Restaurant in Oostkerke, Belgium
The eel specialist worth the detour from Bruges.
Siphon in Oostkerke is the clearest address in West Flanders for traditional Belgian eel cookery — served with sorrel, meunière, or à la crème — at an accessible €€ price point with Michelin Plate recognition and a 4.4 Google score across 1,200-plus reviews. Easy to book and well worth the short drive from Bruges, particularly for a long lunch. Not the right choice if you want a modern tasting menu, but the right choice if you want tradition done with conviction.
Getting a table at Siphon is easier than you might expect for a restaurant with this much regional pull — booking difficulty is low, which makes it one of the more accessible traditional restaurants in the West Flanders area. That ease of entry does not diminish what you find on arrival: a kitchen that has built its reputation around eel, served three ways, and a menu that reads as a direct defence of Belgian culinary tradition. With a Michelin Plate (2024) and a Google rating of 4.4 across more than 1,200 reviews, Siphon has earned its status as a reference point for traditional Flemish cooking in the Damme region. If eel is on your agenda — and it should be, if you are visiting this part of Belgium , Siphon is the booking to make.
Siphon sits at Damse Vaart-Oost 1 in Oostkerke, a small village within the municipality of Damme, in the polders east of Bruges. The address alone tells you something: this is not a city-centre restaurant chasing a metropolitan crowd. People make the trip specifically for what Siphon does, and what it does is eel. The house speciality is prepared with sorrel, meunière, or à la crème , three preparations that reflect the depth of Belgian fresh-water cooking traditions without dressing them up in modern technique. The menu extends to grilled lobster and steak, so there are options if eel is a hard pass for someone in your group, but the kitchen's identity is built around the eel plates.
The wine list is described as intelligent, which matters more here than it might at a simpler regional restaurant. A thoughtful list signals that Siphon is thinking about the full meal, not just the headline ingredient. At the €€ price range, this places Siphon in an accessible tier , well below the €€€€ modern Flemish restaurants that dominate Belgian fine dining conversation, and offering a very different kind of value: depth of tradition rather than creative ambition.
For food enthusiasts making a detour from Bruges, lunch at Siphon is the stronger play. The drive from Bruges to Oostkerke is short, the midday light over the polders makes the location more appealing, and the traditional menu format suits a long, unhurried lunch rather than a dinner that stretches into a dark rural evening. Lunch also tends to offer better value at restaurants in this tier across Belgium , set menus or prix-fixe options at midday often deliver the signature dishes at a lower price point than the evening à la carte, though specific lunch pricing is not confirmed in available data and should be verified directly with the restaurant before booking.
Dinner at Siphon is a different proposition. Without confirmed evening hours, and given the rural location, a dinner booking requires more planning: transport back to Bruges or nearby accommodation should be arranged before you arrive, not after. If you are staying in Damme or have a car, dinner makes perfect sense and the quieter evening atmosphere in a characterful regional restaurant can deliver the kind of meal that feels genuinely removed from the tourist circuit. For visitors without a car, lunch is the more practical choice , and arguably the better one for experiencing the setting.
The editorial angle here is a genuine fork in the road. Lunch suits a day-trip itinerary centred on the Damme canal and the surrounding countryside. Dinner suits an overnight visitor who wants the full experience of a regional Flemish table without watching the clock. Both versions of Siphon are worth experiencing on their own terms.
Among traditional and regional Belgian restaurants, Siphon's closest regional peers are not the obvious fine-dining names. Bartholomeus in Heist and Willem Hiele in Oudenburg both work with West Flemish produce and coastal ingredients, but both operate at a higher price point and with a more modern cooking style. If you want tradition at an accessible price, Siphon is the cleaner choice. For comparison further afield, Cave à Vin & à Manger - Maison Saint-Crescent in Narbonne and Auberge Grand'Maison in Mûr-de-Bretagne occupy a similar register , traditional cuisine, Michelin recognition, regional identity , and give a sense of where Siphon sits in the broader European traditional-restaurant tier. These are places where the cooking reflects a place and a set of ingredients rather than a chef's personal creative project.
