Restaurant in Lier, Belgium
Michelin-recognised, easy to book, worth the trip.
Numerus Clausus is Lier's most consistent argument for a detour from Antwerp: two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024–2025), a 4.8 Google rating across nearly 300 reviews, and farm-to-table cooking at the €€€ tier. Booking is rated Easy, the historic-centre setting is calm and considered, and the kitchen rewards repeat visits as the seasonal menu shifts through the year.
Numerus Clausus earns a clear recommendation for food-focused visitors willing to travel to Lier. Two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025) at the €€€ price point, a 4.8 Google rating across 294 reviews, and a farm-to-table kitchen in a town most diners overlook entirely: this is the kind of address that rewards the explorer who actually does the research. If you are planning a Flemish food trip and limiting yourself to Antwerp, you are leaving the most interesting part of the itinerary on the table.
Numerus Clausus sits on Keldermansstraat 2 in the historic centre of Lier, a compact Flemish town roughly 25 kilometres south-east of Antwerp. The address places it within walking distance of the Zimmer Tower and the Grote Markt, which makes a pre-dinner or post-dinner wander through one of Belgium's quieter medieval centres a natural pairing. Lier has none of Ghent's tourist density or Antwerp's weekend-night noise, and the dining room at Numerus Clausus reflects that calm. Without published seat counts it is not possible to give an exact capacity figure, but farm-to-table restaurants operating at the Michelin Plate level in a town of this scale typically run intimate services of 20 to 40 covers — expect a room that feels considered rather than cavernous, where the spatial experience is part of the case for coming.
Because booking here is rated Easy and the Michelin recognition keeps it in the conversation without pricing out repeat visits, Numerus Clausus is well suited to a multi-visit approach. Think of the first visit as orientation: arrive at the €€€ price tier expecting a menu shaped by seasonal sourcing, understand the kitchen's rhythm, and note which direction the cooking leans. Farm-to-table at Michelin Plate level in Flanders typically means a tightly edited menu built around producer relationships, where the dishes shift meaningfully with the calendar rather than offering a static repertoire.
A second visit, ideally in a different season, gives you the real measure of the kitchen. Belgian farm-to-table menus change substantially between spring asparagus and root-vegetable autumn, and a kitchen that holds its 4.8 rating across 294 reviews across time is one that is executing consistently enough to revisit. If your first visit was in warmer months, return in late autumn or winter for a different reading of the same kitchen. The gap in what the menu offers between June and November at a sourcing-led restaurant is often wider than the gap between two restaurants at the same price point.
A third visit is for guests who want to test the pairing side of the experience or work through a longer format if the kitchen offers one. At €€€, the per-head spend is not low, but it sits below the price ceiling of a Michelin Star restaurant in Antwerp or Brussels, which means the cost of three visits here is comparable to one or two visits at venues like Zilte in Antwerp or Boury in Roeselare. For the explorer who wants depth across visits rather than a single prestige occasion, that arithmetic works in Numerus Clausus's favour.
Belgium's farm-to-table tier is genuinely strong at the moment. At the Michelin Star level you have addresses like Vrijmoed in Gent and Willem Hiele in Oudenburg defining what sourcing-led cooking can achieve at the leading of the market. Numerus Clausus is not competing at that level, but it is not trying to. The Michelin Plate designation means the inspectors found the food worth noting — good cooking, correctly priced , without the formal architecture of a starred kitchen. That is a useful category: the cooking is disciplined enough to carry the evening, the price is accessible enough to repeat, and the location in Lier rather than a major city means you get a more personal experience with less competition for tables.
For further context on Belgian farm-to-table cooking at various price points, Au Gré du Vent in Seneffe and La Durée in Izegem offer comparable positioning in other Flemish and Walloon towns, and are worth comparing if you are building a wider Belgian itinerary. Cross-border, Wein- und Tafelhaus in Trittenheim shows what the farm-to-table format looks like at a similar price tier in Germany's Mosel region.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy, which is the main operational argument for planning a visit without excessive lead time. That said, Easy does not mean last-minute: a Michelin-recognised restaurant in a small town with a loyal local following will fill its weekend services, and if you are visiting Lier specifically for this meal, a week's notice is a safer minimum than walking up on the night. No booking method is listed in the record, so check directly via the venue's address or local search. Dress code and hours are not published in the available data; at the €€€ Michelin Plate level in Flanders, smart casual is a reasonable working assumption, and evening services are the norm at this tier.
Lier is accessible from Antwerp by regional train in under 30 minutes, which makes a day trip or an evening out from the city entirely practical. If you are combining the meal with a Lier overnight, see our full Lier hotels guide for accommodation options, and our full Lier bars guide if you want to extend the evening. The full Lier restaurants guide gives you the broader picture of what else the town offers before you commit to a single booking.
Numerus Clausus is the right call for food-focused travellers who want Michelin-recognised cooking at a price point that allows repeat visits, in a town that rewards the detour. It is particularly well suited to visitors who are already exploring the Antwerp region and want to extend their itinerary meaningfully. It is less suited to diners who need a major-city setting, an extensive published menu to preview in advance, or a prestige occasion anchored by a Michelin Star name. For those occasions, Zilte in Antwerp or Hof van Cleve in Kruishoutem are the stronger choices. But if the brief is serious seasonal cooking, easy booking, and a room in a quieter setting than Antwerp or Brussels, Numerus Clausus delivers that with consistency across 294 Google reviews and two years of Michelin recognition.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Numerus Clausus | €€€ | Easy | — |
| Neon | €€€ | Unknown | — |
| Salto! | €€€ | Unknown | — |
| Barrel | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Numerus Clausus and alternatives.
Yes, with a caveat on format. Two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025) give Numerus Clausus enough credibility for a meaningful meal, and the €€€ price point keeps it accessible without the financial pressure of a full Michelin Star booking. It works better for a low-key celebration than a milestone dinner where you need the full theatre — for that, look at Star-level addresses like Vrijmoed in Gent.
The restaurant sits at Keldermansstraat 2 in the historic centre of Lier, a compact Flemish town roughly 25 kilometres south-east of Antwerp — factor in travel time if you're coming from the city. Booking is rated Easy, so you're not fighting for a table weeks out. The cuisine is farm-to-table, which means the menu is likely seasonal and produce-led; arrive expecting a focused, ingredient-driven experience rather than a broad à la carte selection.
Specific menu items aren't documented in available data, so the honest answer is: order whatever reflects the current season. Farm-to-table kitchens at Michelin Plate level typically anchor their menus to what's available locally right now, so the best call is to ask the kitchen what's driving the menu on the day you visit rather than arriving with a fixed dish in mind.
At €€€ with two consecutive Michelin Plates, the value case is solid. You're getting Michelin-recognised farm-to-table cooking at a price tier that sits below the Star-level restaurants in Belgium, and Easy booking means no penalty for not planning months ahead. Compared to Star-level peers like Willem Hiele, Numerus Clausus costs less and asks less of your diary — the trade-off is the ceiling on ambition and occasion weight.
Booking is rated Easy, so excessive lead time is not required. That said, Easy reflects typical availability rather than guaranteed walk-in access, so booking a week or two ahead is still a reasonable habit, particularly for weekend dinners. If you're organising a group or building a trip around this meal, secure the table before finalising travel arrangements.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
