Things to See in Brussels

One of the capital's enduring success stories. The twin salons boast bold colours, subtle lighting and lots of metal and geometry. It struck a chord with locals years ago and continues to serve generous portions of modern European food, particularly Mediterranean flavours. Reserve in advance for weekend dinners.

In a street where dining is a minefield of mussel places, this elegant eatery is where locals come to get treated like royalty and to eat fantastic seafood. The oysters are the freshest around, and for mains try any version of the mussels or fish - the sole meuniere (fish with butter and lemon) is excellent.

The lively dining strip of Rue St-Boniface typifies 'new Brussels' with its multilingual clientele and diverse cuisines (traditional Belgian to Thai and more). For a good entrée to the scene here, start at this brasserie.

An incredible 350,000 artefacts from all continents, spanning antiquity, national archaeology, non-European civilizations and European arts and crafts, make up the permanent collection at the majestic Royal Museum of Art and History. We love the fine jewellery and cult of the dead funerary gifts from the Merovingian civilization.

The Jacques Brel Foundation is an archive centre and museum dedicated to Brussels' raspy-voiced singer Jacques Brel (1929-78). Brel rose to stardom in Paris in the 1950s for his passionate songs that have transcended a generation. The legendary chansonnier was a transient troubadour who performed with intensity.

For one of Europe's finest urban views, head straight to Brussels' magnificent central square, Grand Place. It boasts the country's best baroque guildhalls, the beautiful Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall), museums, pavement cafés, chocolate shops and intimate cellar restaurants - a combination that lures visitors in droves. Hidden at the very core of the old town, it's revealed as you enter from one of six narrow side alleys (Rue des Harengs is the best) - a discreet positioning that adds charm.

This museum houses Belgium's premier collections of ancient and modern art and is particularly well endowed with works by Pieter Breugel the Elder, Rubens and the Belgian surrealists. Both sections are large and you'll need a good day here if you want to do them justice.

A completely anonymous, suburban yellow-brick house: that's the façade of the Musée Magritte, and the façade that René Magritte, Belgium's most famous surrealist artist, showed the outside world. This museum in Jette occupies the house where Magritte and his wife Georgette lived from 1930 to 1954. Its appeal comes from its incredibly ordinary nature. It's odd to think the man responsible for some of the 20th century's most enduring images spent 24 years of his life in this bourgeois backstreet.

Clubbers know this place as the home turf of megawatt DJs, like DJ Pierre, mixing house and deep house. Gay boys Europe-wide also know Fuse for its legendary La Démence parties.

Legendary as the den where Bobby Fischer and countless other chess masters have traded pieces, this brown café is still dominated by chess. Sitting and watching the players battling it out is entertainment enough (which is to say there's no music, of course).

A century old and still popular with the fashionable young and eccentric old, this Art Nouveau grand café, designed by Horta-disciple Houbion, is an exotic world of mirrors, glass and fluidity. Ignore the location - this street has been screaming for attention for years.