Meze & Moules
Place · 27 Jun 2026 to 30 Aug 2026 · 38 photographs

Oostende, summer 2026

Two trips by train from Leuven. In June, the Ostendaise, billed as the largest open-air restaurant on the Belgian coast. In August, the Saturday market, the free harbour ferry, and a Sunday band at the Wapenplein kiosk, which gave its first concert on a Sunday in 1895. We went to watch, not to eat, and came home with more people than plates.

On the map: Oostende · The post on Instagram · The post on Instagram

Oostende's crowded summer beach and seafront apartment blocks, seen from the breakwater rocks
Townhouse facades of banded cream and yellow brick with green bay windows and wrought-iron balconies
People waiting with luggage under the white 'Marie-Joséplein' shelter beside the tram tracks
A chalkboard reading 'Lunch 47' at an open restaurant front, tables laid in white beyond
A tall pale stone tower with a green-domed lantern against blue sky, a gull gliding past
A quiet street leading to a pointed slate-roofed tower, a Gothic-style church spire beyond
People strolling down a pedestrian street of white shuttered houses, a tall tree ahead
Visitors walking beneath the 'Ostendaise North Sea Food Fest' arch, white tents behind
A man in black-rimmed glasses at a 'Kiss the chef' stand, a leaf-wrapped dish in front
A chef in a black jacket working at a steel counter in a festival tent
A man in a white shirt looking out to sea from a festival terrace
A cook in whites ladling beside a tall stacked steamer, steam rising past a second cook
A cook seen from behind tending trays of golden food in a glass-fronted oven
A woman in a striped apron smiling and giving two thumbs up at her festival stand
A gull standing on a concrete breakwater block, calm sea and a yellow buoy behind
People at sunlit terrace tables outside the Leeshuus, old black-and-white photos printed above
Salmon fillets, whole fish and lemons on ice in a fishmonger's counter, with price cards
Platters of marinated olives and tubs of nuts heaped on a table at the Saturday market
Stallholders filling bags of grapes under a red-and-white striped awning, peppers and tomatoes in front
Two men in black at a rotisserie counter, roast chickens in the ovens at their backs
Curving wrought-iron balconies with red flowers on a white facade, ochre brackets under each tier
Two people on the wicker terrace of Café Stad Aalst, one reading a newspaper
A red neon sign reading 'forever hungry' glowing in a steel-framed window
A domed Gothic-style chapel with a pinnacled bell turret, cars parked along the street below
A man alone at a picnic table against a stone church wall, below a stained-glass window
A twin-spired Gothic-style church front with its rose window, seen across an open square
'Get inked or die naked' painted across a tattoo shop window in a brick building
Lit shelves of wine bottles, glasses and trailing plants beside a laid table in a restaurant
Sailboats moored below a quay wall lettered 'Zeg niet toet ziens', tower blocks behind
A man leaning on the rail of the white harbour ferry beside an orange lifebuoy
A tall apartment tower rising above tiled rooftops under a heavy grey sky
A grey wall painted with curtained windows and a door, with tiny figures walking and climbing
Black awnings marked with an 'm' over balconies and flower boxes on a cream stone facade
People browsing tables and boxes of books at an open-air book stall under trees
A saxophonist in a black shirt and tie playing in the kiosk beside hanging pink flowers
A conductor in a red coat and black hat leading the band in the Wapenplein kiosk
A singer in sunglasses and a black waistcoat performing on the square, café terraces behind
Two people dancing in each other's arms on the square to the Sunday band