Restaurant in Ouffet, Belgium
Michelin value, rural Belgium, easy booking.
La Maison Thai holds a 2025 Michelin Bib Gourmand and a 4.7 Google rating across 413 reviews — an unusually strong dual signal for a €€ Thai restaurant in a small Belgian village. Run by a three-person kitchen team, it delivers Michelin-recognised quality at a fraction of what comparable Belgian tables charge. Easy to book and worth planning a Condroz detour around.
Yes, and the short answer is this: a Michelin Bib Gourmand in a Belgian village of roughly 3,000 people is not an accident. La Maison Thai at Grand'Place 2 in Ouffet has earned recognition two years running — a Michelin Plate in 2024 followed by a Bib Gourmand upgrade in 2025 — and that trajectory tells you something concrete about what is happening in the kitchen. For anyone planning a food-focused trip through the Liège province, this is the table to book.
La Maison Thai occupies one of the more improbable addresses in Belgian dining. The Grand'Place of Ouffet is a quiet, stone-edged square of the kind you pass through without stopping , unless you already have a reservation. That visual contrast between the setting and the food is part of what makes this worth seeking out. Walk in expecting a rural Belgian dining room and you find Thai cooking that Michelin has judged worth a detour. The room itself is modest by the standards of the restaurants this kitchen is now being compared to, but the €€ price point means you are paying for the plate, not the architecture.
The kitchen runs under three names: Rita Cantalino, Shean Saparamadu, and Vincenzo Esposito. That combination of backgrounds is worth noting. Thai cooking at the Bib Gourmand level requires technical fluency with aromatics, balance, and heat , not decoration , and a team with apparent cross-cultural range is better positioned to deliver that than a single-chef operation defaulting to approximations. The 2025 Bib Gourmand award signals that Michelin inspectors found value and genuine quality, not just novelty.
Venue data does not confirm a dedicated bar program, which is honest information in itself. At a €€ Thai restaurant in rural Wallonia, the drink question is primarily about what supports the food rather than what stands independently. Thai cuisine , particularly dishes built around lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce, and chilli , is notoriously difficult to pair with conventional European wine lists. If you are coming as a food-focused traveller, the practical move is to ask about the current drink options when booking and to consider that a cold lager or a dry, aromatic white will almost always outperform a heavy red alongside Thai flavours. If a serious cocktail program matters as much to you as the food, this is not the venue to anchor an evening around drinks. Come for the kitchen first.
For comparison, venues like Nahm in Bangkok and Samrub Samrub Thai in Bangkok have built reputations on the full experience of Thai hospitality including drinks culture. La Maison Thai is a different proposition: it is a European outpost making a case for Thai cooking on its own culinary terms, and the drinks program should be understood in that context.
Booking here is rated easy, which is a genuine practical advantage. You are not competing with 400 other people for a 12-seat counter. That said, a Bib Gourmand listing in the 2025 Michelin Guide Belgium will bring new traffic, and rural restaurants with limited covers can fill faster than their location suggests. Book at least two to three weeks ahead for weekend tables, and earlier if you are planning around a specific date. Midweek visits are the safest bet for availability and, typically, a less rushed pace of service.
The Ouffet area sits in the Condroz plateau east of Namur, a region that works leading in late spring through early autumn when the surrounding countryside is at its most accessible for anyone combining the meal with a broader Wallonia itinerary. Winter visits are entirely viable , the enclosed setting of a village restaurant in the Ardennes fringe has its own logic in cold weather , but the combination of good weather and a lunch reservation makes for the most direct day trip from Liège or Namur.
The €€ price range makes La Maison Thai one of the more affordable Michelin-recognised tables in Belgium. For context, the comparison set in this guide , Boury, Castor, Cuchara, De Jonkman , all sit at €€€€. La Maison Thai delivers Michelin-verified quality at a fraction of that spend. If you are building a Belgium food itinerary and want to include a Bib Gourmand alongside higher-end experiences, this fits that structure well. It is also the only venue of its kind in Ouffet, which means there is no local like-for-like alternative to evaluate it against.
Google reviewers back up the Michelin signal: 4.7 stars across 413 reviews is a high-confidence score at that volume. Aggregate ratings at that level, combined with a verified Michelin Bib Gourmand, give you two independent quality signals pointing the same direction.
Address: Grand'Place 2, 4590 Ouffet, Belgium. Booking difficulty: easy. Price range: €€. Awards: Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025), Michelin Plate (2024). Google rating: 4.7 (413 reviews). Phone and hours: check directly with the venue. For more options in the area, see our full Ouffet restaurants guide, our Ouffet hotels guide, our Ouffet bars guide, our Ouffet wineries guide, and our Ouffet experiences guide.
La Maison Thai sits in a different category from the other Michelin-listed Belgian restaurants in this guide. Boury, Castor, Cuchara, and De Jonkman are all €€€€ operations built around tasting-menu formats, formal service, and European fine-dining conventions. La Maison Thai offers Michelin-recognised cooking at €€ in a setting with none of that formality. If you want the credential without the expense, this is the table to choose. If you want full-service fine dining with wine pairings and multiple courses, book one of the €€€€ venues instead.
