The Look

Not everyone will love the hotel’s uncompromising lounge-bar style, which is reflected in the oversize lampshades, glass tables and chill-out music piped into the lobby and hallways. But with curvaceous faux-leather armchairs, conical cream welcome pods in the lobby and a gleaming white spiral staircase leading up to the dark and decadent first-floor bar, nobody could accuse the Brussels Pullman, which opened in 2013, of being your average business hotel, even if it is in Europe’s suitcase capital.

Bed and Bath

Designed by upscale interior architect Jean-Philippe Nuel, the hotel’s 237 guestrooms are sleek and sensuous spaces with curved coffee counters, bed tables and sofas in stark whites and subdued browns and grays. Some rooms and suites have Bose docking stations and Nespresso coffee machines, while the bathrooms feature spacious walk-in showers and Roger & Gallet toiletries.

Beyond

At the intimate Victor Bar and Restaurant, chef Michaël Bastin serves up French and Italian dishes alongside such tasty Belgian classics as beef cooked in beer and gingerbread. The Vinoteca offers a healthy selection of wines by the glass, and the cocktail menu is more extensive than at most places in brew-mad Belgium. You can work off all the extra calories later in the hotel’s gym or sweat them off in the free sauna.

In the Area

There’s little point in spending any time in the Gare du Midi area, when most of Brussels’s must sights and best bars and restaurants are just a 10-minute hop by tram, tube or taxi. If you have limited time in the city, head to the magnificent Grand Place, grab a beer at the slightly surreal Roy d’Espagne brasserie — yes, that is a stuffed horse in the lobby — and marvel at the ornate 17th-century guild houses that flank the square. Avoid the tacky restaurants on Rue des Bouchers — except reliable mussels and fries eaterie Chez Leon — and stroll instead to the stand-up Noordzee fish stall off Place St. Catherine.