Au Vieux Bruxelles

This convivial, brasserie-style restaurant from 1882 specializes in mussels, which it serves in a wide variety of ways. In Belgium, the personality of the humble but tasty mussel is a staple of conversation as much as of diet, and people assess the quality of each year's crop with the same critical eye that other countries reserve for fine wines. Au Vieux Bruxelles, a kind of temple to the Belgian obsession with mussels, serves the shellfish in 15 different ways, including raw (accompanied only by a light white-wine sauce), baked, fried, grilled, and broiled, and in traditional dishes like moules marinières (boiled in water with vegetables) and moules au vin (boiled in wine). Should you not wish to work on the mussels, there are great steaks like steak au poivre flambé (flamed pepper steak), escargots (snails), and crepes.

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