Within the broader Belgian context, the comparison also works geographically. Bozar in Brussels and Hof van Cleve in Kruishoutem operate at different price points and formats entirely. Zilte in Antwerp and Willem Hiele in Oudenburg are coastal-adjacent destination tables requiring full meal investment. La Maison Thai is a more flexible booking: lower cost, easier to secure, and well-suited to travellers who want one strong meal in the Condroz region without committing to a full fine-dining evening. For a splurge, consider L'air du Temps in Liernu or Bartholomeus in Heist. For accessible Michelin-level Thai cooking in rural Belgium at honest prices, La Maison Thai has no direct competitor in this set.
Come expecting Michelin-recognised Thai cooking at a €€ price point in a small village setting. The 2025 Bib Gourmand means Michelin inspectors found genuine value here, not just curiosity value. Booking ahead is advised, the setting is informal by Belgian fine-dining standards, and the kitchen team brings cross-cultural range that shows in the food.
Yes. A Michelin Bib Gourmand at €€ pricing is one of the stronger value propositions in Belgian dining. You are paying significantly less than at comparable Michelin-listed tables in Belgium, and the 4.7 Google rating across 413 reviews confirms that value is widely recognised, not just a Michelin anomaly.
It works for a special occasion if the occasion calls for something personal and specific rather than grand and formal. The €€ price and village setting make it better suited to a birthday dinner with close friends or a low-key anniversary than to a corporate celebration or a formal proposal evening. If formality and full-service are the priority, a €€€€ venue like Boury is a stronger match.
No specific tasting menu information is confirmed in the available data. Ask when booking whether a tasting format is available. Given the Bib Gourmand recognition, any multi-course offering at this price tier is likely to represent strong value compared to the €€€€ tasting menus elsewhere in Belgium.
No specific dish data is available. The Michelin Bib Gourmand signals consistent quality across the menu rather than a single signature dish, so following the server's current recommendation is the practical move. Thai cooking at this level tends to reward ordering across textures and heat levels rather than defaulting to the most familiar dishes.
Seat count is not confirmed in the available data. For groups of four or more, contact the venue directly before booking to confirm capacity and any private or semi-private arrangements. Village restaurants in Belgium at this price point often have limited covers, so group bookings benefit from early notice.
No specific dietary policy is confirmed in the available data. Thai cuisine typically offers flexibility around vegetarian and pescatarian requirements, but it is worth raising restrictions directly when booking, particularly for severe allergies, given that fish sauce and shellfish paste appear in many traditional preparations.
There are no direct Thai restaurant alternatives in Ouffet itself. For a broader Ouffet dining overview, see our full Ouffet restaurants guide. For higher-spend Belgian dining in the region, d'Eugénie à Emilie in Baudour and L'air du Temps in Liernu are the closest Michelin-listed options at different price tiers.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| La Maison Thai | €€ | — |
| Boury | €€€€ | — |
| Comme chez Soi | €€€€ | — |
| Castor | €€€€ | — |
| Cuchara | €€€€ | — |
| De Jonkman | €€€€ | — |
A quick look at how La Maison Thai measures up.
Groups are feasible here given the easy booking difficulty and €€ price range, which keeps the bill manageable for larger parties. A Bib Gourmand restaurant in a village of roughly 3,000 people is not running at the capacity pressure of a city venue, so securing a table for four to six people should not require weeks of lead time. Call ahead rather than assume walk-in availability for parties of five or more — phone details are not publicly listed, so contact via the address at Grand'Place 2, 4590 Ouffet.
Thai cuisine as a category typically accommodates vegetarian and pescatarian requirements well, but La Maison Thai's specific menu and allergy protocols are not documented in the available venue data. At a Michelin Bib Gourmand level, the kitchen is expected to meet a baseline of professionalism on dietary requests. Confirm your requirements directly when booking — do not assume accommodation without asking.
This is a Michelin Bib Gourmand holder in 2025, which means Michelin's inspectors judged it to offer good cooking at a fair price — not a consolation recognition but a specific endorsement of value. It sits in a rural Belgian village, so plan the trip deliberately: this is not a spontaneous after-work dinner. Booking is rated easy, the price range is €€, and the culinary team is led by Rita Cantalino, Shean Saparamadu, and Vincenzo Esposito.
It works for a low-key celebration where the emphasis is on quality food at a reasonable price rather than ceremony and spectacle. The Michelin Bib Gourmand gives it credibility as a deliberate choice, not just a local option by default. For a milestone dinner where the room and service theatre matter as much as the food, a starred restaurant would be a stronger fit. For a food-led occasion with a more relaxed tone, La Maison Thai at €€ delivers the recognition to make it feel considered.
At €€, yes. The Michelin Bib Gourmand is specifically awarded for quality relative to price, so the value case is externally validated, not just asserted. In the Belgian context, you are getting Michelin-level recognition at a fraction of the cost of starred restaurants like Boury or Comme chez Soi. The added cost is the journey to Ouffet — factor in travel if you are coming from Brussels or Liège.
Ouffet is a small village and does not offer a deep bench of comparable dining options. If you want to stay in the region, the nearest credible alternatives require a drive toward Liège or further into the Ardennes. For Michelin-recognised Thai specifically in Belgium, the comparison set narrows quickly — La Maison Thai's Bib Gourmand in this category is genuinely uncommon. If the cuisine type is flexible, Cuchara offers a different register at a similar accessible price point.
Menu format and structure at La Maison Thai are not confirmed in the available venue data, so a specific tasting menu cannot be verified. At a €€ Bib Gourmand restaurant, a set menu format is plausible and common, but do not book expecting a multi-course progression without confirming the current format directly. Check before you make the drive to Ouffet.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
