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't Oud Clooster

4.4 (44 reviews)
ModerateBelgian
Closed 12:00 pm - 2:30 PM, 6:00 PM - 10:30 PM

't Oud Clooster Photos

'T OUD CLOOSTER ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Classy
Good for groups
Good for kids
Dogs allowed

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L'Arogante (served in an Orval glass ) Rundstoveriej
Tom M.

Food was tasty. Servers were nice price was good. Good beer list. I had the beef stew in Richefort beer it was good.

Menu
Gemini U.

We got there right before they closed for the afternoon, and they were packed. Being out of towner's we really didn't realize this was a very popular place to eat. They did find us a corner to sit in by the door, downstairs, which was fine with me. The decor is eclectic with a nod towards the nuns that used to run the convent. They do have menus in English. I ordered a glass of their house white wine. It was just ok. Instead of chips and salsa, they brought some spicy popcorn to our table. I'm not a big fan of popcorn, but this had a unique taste to it, and I was starving. It was strangely good. Our meal came out with a bowl of French fries with a mayonnaise sauce as a side dish. (I think most meals we ate came with their famous fries) Main dish was a salad, and stew which was on the small serving size but tasty. Let me just say I DO NOT like cheese cake! But I had a taste of my daughters and it was the best cheese cake I have EVER tasted. In fact if I could get this cheese cake where I live, I would be a convert. (No pun intended )

Olivia C.

A bit overhyped by our hostel, but if you're looking for a place that even locals frequent as a point for its authenticity, then this is it. Service: make sure to get a reservation or be at their mercy. We were a walk in and luckily scored a reservation 2hrs later. It isn't a far walk from lots of stores and the city life, so plenty to do in the meantime! Actual waiter service is slow. Slow with the menu, slow to order, slow with the bill - but this isn't atypical for European service in my experience. Food: nothing memorable (literally; it's been 3 days and I've already forgotten). Think we got the baked salmon roll but that was too salty. The classic pasta was fine and filling. The mixed meat was well done, even though we asked for medium. All mediocre delivery. Prices are acceptable, ranging from 13-18 euros for most things. 3/5 ambience: it's in an old monastery, but you really can't tell with their dim lighting and cramped floorplan.

Menu
Amanda S.

I'm giving this place 4 stars simply because it's an old convent and the staff was accommodating. It is best to have a reservation, this place is small and gets very busy, you can call for reservations or online through the website. Food was just ok, Dutch food is bland so not the best place to spend 30€ on a meal, I would of rather had a few small cheap meals that were just ok, than this. But I can now say I've had Dutch food. Presentation was beautiful, I had Vol-au-vent which was similar to an American pot pie without veggies. Cheesecake was good, light, and mild and it was a huge piece enough to share.

Joe M.

Found this recommended as a highly rated place on yelp. Only here for a day and picked this as the place to come to. Was greeted by incredibly friendly staff that saved us a two seater table albeit we came late. They were very warm and helped us navigate the menu to pick something traditionally ghentian and delicious. Food was great and wine was also. Would definitely recommend. The ambience is very cute as well. Very warm and Inviting during the winter cold.

Mixed kabob was good!
Fernando A.

Excellent little restaurant just nearby the city center. My wife had a goat cheese salad that she loved, and I had the beef and pork kabob that was also very good. Service was very polite and friendly.

Delicious chicken pita
Micah C.

Wonderful lunch here on Monday! We visited Bruges this past weekend and decided to make a few hour stop in Ghent on our way back to Brussels airport. After hitting the major attractions we were starving and had just enough time for a quick lunch before catching our train. Despite arriving 20 minutes before closing time, the server assured us that they would be happy to serve us and promptly took us to a table outside. We settled on drinks and ordered the Chicken Pita and the Brochette Roquefort for our dishes. Less than 15 minutes later we were devouring our food, which definitely exceeded expectations. My chicken was seasoned with a curry mix of sorts and I was able to build my own pita with a variety of vegetables and two different kinds of sauce. J's brochette was a grilled kebab of pork served with a salad and a very light, but flavourful Roquefort sauce. It was grilled to order and tasted great. Our mains came with a crispy and delicious heaping of fries. Very enjoyable. As we were wrapping up the server called a taxi on our behalf and we made it to the station with 10 minutes to spare! We enjoyed a tasty lunch here and received excellent service. Highly recommend!

