoon Degeimbre chose this area for Anju, a new local favorite that explores his roots. Mr. Degeimbre was born in South Korea but adopted by a Belgian family as a baby. “Anju” is a Korean word that means food to be eaten while drinking alcohol. In addition to rice wine and Soju, Anju also offers a “sour Korean” beer brewed for the restaurant by the Brussels brasserie Illegaal, along with a great list of natural wines.

In the minimalist, taupe-colored dining room with K-pop illustrations on the walls, this means hearty comfort food. If starters like pajeon — pancakes filled with chopped vegetables and kimchi — or stir-fried octopus tentacles are impressively Korean, the technical prowess of Mr. Degeimbre’s team adds an element of Belgian haute cuisine to main courses like samgyetang (chicken in hot ginseng broth with rice and jujube) and duck breast bulgogi.

Desserts nod at Brussels, too: Bingsu, a milk-based shaved ice, is topped with speculoos cookies from Maison Dandoy, a bakery that dates to 1832, or hazelnut praline from the acclaimed Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini.

73 Rue de la Source, St.-Gilles; starters from 13 euros, or about $14; entrees from €17.

The largely plant-based and seafood tasting menu at Aster comes as a sequence of small plates that change regularly.Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times

A dish of Swiss chard, kohlrabi and whey at Aster, a restaurant where the chef Túbo Logier creates thrilling combinations in a former pizza parlor.Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times

Aster

Aster is a good example of how Brussels has cast off the cosseting bourgeois décor that used to characterize its best restaurants. When you arrive at this former pizza parlor, you walk right into the kitchen, where a balletic hive of cooks directed by the chef Túbo Logier is buzzing around several grills. Most guests are sitting at a high-top refectory table beneath dangling lightbulbs, eating and drinking from handmade ceramics instead of porcelain.

The largely plant-based and seafood tasting menu is served in a sequence of small plates, which change regularly. A recent dinner opened with a thrilling quintet of miniature hors d’oeuvres, including finely diced North Sea squid in fermented tomato water, a mille-feuille of smoked eel and pickled celeriac, trout with horseradish and fig, a nest of fried julienned leeks with a quail’s egg, and tiny mussels with winter truffles. A surprisingly bright first course of red and yellow beets with cod eggs and beeswax preceded a poached oyster with cabbage and jus de petit lait — or whey — which offered a simple but brilliant confluence of lactic flavors.

Another standout was langoustines prepared three ways: roasted with an umami-bomb condiment made from fermented vegetable scraps; in a milky bouillon with slivers of clementine and sliced button mushrooms; and chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg custard) garnished with meat and juices from the shellfish’s carapace.

Mr. Logier’s creativity didn’t relent as the meal concluded with two fascinating desserts: hazelnut ice cream with shaved Belgian blue cheese and apples braised in seaweed, and a sign-off mignardise of smoked white chocolate with sea bass eggs.

202 Rue Antoine Dansaert, Brussels; tasting menu, €80.

Offerings at Kline may include, clockwise from above left, beetroot chutney; Escaut Delta oysters with umeboshi and shiso vinaigrette; sourdough bread; scallop ceviche with fennel verjus and guanciale XO; and braised celeriac with yeast beurre blanc.Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times

Preparing oysters at Kline, which describes itself as “locally rooted and globally inspired” and whose menu groups entrees under the headings “Cold and Fresh” and “Hot and Heavy.”Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times

Kline

You might not expect such a disarmingly friendly welcome amid the Brutalist chic of Brussels’s arty Dansaert district, but that and the menu of contemporary Belgian comfort food at Kline might give you the feeling you’re in a countryside auberge.

Kline describes itself as “locally rooted and globally inspired,” which translates to dishes like brussels sprouts guacamole and braised pork belly with crispy-chile sauce and kimchi. The pork is traditionally raised and nourished with feed made of potatoes and corn, supplemented with olive oil and fresh hay, on a sustainable farm.

The dining room at Kline, which might make you feel as if you’re in a countryside auberge.Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times