Roeselare has 60,000 inhabitants, sits 30 kilometres from the French border and 30 minutes from Bruges, and contains one of the finest restaurants in Europe. In a 1950s brick villa with an outdoor kitchen bar that is worth the visit on its own, Tim Boury and Inge Waeles have built a three-Michelin-star experience that is the number one restaurant in Belgium and one of the top addresses on the continent.

The Place & The Moment


The third star arrived as the group photo was almost taken at Mons.


The 2022 Michelin Guide Belgium and Luxembourg ceremony in Mons was coming to its close. The group photo of the year's new and existing starred chefs was being assembled. Tim Boury had waited five years with two Michelin stars, quietly building the restaurant in his home city of Roeselare into something the inspectors were watching with increasing interest. And then the announcement came: Boury was being elevated to three stars. The first new three-star in Belgium in years. The third Belgian restaurant to hold the distinction simultaneously with Zilte and Hof van Cleve.


Boury himself described it as the ultimate crowning achievement — the recognition that his eleven years of restaurant ownership, begun with two staff members and a first star after just one year, had reached its highest point. The Michelin citation described the restaurant as a mecca of contemporary gastronomy where meticulous preparations combine classical depth and creative flair into a complex interplay of aromas, flavours and textures. The Sommelier of the Year award at the 2025 ceremony went to Mathieu Vanneste of Boury, confirming the front-of-house excellence that has always matched the kitchen's ambition.


The restaurant occupies a charming 1950s villa near Roeselare's city centre — a beautiful property with a large garden and an outdoor kitchen bar in impeccable stainless steel that functions as the pre-dinner gathering point when weather permits. Inside, a dining room of approximately 50 covers opens through floor-to-ceiling windows to the garden. The atmosphere is convivial and warm rather than hushed and formal — consistent with Michelin's own observation that perfection at Boury is not starched and stuffy. Tim Boury is present at service, frequently visiting tables at the end of the evening.

The Chef & The Family


A West Flemish hard worker, his wife who runs the room, and the brother who runs everything else.


Tim Boury was born in Nieuwkerke, a small West Flemish village near Ypres. He initially wanted to be a baker — a detail that feels significant in retrospect, given the precision and care that fine baking requires — but ended up training at the hotel school in Koksijde instead. His formative stages were at Comme Chez Soi in Brussels (then three Michelin stars), where he met his future wife and business partner Inge Waeles, who was also a chef de partie. Both went on to work at other serious kitchens before founding Boury together: Inge spent time at Hof van Cleve under Peter Goossens; Tim became sous-chef to Sergio Herman at Oud Sluis in the Netherlands, helping the restaurant move from two to three stars. The experience of both studying a three-star kitchen from the inside shaped the ambition with which Boury was eventually built.


The restaurant opened in Roeselare in 2010 with two staff members. The first Michelin star arrived after one year. Tim received the Young Chef of the Year award from Gault & Millau in 2014. The Chef of the Year award from Gault & Millau followed in 2017, the same year they moved to the current villa. Two stars from 2017 to 2021. Three in 2022. Four consecutive years of three-star retention through 2025.


Tim Boury is the prototype of a West Flemish hard worker who is also very down to earth. Those three Michelin stars are well deserved.

TRIPADVISOR REVIEWER, OCTOBER 2025


The third member of the family triangle is Ben Boury, Tim's brother, who handles business strategy, recruitment, accounting, and social media — everything, as Tim describes it with a smile, that a chef hates. This division of labour — kitchen excellence from Tim, hospitality from Inge, business from Ben — has been called a razor-sharp focus by observers who have watched the restaurant develop from two staff members to the most decorated address in Belgium. The word "family" appears in almost every account of eating at Boury. It is not marketing. It is the actual structure of what makes the experience work.

The Food & Its Character


Classical depth, creative flair, and sauces that come close to perfection.


Langoustine with Hop Sprouts


A course that defines the kitchen's relationship to its region: langoustine of exceptional quality paired with hop sprouts — a hyper-local West Flemish ingredient available for only six weeks a year. The seasonal discipline and regional sourcing are not decorative; they are the philosophy made edible.


White Winter Truffle from Alba


When the season arrives, the kitchen works with white truffle from Alba in preparations that demonstrate why this ingredient, at its peak, requires nothing more than the right vehicle. The accompanying nebbiolo wine pairing — mentioned by multiple guests as the highlight of their visit — shows the sommelier's understanding of flavour alignment.


The Sauces



The Michelin Guide describes Boury's prodigious sauces as hitting the spot every time. The technical mastery of sauce-making — reduction, balance, seasoning, the relationship between a sauce and the protein or vegetable it accompanies — is considered one of the kitchen's defining skills and a primary reason for its three-star recognition.


The Crêpe Normande


Flambéed tableside with aged calvados in a closing dessert service that is theatrical in the best possible sense — not spectacle for its own sake but the correct dramatic conclusion to a meal of this ambition. The crêpe Normande at Boury is consistently described by guests as the most memorable moment of the evening.


