Liqué

· Modern Liqué on Rue Léopold is the reservation-only room above a bookshop in the central district. Owner-operator Anneke Maes built a programme that leans into the city's strongest cocktail tradition — the Manhattan family — with a deliberate Belgian whisky angle: a Manhattan built on The Owl 12, a Vieux Carré that uses Gouden Carolus single malt instead of rye, a Boulevardier built on Owl and Italian Cynar.

The list runs to ten signatures and a long aged-spirits classics roster. The back-bar carries over a hundred and forty whiskies — the deepest Belgian section in the country, alongside a serious bourbon and rye selection.

Twenty-two seats around a marble bar, lit deliberately low. Food is brief: charcuterie, a single chicken-liver parfait, an excellent cheese plate. Ranks eighth because the Manhattan-family programme is the most disciplined in Brussels.

For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best cocktail bars in Brussels, the broader Brussels cocktail bars guide, and our category index of cocktail bars worldwide.