Museum cafés often look better than they taste. Not so at Z33 Café, the passion project of Heleen Timmermans, who introduced Hasselt to wholesome cooking built around local, organic ingredients with her soup bar Zuppa two decades ago. In a space all cozy like home (sky-blue walls, dark wooden café chairs, textile artworks by Klaas Rommelaere), freshly rolled speculoos biscuits are slid into the oven just as fermentation specialist Bjorn arrives with that week’s batch of artisanal kombucha. On the menu that day: a fresh salad of marinated beets, radicchio, lightly toasted walnuts, basil and Catharinadal goat cheese drizzled with honey; a Greek-style eggplant and red lentil ragù topped with crumbled feta, parsley and Kalamata olives; then, from the dessert buffet, moist lemon yogurt cake, croissant bread pudding and warm speculoos cookies – the pride of Hasselt. · Helmut Biscotti

Feeling thirsty? A curation of local wines from Optimbulles (€8-9 per glass) and the exclusive Z33 Rommelaar beer brewed by Brasserie Hophemel (€4.50 for 330 ml), alongside kombucha in quince, persimmon, lemon or peach flavors (€7 per glass) or an alcoholic version from Komboo (€6.50 for 125 ml).

Price: Snacks €5.50-15, salads €14-18, soups €7-12, desserts €3.50-€5.