Which restaurants are near Lac de Genval?

Lac de Genval is one of Walloon Brabant's small Sunday institutions: a 3.5 km loop of footpath, a cluster of villas, a handful of hotels and several restaurants of different formats. The lakeside itself offers a few addresses with direct views over the water, including hotel restaurants of the Martin's Château du Lac orbit. Without naming third-party houses we have not been able to verify, the broader Genval area gathers small bistros, village brasseries and a couple of more contemporary tables.

If you are looking for a Belgian brasserie of tradition, with the warm noisy energy a British traveller might associate with a French “brasserie parisienne”, the closest reliable address is Brasserie Chez Clément at Rue de la Bruyère 230. The house has been welcoming guests since 1858, when Henri and Sidonie Clément opened the original coaching inn “Bruyère à la Croix”. Today, it is run by Marie and Gilles Verleyen under J and JJ Brasserie SA, the fifth generation of the same family thread. The brigade of thirty-two delivers two to three hundred covers per service.

The geographic logic is simple. Most lakeside restaurants compete on the “view from the table” angle; Chez Clément competes on the “view from the heritage” angle. The brasserie does not face the water, but it sits inside the same village identity, Genval / La Hulpe, and offers a depth of family memory that the more recent lakeside establishments cannot match. Chef Vincent Frédéric De Laloy has been at the stoves since 1996, and the kitchen porter has been with the house for twenty years.

Practical advice for a one-day visit to the lake: walk the 3.5 km loop in the morning, choose a lakeside coffee or aperitif in one of the addresses with direct water views, then drive five minutes to Chez Clément for the main meal. The brasserie's service hours, noon to 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., allow either a lunch or an evening anchor.