Booking difficulty at Siphon is rated easy. There is no confirmed online booking platform in available data, so contact the restaurant directly to reserve. Given the rural location and the restaurant's regional reputation, booking ahead is still advisable, particularly for weekend lunch or dinner. Walk-ins may be possible on quieter weekdays, but the 1,200-plus Google reviews suggest a steady flow of visitors who know what they are coming for.
| Detail | Siphon | Bartholomeus (Heist) | Willem Hiele (Oudenburg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price range | €€ | €€€€ | €€€€ | Cuisine style | Traditional / Eel specialist | Modern coastal Flemish | Modern Flemish / Natural |
| Michelin recognition | Plate (2024) | Starred | Starred |
| Booking difficulty | Easy | Moderate–Hard | Moderate–Hard |
| Location type | Rural polder village | Coastal town | Small Flemish town |
| Leading for | Traditional Flemish lunch, eel | Modern seafood, special occasions | Natural wine, creative tasting menus |
Book Siphon if you want the most direct expression of traditional Belgian fresh-water cooking in the region, at a price that does not require a special occasion to justify. It is the right choice for food-focused travellers making a day trip from Bruges, for groups with mixed appetites who need more than one option on the menu, and for anyone who prefers a meal grounded in regional tradition over modern interpretation. If you are looking for tasting menus, creative technique, or a destination fine-dining experience, look instead at De Jonkman in Sint-Kruis or Boury in Roeselare. But for eel done well in a characterful setting, Siphon is the clearest answer in the area.
For more options in the area, see our full Oostkerke restaurants guide, our full Oostkerke hotels guide, our full Oostkerke bars guide, our full Oostkerke wineries guide, and our full Oostkerke experiences guide.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Siphon | Traditional Cuisine | €€ | Easy |
| Boury | Modern Frlemish, Creative French | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Comme chez Soi | French - Belgian, Classic Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Castor | Modern European, Modern French | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Cuchara | Modern European, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| De Jonkman | Modern Flemish, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
A quick look at how Siphon measures up.
Yes, with the right expectations. Siphon is a characterful, traditional Belgian restaurant with a Michelin Plate and a strong regional reputation built around eel, lobster, and steak — not a tasting-menu format. At €€ pricing, it works well for a relaxed celebratory meal or a milestone birthday where the focus is on great regional food rather than ceremony. If you need white-glove service and a long tasting menu, look at Boury in Roeselare instead.
Bar seating is not confirmed in available data for Siphon. The restaurant is described as characterful and traditional, which typically means table-focused dining rather than counter or bar service. check the venue's official channels at Damse Vaart-Oost 1, Damme to confirm seating options before arriving.
Oostkerke itself has limited dining options, so the practical alternatives are within the wider Damme municipality or a short drive toward Bruges. For traditional Belgian cooking at a similar price point, Castor is worth considering. If you want to step up in formality and budget while staying in the region, De Jonkman near Bruges operates at a higher level. Siphon holds its own specifically for freshwater-focused, eel-centred traditional cooking, which neither alternative replicates directly.
Siphon's setting — a characterful traditional restaurant in a small polder village — points toward relaxed but presentable dress. Think neat casual: clean trousers, a shirt or blouse. There is no evidence of a formal dress code, and the €€ price range supports an informal approach. Avoid overly formal attire; this is not a Michelin-starred fine-dining room.
Siphon's menu is rooted in traditional Belgian ingredients — eel, lobster, and steak are the headline items — so it is not a flexible format for plant-based or restrictive diets. If you or someone in your group avoids fish or shellfish entirely, the menu will be limited. check the venue's official channels before booking to confirm what can be accommodated; no online booking platform or dietary policy is confirmed in available data.
At €€, Siphon is a fair deal for what it delivers: a Michelin Plate-recognised restaurant with a focused traditional menu, an intelligent wine list, and a regional reputation strong enough to draw diners from well beyond the local area. You are paying for honest, well-executed Belgian cooking — eel, lobster, steak — not for innovation or theatre. If that is the meal you want, the price holds up. For the same budget, Cuchara or Castor are urban alternatives, but neither offers the same freshwater-cooking focus in this kind of setting.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
