Nénu

Nénu, Saint-Gilles: The Verdict

If you have already been to Nénu once, the question on a second visit is not whether the kitchen holds up; it does. The question is whether the 2025 Michelin Bib Gourmand (following a 2024 award of the same) signals that this Vietnamese contemporary address in Saint-Gilles has found its ceiling or is still climbing. The answer, based on what the data and the room suggest, is that Nénu is not coasting on recognition. Book it.

Portrait: What Makes Nénu Worth Returning To

Nénu sits on Rue Dejoncker in Saint-Gilles, a neighbourhood that has become one of Brussels' most concentrated pockets of serious, independently minded restaurants. Chef Masaki Misaka is running a Vietnamese contemporary kitchen that draws a clear-eyed crowd: the We're Smart recognition and the Bib Gourmand together describe a restaurant where produce thinking and culinary technique are both present, where the value-to-execution ratio is high enough that regulars return without needing a special occasion to justify it.

The plant-based range at Nénu deserves specific attention. We're Smart, which focuses on vegetable-forward cooking and rates restaurants on their use of vegetables and plants, singled out Nénu's 100% plant-based dishes as genuinely accomplished; while noting the range could be broader. That is a precise and useful data point: if you are coming specifically for a plant-forward meal, Nénu delivers technically competent, flavour-led vegetable dishes that go beyond token options, but you may find yourself wanting more variety across multiple visits. For a mixed table where plant-based is one preference among several, this kitchen handles both tracks without shortchanging either.

The Bib Gourmand classification is Michelin's marker for good cooking at a price that does not require a special occasion budget. Holding it in both 2024 and 2025 is a consistency signal, not a fluke. At the €€ level in a city where the gap between ambitious cooking and accessible pricing can be wide, Nénu occupies the position that food-focused diners in Brussels return to when they want quality without the formality or the bill of a splurge destination. Compare that to the handful of €€€ addresses nearby and the value case for Nénu becomes arithmetically obvious.

The energy in the room is part of the offering. For the explorer-type diner, someone who comes to Saint-Gilles deliberately, who reads menus carefully and tracks what is happening in a city's restaurant scene, Nénu reads as a confident, self-aware address that knows its format and executes it consistently.

On the cuisine side, Vietnamese contemporary cooking at this level requires balancing inherited technique with kitchen originality. Brussels has a Vietnamese restaurant community with deep roots, but contemporary Vietnamese, meaning a kitchen that draws on Vietnamese flavour logic while applying modern technique and seasonal sourcing, is a more specific category. Nénu's Bib Gourmand and its We're Smart recognition together suggest the kitchen is operating at a level above the broader Vietnamese dining offer in the city. For a useful international point of reference, Gia in Hanoi and Little Bear in Ho Chi Minh City represent what the contemporary Vietnamese format looks like at the source, Nénu is doing its own version of that in a Brussels context, with the ingredient sourcing and technique markers to justify the classification.

Within Saint-Gilles specifically, Nénu sits in a competitive peer group. ANJU offers Korean contemporary at the same €€ price point; Colonel Louise and Dolce Amaro operate at €€€. Flamme handles country cooking at a different register. Atelier Acqua e Sale rounds out a neighbourhood with genuine range. Nénu's specific advantage is the combination of Michelin recognition, plant-forward ambition, a price tier that makes repeat visits plausible.

For context on what the Belgian fine dining ceiling looks like, Hof van Cleve in Kruishoutem, Boury in Roeselare, Zilte in Antwerp, Willem Hiele in Oudenburg represent the country's highest-rated addresses. Nénu is not competing at that level, it is not trying to. Its value is in delivering Michelin-flagged quality at a fraction of that outlay, in a neighbourhood you would visit anyway.

Booking & Practical Details

Booking difficulty at Nénu is rated Easy. This is a neighbourhood restaurant with genuine demand but not the kind of scarcity pressure that makes planning difficult. Book ahead to secure your preferred time, but last-minute tables are realistically available. No booking method is specified in the current data, so check directly via the restaurant's address at Rue Dejoncker 21, 1060 Saint-Gilles.

At a Glance

For more options in the area, see our full Saint-Gilles restaurants guide, our Saint-Gilles hotels guide, our Saint-Gilles bars guide, our Saint-Gilles wineries guide, and our Saint-Gilles experiences guide. For high-end Brussels dining beyond the neighbourhood, Bozar Restaurant is the reference point. For Belgian fine dining at the top tier, d'Eugénie à Emilie in Baudour is also worth knowing.