Pasta Bolognese and grilled beef stick with salad and fries
Anya K.

This is a really nice and cozy building with a covent-y theme going on. The menu has a cute layout, and the staff is very friendly. I ordered the Bolognese, while my boyfriend ordered the grilled beef with tomato sauce (which also comes with salad and fries). Along with some beer, everything tasted great. I definitely recommend this place! :) Try the heuzen beer (or something along those lines, can't remember the full name, sorry!!) with some meat, it's quite delicious !

Good beer, but sadly my first choice was not available.
Andre B.

The wife did some research to find a restaurant on our first night in Ghent and she found this place. She made reservations immediately to ensure that we had a spot. Ultimately it was a good idea that she did. We weren't too familiar with the winding streets of Ghent yet, but we made it here pretty easy and it was close enough to our hotel for us to walk there in no time. Our first challenge came when we entered where we thought was the main door and the wife quickly closed the door as she was flanked by diners on either side of her. The main entrance is in a slight alcove off the street and up a few stairs. We assessed the situation and we figured that it must be the entrance. Some people that were leaving told us to just turn right upon inside to get to the bar area, which also included the waiting/reception area. So we make it inside and we were greeted somewhat. We were still getting used to this Belgium hospitality, but we also felt like we were bothering people with our presence. At this point, it was great that we had a reservation because they probably wouldn't had seated us. The tables are small and quite cramped but we were able to be seated and order quickly. The decor is definitely eclectic with various old religious artifacts and presumably empty bottles of booze on the shelves. It felt like an antique shop a bit. The ambience is dark with plenty of candles providing extra light. The first beer that I ordered was not available, so I got my second option at least, and the wife joined along. I ordered the traditional Flemish beef stew while the wife got a fish dish. Drinks and food came out quickly again and the portions were generous, especially the stew. The stew was particularly good and the sauce really hit the spot for me. I was definitely stuffed when I left. It was later in the evening, so we figured that we would get the check once done and we indicated no dessert. We ultimately had to ask for our bill after some time. So the food was definitely the highlight of our visit, and we just chalked up the service to how things are locally. It was our second or third meal in Belgium so we were still getting used to the customs here and beginning to set expectations. The final conclusion and result is a great traditional Flemish meal and I would return.

Vegi stew

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4 years ago

Was delicious and super friendly. Saltim Bicca was delicious. We had no booking and quickly they found a solution for us

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8 years ago

Great food, good service, quiet place away from the crowds and reasonable prices. Best meal on this trip to Europe.

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't Oud Clooster Reviews in Other Languages

Review Highlights - 't Oud Clooster

The menu is in Dutch, so I made use of my phone to translate what I should order.

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Groot Vleeshuis - Interior - those are real hams that are hanging!

Groot Vleeshuis

(6 reviews)

€€

This former butcher's hall is a great space, and very well matched with the fare they now serve…read more I went with the blood sausage, and it did not disappoint. It was piled high with slices of ham and cooked apples. Pork is one of the specialties here, and the whole dish was very good. The distinctive taste of the sausage filling should be savored. I also had the opportunity to taste the waterzooi, a stew with a cream sauce. It was tasty. I would highly recommend this restaurant, if you find yourself in Ghent.

