Cool Bun – The Perfect Hamburger Restaurant in Brussels

Gorgonzola Burger in the foreground, onion rings and the Big Ben towering in the background.

Since our arrival in Brussels, Andrew and I have been searching for the perfect hamburger. In the early days, our quest went unfulfilled, but in the past few years the hamburger scene in Brussels has greatly improved. We’ve discovered a few locations with some darn fine burgers, but we still hadn’t found one we could call perfect. Everything changed, with our discovery of Cool Bun.

Burger joints have been popping up around Brussels like mushrooms, over the past year or so. Many of our favourite fellow bloggers have weighed in with their thoughts on the topic and we have dutifully added their suggestions to our “must visit” list. One restaurant that made repeated appearances was Cool Bun, on Rue Berckmans.

Last night, on a totally non-burger related CheeseWeb scouting mission, in the EU district, we passed by a sign. It read Cool Bun. Sure enough, a second location has recently opened on Rue Stevin. In the interests of research (we work hard for you dear readers!) we decided to try it out.

The menu is presented in English so we had no issues deciphering what we wanted to order. The only problem was what burger to choose! In the end, I was won over by the prospect of blue cheese and opted for the Gorgonzola Burger. Andrew went whole hog and ordered the Big Ben. We also decided to sample the onion rings, for research purposes of course.

Our mountain of crispy, golden onion rings arrived first. They came with a delicious, mildly spiced BBQ sauce. We both love onion rings and it’s one thing we rarely find in Belgium. These were perfect – fat with lots of crispy batter but not heavy and over battered. The portion was very generous and perfect for sharing. In fact, with burgers, it’s plenty to share with 4 people.

Crispy perfect onion rings at Cool Bun

The generous potions continued when our burgers arrived before us. Mine was more than ample, especially as the burgers all come with fries and salad. It was oozing delicious blue cheese and was cooked to a perfect bright pink (I do love my burgers medium rare!) but if you prefer a well done burger, never fear, the servers ask how you’d like your burger prepared.

Andrew’s Big Ben was an aptly named tower of meat. It came with side dishes of toppings like jalapeños, avocado and sun-dried tomatoes.  He was given an additional helping of onion rings, as well. Yikes! We were also offered sides of ketchup and mayonnaise.

Andrew is about to tuck into his Big Ben

We paired our burgers with a half bottle of red wine, to keep our arteries flowing happily of course. On another health related note, Cool Bun uses organic and local ingredients. So if you’re going to clog your arteries with delicious burger goodness, at least you aren’t consuming harmful chemicals to boot.

We both gave our meals a valiant effort. In the end it was too much for us but we went down fighting. We just couldn’t finish all of the crispy fries and neither of us even looked at our salads.

Despite the battle, we both fell in love. Could Cool Bun be the perfect hamburger in Brussels? Quite possibly. Further research is of course necessary and we will be sure to keep you posted. In the meantime, check out Cool Bun for yourselves at one of its two locations.

Cool Bun

Rue Berckmans 34
1060 Brussels

Rue Stevin 168
1000 Brussels

For more great restaurants in Belgium and beyond, check out our Restaurant Review page.