"A Michelin-starred destination tucked into the leafy east of Brussels — for over two decades, Christophe Hardiquest's kitchen was among the most precise in Belgium. A birthday dinner address that did not merely earn its memory but demanded it."
Twenty Years at the Summit
Christophe Hardiquest opened Bon Bon in 2001 in a Brussels villa surrounded by its own garden, and earned his first Michelin star in 2004. The second arrived in 2013, confirming what those who had been eating here already knew: this was not a restaurant trying to be something — it was the thing itself. Two decades of cooking from conviction, in a setting that felt like someone's extraordinary home rather than a showcase for ambition.
The villa on Avenue de Tervueren was a deliberate choice. Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is Brussels at its most residential — wide streets, mature trees, the quiet of money and discretion. The dining room reflected this: golden and brown tones, dark wood, white-painted branches extending into the room, an open kitchen visible from the tables. The effect was intimate at a scale that a city-centre room rarely achieves. Windows looked over the gardens. Tables were properly spaced. The cooking arrived without theatre but with absolute precision.
After more than two decades leading Bon Bon, Hardiquest closed the chapter to pursue a more instinctive approach to cuisine — opening Menssa, a more personal expression of his cooking philosophy, and Le Petit Bon Bon, an upscale Belgian brasserie at Rue Royale 103. The villa on Avenue de Tervueren stands as one of Brussels' finest culinary legacies.
Best Occasion: Birthday
A birthday dinner at Bon Bon was never a casual decision. The drive out to Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, the villa, the gardens — all of it communicated that the evening had been planned, that the person being celebrated was worth the effort. Hardiquest's cooking matched this register exactly: precise, seasonal, and designed for the kind of dinner that earns its memory.
For impressing clients, the address carried weight precisely because it was not obvious — knowing Bon Bon signalled something about your relationship with Brussels. For a proposal, the garden views at dusk made the room feel like something out of time. Chef Hardiquest's current venture, Menssa, carries forward much of this spirit for those seeking his cooking today.
The Legacy
Hardiquest's approach was rooted in seasonal Belgian produce handled with classical French technique and a restless curiosity about what both could become. The tasting menus changed with the seasons rather than with trends — asparagus in spring, game in autumn, wild herbs through summer. The wine list was a considered argument for the Belgian estate wines and small Burgundy producers that Hardiquest respected rather than the safe appellations his price point would have allowed.
The service team understood that this was not a room for performance — it was a room for conversation, for the kind of dinner where two hours pass without effort and the meal is still talked about years later. In the context of Brussels fine dining — alongside Comme Chez Soi and La Paix — Bon Bon held its own as a completely distinct expression of what Belgian cooking at its finest could mean.