Restaurant in Antwerp, Belgium
Counter seats, Michelin star, narrow windows.
DIM Dining holds a 2025 Michelin star and ranks #414 in OAD's Top Restaurants in Europe, making it Antwerp's most technically precise Japanese-influenced kitchen. Chef Simon van Dun works with local Belgian ingredients through an Asian lens, with weekend lunch the sharpest entry point. Book at least three weeks ahead: availability is tight and the weekly schedule is short.
On a Friday or Saturday afternoon, a small counter in Antwerp's Vrijdagmarkt neighbourhood quietly delivers some of the most technically assured cooking in Belgium. DIM Dining holds a Michelin star (2025), sits at #414 on Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in Europe list, and runs a weekend lunch service that is genuinely worth building a trip around. If you are in Antwerp for a special occasion and want something that combines Japanese precision with local Belgian ingredients, book here first. If you want a more Flemish-rooted menu at the same price tier, Hertog Jan at Botanic is the alternative to consider.
The room at Vrijdagmarkt 7 is calm and considered: Japanese purity in the materials, Western comfort in the proportions. The leading seats are at the counter, where you can watch chef Simon van Dun and his team work. That view matters here because the cooking is deliberate and process-driven. Van Dun works with Asian technique as his framework but pulls ingredients from the local Belgian larder, which means the dishes carry a distinctly grounded character rather than the imported-luxury feel that Japanese-influenced restaurants elsewhere can fall into. The result is a menu that reads as creative without being arbitrary.
The atmosphere during weekend lunch is quieter and more focused than you would find at a comparable Paris or London address at the same Michelin tier. That is part of the appeal. The room does not buzz with the performative energy of a restaurant that knows it is being watched. It operates with the confidence of a kitchen that trusts its food to do the work, which makes it a genuinely good option for a celebration lunch where you want to have a real conversation across the table.
DIM Dining runs Friday and Saturday lunch from 12:00 to 1:30 pm, and that is a narrow window. The kitchen is closed Monday through Thursday, closed Sunday, and dinner runs Thursday through Saturday with last entry at 8:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays (7:00 pm on Thursday). For first-time visitors, lunch on a Friday or Saturday is the entry point worth targeting. The format is shorter than the full dinner experience, which suits diners who want to assess the kitchen before committing to an evening reservation, and the compressed seating window means you should treat this as a hard booking, not a walk-in option.
The €€€€ price tier puts this squarely in Antwerp's leading bracket alongside Zilte, 't Fornuis, and Dôme. At this level, the question is whether the experience justifies the spend relative to those alternatives, and the honest answer is yes, provided the Japanese-Asian lens is what you are booking for. If you want classic Flemish cooking at the same price, 't Fornuis will serve you better. If you want modern French at €€€, Bistrot du Nord steps down a price tier without a dramatic drop in quality.
Sommelier and sake master Jonas Kellens runs a list of 485 selections across 4,950 bottles, with strength in France, California, and Italy. Pricing sits at $$$, meaning there are plenty of bottles above €100 and the programme is built for pairing rather than casual by-the-glass drinking. Kellens is documented as matching dishes with aged sake, including a 1984 All Koji sake alongside the kitchen's duck preparation, which suggests the wine and sake pairing here is not decorative but genuinely integrated into how the meal is designed. Corkage is available at €50 for those who want to bring something specific.
For the widest context on Belgian fine dining, Hof van Cleve in Kruishoutem and Boury in Roeselare represent the national benchmark for comparison. Within Antwerp itself, DIM occupies a niche that no other single-star address quite covers in the same way.
Booking difficulty is rated hard. With a counter-focused format, a closed four-day week, and lunch seatings that run only 90 minutes, availability moves quickly. Plan at minimum three weeks ahead for a weekend lunch booking; evening slots, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, will require more lead time. No phone or website is listed in current data, so pursue reservations through third-party platforms or direct contact via Vrijdagmarkt 7, Antwerp 2000. Dress to the occasion: this is a Michelin-starred counter at the leading of Antwerp's dining bracket, and the room's restrained aesthetic is reflected in how guests present themselves. Smart casual is the floor; there is no ceiling.