The Outdoor Kitchen Bar


One of the most impressive pre-dinner settings in Belgium: a stainless steel outdoor kitchen bar on the garden terrace where aperitifs and opening preparations are served in good weather. The outdoor experience is part of the Boury visit in a way that few Belgian restaurants can offer — a setting that distinguishes the villa from any urban fine dining room.


The Personalized Menu


A small detail consistently mentioned by guests: the menu at Boury is printed with the date of visit and the guest's name on the back — a personalisation that costs little but signals everything about how the restaurant thinks about its guests. The front is a drawing of the villa. The combination makes it an object worth keeping.

Before You Go


Everything practical, plainly told


  • Address: Boury, Moorseelsestraat 2, 8800 Roeselare, West Flanders, Belgium


  • Phone: +32 51 46 43 51


  • Website: restaurantboury.be


  • Hours: Lunch and dinner service, typically Tuesday to Saturday. Check restaurantboury.be for the current schedule and any seasonal closures. The restaurant operates year-round with occasional holiday breaks.


  • Getting There: Roeselare is approximately 30 minutes by car from Bruges, 45 minutes from Ghent, 1 hour from Brussels. The nearest train station is Roeselare Station — taxis are available from the station to the restaurant (approximately 10 minutes). Driving is the most practical option for a dinner visit; the outdoor garden bar argues for arriving by car rather than depending on public transport after dark.


  • Bookings: Via restaurantboury.be or by phone. Book 3–6 months ahead for most dates; weekend dinner reservations often fill faster. The restaurant has approximately 50 covers — more accessible than some Belgian starred addresses, but its national ranking as number one in Belgium means consistent demand throughout the year.


  • Price: The tasting menu (Menu Boury) is approximately €325 per person for food only. Wine pairings are additional. At this price point, Boury offers exceptional value relative to three-star restaurants in other European capitals. Check restaurantboury.be for current pricing.


  • The Sommelier: Mathieu Vanneste, who was named Sommelier of the Year at the Michelin Guide Belgium 2025 ceremony, oversees the wine program. The pairing at Boury is considered one of the strongest in Belgium — several guests specifically mention the wine as the evening's high point alongside the food.
Things Worth Knowing


Before you drive to Roeselare


  • Begin in the outdoor kitchen bar if the weather allows — The stainless steel outdoor kitchen bar is one of the most impressive pre-dinner settings in Belgium — a working outdoor kitchen where preparations begin before you move inside. On a warm evening, the garden terrace with its view of the outdoor kitchen is the correct introduction to what Boury is about.


  • Keep the menu card — The personalised menu — printed with your name, the date, and a drawing of the villa — is worth retaining. It is not a printed memento but a hand-lettered document that reflects how seriously the restaurant takes the individual guest. Multiple visitors mention it as an unexpectedly moving gesture.


  • The wine pairing is the right choice — Mathieu Vanneste's Sommelier of the Year recognition from the Michelin Guide Belgium 2025 is the formal confirmation of what guests have been saying for years: the pairing at Boury is as carefully considered as the food. Several guests describe the Piedmontese nebbiolo with the truffle course as the most perfect wine-food moment they experienced anywhere that year.


  • Combine with Bruges or the Belgian coast — Roeselare is 30 minutes from Bruges and 40 minutes from the beach at De Panne or Knokke. The coastal towns of Belgium's Flemish coast — particularly the elegant resort of Knokke — offer very good restaurants and hotels. A two-night stay with dinner at Boury and a day at the coast is the right programme.



  • Tim Boury comes to the table — Multiple guests mention that Tim Boury visits the dining room at the end of the evening — not as a choreographed moment of celebrity chefdom but because he is genuinely interested in whether guests enjoyed themselves. This is a family restaurant with three stars. The warmth is structural, not performed.
Why This Restaurant


What Boury actually represents


Belgium is not a large country. Its finest restaurants are scattered across a landscape that most visitors associate with Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent rather than with the smaller industrial and market towns of Flanders. Roeselare — population 60,000, best known historically for the Ypres Salient and its proximity to the French border — was not on anyone's gastronomic map before Tim Boury opened his restaurant there in 2010.


The argument that Boury makes about Belgian gastronomy is the same argument that great regional restaurants in France have always made: that the quality of the cooking matters far more than the prestige of the location; that exceptional ingredients, properly sourced from the region surrounding the kitchen, produce something more interesting than imported luxury; that a restaurant run by a family that cares about its guests and its craft will outlast any number of more conspicuous operations with fewer convictions.


For anyone who travels to experience the epitome of dining, Boury is a must-visit and in my mind one of the top addresses in all of Europe.

THE FOOD FETISHIST


The three Michelin stars, the national number one ranking, the Sommelier of the Year award — these are the formal acknowledgments of a restaurant that had been building its case for twelve years before the highest recognition arrived. Belgium's Michelin inspectors described the achievement with unusual warmth when the third star was announced: Boury had reached the pinnacle of world gastronomy. The small West Flemish town had become a destination. People now drive from Luxembourg specifically for the dinner. They should.