Groot Vleeshuis is a historic building which used to be the meat market long time ago. Now it's…read morebeen converted into a restaurant, and the cool part about this place (other than the history) is that they have real Flanders ham hanging and drying from the ceiling! You don't have to be eating there to walk through the restaurant to see the ham! After going on a free walking tour, I was starving, so I came to eat lunch here. There are tables in an inside area that's inside of the building (sounds confusing, but when you see it you'll know what i'm talking about), but sitting in the area where the hams are hanging is a lot more fun. You just grab any table and a server will come to you. It's a hopping place for brunch/lunch - they have salads and toast and omelettes, and of course lots of beer options. I wanted to try something local and so I ordered the waterzooi, which is this cream/egg based stew with chicken and potatoes and other veggies. The dish originated in Gent. And since I was at the old Butcher's Hall, I wanted to try some ham. They had a meat tasting dish that came with four different meats. The meat sampler came with Superano ham, Ganda ham, Breydelham, and Gentse kop. My favorites were the Superano and the Ganda - they tasted like prosciutto. The Breydelham tasted like regular ham. The kop was my least favorite - it's basically a pork product made of parts of the pig like the head. I guess it's kind of like spam, but not as tasty. The sampler came with some kind of mustard for dipping the meat in! The waterzooi was tasty and hearty and it was huge!!! It had generous chunks of chicken and yummy potatoes. I like the light creamy flavor. I couldn't finish it because it was too much food. The service was great except it was hard when I tried to pay and leave. My original server was very busy with this large party that was there and he was bringing out dishes two at a time by himself. I finally got the attention of the girl server who was clearing a different table and she came by but when I tried to pay with my credit card, she said I had to go inside to the bar area to pay. So I went and paid and the girl who took care of that for me said it was like some kind of special customer day and gave me this little bottle of a pickled dip for eating meat with! There is free wifi! And there's a restroom, but you need a code to get there!

Door 73 - Cauliflower

Door 73

(4 reviews)

Top quality food in Ghent. Incredible service, presentation and food. Was seated with a kitchen…read moreview to watch the chefs. The place has Michelin quality chops - it's off the main square a few steps. Trade in the touristy canal views for seriously good eats. It's some of the highest quality food you'll eat in Ghent.

After we got our reservations mixed up at OAK (we apparently had dropped a spot on the waitlist and…read morenot for a reservation), the folks there suggested their sister restaurant Door 73, which was just a few minutes down the street, a little closer to the center of Ghent. After meandering around a little, we decided to go ahead with it. You find yourself swathed in a curtain when stepping inside (at least during the winter), but once you pass that, you find yourself at a quaint little bar in the front, with the main dining room a little further back. The ambiance itself is very casual and relaxed; you can see the kitchen from the dining room, and with low ceilings and an open, undivided space, it really does feel as homey as the neighborhood the restaurant is in. The servers who took our orders were helpful, although they did accidentally bring us a dish we did not order (but they did comp it even though we failed to realize it in our jetlagged state - very kind of them). The drink menu isn't huge here, but I enjoyed the house cocktail - a gin and yuzu-based concoction, if I recall - so much that I got it twice. The elderberry that was mixed in gave it a wonderful floral nose, and the flavors were perfectly balanced between the liquor and the mixers. The food here is also pretty good, and for lunch, I found that what we settled on originally (oysters, an appetizer, and a main to share) would have been a perfect size. The oysters, from Normandy, were on the better end of what I'm used to having here - not too briny and with a bright flavor, helped by a tinge of lemon squeezed over it. The gnocchi was probably the least distinct bite, although by no means was it bad...being pumpkin-based, it certainly was seasonally appropriate. I will say our mistakenly comped appetizer - beetroot served with crumbled feta - was absolutely delicious, though. The bright pink/red beets have that perfect balance of starchy sweetness that works very well with the crumbly fattiness from the cheese - very tasty (albeit it more filling than we bargained for). We then finished up with the steak main cooked medium-rare. The steak looks more rare than it lets on when you initially see it in the mini cast-iron skillet it is served on, but the flavors are delicious, and the texture is just right. My only quibble with the dish is that while the outer edge of the steak was perfectly crisped and full of flavor, the inside was usually ringed with fat...I would have expected the steak to have been dressed such that we wouldn't have to be slicing off small pieces of it to avoid the chewy bits. From my understanding, Door 73 is a relatively new spot, but we really enjoyed our meal here, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it for a casual bite. Lunch ran a bit longer than I had hoped - a bit longer than 1.5 hours - but just keep in mind that time can move at a slower pace in European restaurants :)

De Trollenkelder

De Trollenkelder

(17 reviews)

€€

We arrived at a super busy time and we're given the appropriate beer as we were looking for…read moresomething super Belgian. Martin came through for us! Delicious beers, and great staff and the ambience is super funky.