DIM Dining works leading for: a celebratory lunch for two where atmosphere and technical cooking matter more than theatrical service; a first visit to Antwerp's leading dining tier for someone coming from Brussels (where Bozar Restaurant offers a useful reference point); or anyone who has already worked through the Flemish-classical end of Antwerp's menu and wants something with a different culinary logic. It is less suited to large groups or casual dinners where the tightly formatted service would create pressure rather than pleasure.
For a broader picture of where DIM fits in Belgium's dining map, Willem Hiele in Oudenburg and Bartholomeus in Heist represent the coastal end of the country's creative kitchen scene. Castor in Beveren is worth noting for a comparison closer to Antwerp. Internationally, the Japanese-influenced fine dining model DIM operates within finds its clearest reference points in places like Atomix in New York, though DIM's insistence on Belgian local ingredients gives it a distinctly different character. Explore the full Antwerp restaurants guide, Antwerp hotels guide, Antwerp bars guide, Antwerp wineries guide, and Antwerp experiences guide to plan around your visit.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIM Dining | Japanese, Asian | €€€€ | Hard |
| Hertog Jan at Botanic | Modern Flemish, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| 't Fornuis | European-Flemish, Classic Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Bistrot du Nord | French, Traditional Cuisine | €€€ | Unknown |
| Dôme | Modern French, Classic French | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Fine Fleur | Modern European, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
Comparing your options in Antwerp for this tier.
Lunch is the harder reservation to justify skipping. Friday and Saturday seatings run only 90 minutes from noon, so the pace is tighter, but the kitchen delivers the same Michelin-starred cooking as dinner. Dinner on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday runs 7–10 pm, giving more room to engage Jonas Kellens on the wine and sake pairings. If your priority is a relaxed afternoon rather than a full evening commitment, lunch is the sharper call; if you want time to work through the 485-selection list, book dinner.
The counter is the format here, not a bar in the walk-in sense. Vrijdagmarkt 7 is built around counter seats with a direct view of chef Simon van Dun and his team at work, and those are the seats worth requesting. There is no indication of casual bar-only access in the available data, so treat this as a reservation-required counter restaurant rather than a drop-in option.
At €€€€ pricing with a Michelin star and an OAD Top 414 Europe ranking for 2025, the kitchen earns its price point for guests who want technically precise cooking rather than a simple à la carte meal. The format pairs Japanese technique with local Belgian ingredients, which is a specific proposition: if that combination appeals, the answer is yes. If you want flexibility to order casually, DIM Dining is not structured for that.
The venue data does not include a documented dietary restriction policy. Given the counter format and the kitchen's ingredient-led approach using local Belgian produce, contacting the restaurant directly before booking is the practical step. The narrow lunch windows and small format mean the kitchen is unlikely to accommodate significant restrictions without advance notice.
The room is described as calm and considered, combining Japanese purity with Western comfort, and the price point sits at €€€€ with a Michelin star. That framing points toward neat, put-together clothing rather than formal dress. No dress code is explicitly stated in the venue data, but arriving underdressed in a counter-format Michelin restaurant would read as mismatched.
Yes, particularly for two people. The counter format, Michelin star, and sake-focused wine programme run by Jonas Kellens make it a strong choice for a celebratory lunch or dinner where the cooking itself is the main event. It is less suited to larger groups given the counter setup. For a milestone occasion in Antwerp where atmosphere and technical precision matter, this is one of the more considered options in the city.
For the right diner, yes. A Michelin star, an OAD Top 414 Europe ranking in 2025, and a sake programme overseen by a certified sake master justify the €€€€ price for guests who prioritise cooking craft and pairing depth. The value case weakens if you are not invested in the counter format or the Japanese-meets-Belgian ingredient approach. At that price, 't Fornuis offers a more classical Antwerp alternative if the concept does not appeal.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
