Find places to eat, things to do and local favourites for your stay by the sea.
Selected by Ostend City Guide
Restaurant
Centre
A Thai restaurant on the Vlaanderenstraat in central Ostend: curries, Pad Thai and stir-fries to eat in, take away or have delivered.
Cocktail bar
Lively cocktail and tapas bar by the Kursaal, with tropical and tiki cocktails, late-night sharing plates, pasta and resident DJs.
Brasserie
Chef-run brasserie in the city centre with a lunch market menu, fish and shellfish specialities and a tasting menu. Closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday.
Art
The painter James Ensor’s home and studio, kept as he left it, with an interactive visitor centre on his masks, carnival and Ostend.
Attraction
Raversijde
Open-air museum in the dunes with more than 60 bunkers, gun positions and tunnels from both world wars, on Prince Charles’ former estate.
Seafront (Zeedijk)
Belgian modern and contemporary art from 1880 onwards, shown in the Venetian Galleries on the promenade while the main museum is renovated.
Hotel
Mariakerke
Large holiday hotel on the Mariakerke promenade with rooms and apartments, buffet restaurants, an indoor pool, a kids’ play village and the tram outside.
Apartment
Six new-build, two-bedroom serviced apartments for four in Ooststraat, in the shopping streets of central Ostend, each with a balcony.
Station quarter
One 245 m² two-bedroom suite on the 24th floor of Sky Tower ONE by the station, with an 80 m² terrace over the harbour and the sea.
28Mar
Exhibition
28 Mar – 3 Jan 2027
10:00–17:30
About 100 works trace 150 years of small sculpture in Belgium, from Art Deco statuettes to Wim Delvoye, at Mu.ZEE on the seafront until 3 January 2027.
16May
16 May – 9 Nov 2026
10:00–18:00
A small exhibition at Ostend’s City Museum on Paster Pype, the priest remembered as the father of the fishermen, with unseen photographs. Until 9 November.