This was definitely my favourite place in all of Ghent. During our one week stay, we came back like…read morefour times. THE BEER IS AMAZING! First off, the look and design: the place is troll themed -it's whimsical and weird, in the best way possible. It has a very fantasy/medieval tavern feel to it, with gnomes and trolls EVERYWHERE. There are neat paintings, beer mugs and steins hanging about, and three floors, each with their own little sections if you want less noise. The third floor is less troll themed, and more 1800s-ish for on of the rooms. Second, the beer selection is absolutely incredible. There are so many beers, you'll get lost in the choices. There were two guys working there, both quite friendly and helpful. One of them (the leaner, taller one), was super knowledgeable about their selection, and was awesome at explaining how each beer tastes as well as choosing something for us based on what we said we generally like. Which brings me to the last point : cherry beer. If you are anywhere in Belgium, definitely, definitely, definitely try some cherry beer!!! Generally, they are much less sweet than cherry cider, and especially the Belgian ones have an almost vinegar-y taste to them (lambic beers do in general). This specific bar has quite a few cherry beers. I personally love the sour cherry beers, so the bartender guy I mentioned recommended several sour cherry beers, and I loved all of them. My favourite was 'Hof ten Dormaal kriek- sour', although the 'Kriek Girardin' was also quite awesome (but even more vinegar-y / lambic tasting). Out of curiosity, my boyfriend wanted to try the much sweeter but stronger in alcohol cherry beer on tap, which the guy recommended against, and I personally really didn't like it, while my boyfriend loved it (the bartender guy said "I told you so" ). Anyway, they have lots of other beers on tap, like lambic, Belgian IPAs, trapist, etc. Definitely try some Belgian beer while in Belgium- it's so different from other beer. I'm not a huge beer lover, but Belgian beer (especially Belgian sour cherry beer) has me completely hooked and missing it when I'm back home.

Dreupelkot - Klokke Roeland

Dreupelkot

(23 reviews)

We stopped here to try an Ale that was on Tap and was the only place in Ghent that had it according…read moreto our tour guide. Beautiful Tuesday afternoon around 4 so all outdoor tables were occupied but one opened up after a short wait. We were in a rush as we had a meeting point deadline. Service was a bit slow to take our order. Interior, which was empty given the weather, had character and looked like a cool Bar to have a drink especially when it's cold outside. Dreupelkot is also known for Jenever-juniper flavored liquor. They have 200 offerings on the menu. That said, we were here for Klokke Roeland. (The Roland Bell which hung in the Ghent Belfry). A strong, (11.5% ABV) rich golden brown Ale. Some fruitiness with a slight bitter finish. We enjoyed it! As mentioned , brewed exclusively for Dreupelkot by Brouwerij Van Steenberge. Our server was upbeat and thought we ordered two Cokes (vs Klokke). I walked over and double-checked with him and we avoided a wrong order. Overall, a great stop with nice views of Binnenstad, for Klokke and also to try the Jenever.

Jenever, genever, "dutch gin": whatever you call it - this is the best place in the WORLD to come…read moreand try over 100 different flavored (and non-flavored) kinds served to you by the famous unenthusiastic legend Pol who's usually smoking a cigar while serving. I've been here twice - I literally stumbled in her by chance my first time - now it's my favorite place in Gent. I might take a train next week just to go then come home. I love it. It's a tiny, intimate little room, and everyone's there for the same purpose - to drink Jenever. It's the international equalizer. The crowd is random - last time we had models, locals, young and the old. it's a great way to meet people from and visiting Gent. Of note: * Jonge jenever - leaves a burn, but a good start * Jalapeno (pepper) jenever - think you can handle the heat? go on. give it a try * Violet jenever - one of a kind * Kreik (cherry) jenever - made in house - nice * Lemon jenever - classic It's a "can't miss" spot in Gent in my opinion. Stop by, try a few, but if you stay a while, don't say that I didn't warn you about one of one of the worst hangovers of your life.

't Oud Clooster - belgian - Updated May 2026

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