Smowk

Smowk is a contemporary grill on Van Iseghemlaan, about 50 metres from the seafront according to its menu. Everything revolves around cooking over open fire: the kitchen uses a traditional French charcoal grill, and the restaurant describes the result as contemporary grill in its purest form.

The menu changes every six weeks and is split into teasers, a handful of main courses and a butcher’s shop. Teasers include smoked beef carpaccio, a lightly smoked bavette tartare, Korean-style mini burgers and a haddock hot dog with kimchi salad and seaweed mayonnaise. Mains such as octopus and a bavette tataki sit alongside the meat, which is the main event: a dry-aged selection that takes in a côte à l’os for two, Belgian Holstein rib-eye and A5 Japanese wagyu, all served with hand-cut chips and a salad. Desserts are classics such as dame blanche and panna cotta.

Dinner is served from 6pm to 11.30pm every day except Thursday, when the restaurant is closed, and on Sundays there is a short lunch service from noon to 1.30pm as well. Behind the restaurant is Café Number SIX, a bar that the menu says turns into a nightlife café at weekends. Reservations are taken by phone or email, and the restaurant asks guests to wear at least city clothes rather than beachwear.

Smowk took part in the 2026 edition of Ostendaise: North Sea Food Fest, the free summer food festival on the Zeeheldenplein, with its festival dish, North Sea Sausage.