Gabbiani Reali

Located in Brussels downtown, this Italian place looks less touristy than the others next to them, and as we were looking some European place to have lunch, we stopped in this place.
Some members of the staff speak Italian, so this is a good sign when enter a place looking for good food.
The staff and the place look nice, and the food is good, and that’s it. We ordered some mussels, and a parmigiana, both of them were OK, nothing special.

Great food, and even better service. Priced very modestly. Will definitely eat here again on my next trip to Brussels.

We were looking for a decent Italian restaurant in Brussels, having traveled a lot, having been far away from Italy for a long time, and well. being Italian :)
Generally, thumbs up for the place! The food was reasonably good, and wasn’t the typical tourist trap you find in downtown Brussels. A few notes:
1) Wife is vegetarian (almost vegan, as she is also lactose intolerant), menu is not tailored for vegetarians, but she had a few dishes she could choose from that she liked, which is not that easy in Brussel. In particular: grilled vegetables, paccheri with aubergines /​eggplant, bruschetta.
2) I had a starter made of various kinds of charcuterie that was good, bruschetta was also good, had some raw swordfish slices that were great, plus a risotto with seafood, which was also very good. We went back another time, and had pasta with clams this time, but I wasn’t very excited about it: it was very bland, when I make it I usually add the tip of a teaspoon of chilly, a bit more wine and black pepper, with also some parsley. Just clams and olive oil was not as exciting.
Overall, we’d probably go back.

Un sentiment mitigé.
C’était bon mais ça né sentait pas trop le fait maison et le recherché.
Pourquoi pas

Nice italian restaurant in the middle of Bruxelles. Different to most of the other restaurants in this area that are quite touristish this restaurant offers a good selection of typical Italian meals as well as meat and fish. Great value for price (Glass of wine between 4 and 6 Euro, Risotto Milanese 9 Euro, Grilled Steak 15 Euro). Take an espresso as well, it’s worth it! You must not expect anything marvellous in this surrounding but I think it definitely is one of the better choices.

Great food! The butter-​and-​sage ravioli are delicious. Gabbiani Reali is an authentic Italian place. It’s in an area with lots of tourist traps.
The service is fine. They have a daily menu with lots of special dishes and the wine selection is very decent. We were there for (late) lunches and the quality of the food was always top.