Rue de la Loi 200, 1049

What’s good? If you’re one of the thousands of hungry eurocrats buzzing around the Berlaymont building, the headquarters of the European Commission, you know the real center of power isn’t Ursula von der Leyen’s 13th floor office, it’s the canteen. With its ever-changing menu, gleaming glass cabinets full of desserts and well-stocked salad bar, it’s where all the most important and gossipiest conversations happen.

What’s not? The vegetarian menu was neither sustainable nor competitive. The dish of the day that POLITICO visited consisted of a grayish eggplant parmigiana, a heaping of spaghetti with a careless splattering of tomato sauce and a mysterious, gristly, soy-based mush. My Finnish companion assured me that the offering is normally far more appetizing.

Vibe: Lining up to grab a tray (and again after my meal to put the tray on a conveyor belt), this POLITICO reporter felt vaguely like livestock being ushered through a feedlot. The ambiance did not improve when an ear-splitting alarm suddenly screamed through the room; potentially a regular occurrence, as most forks barely paused on their way to mouths.

Who’s picking up the check? For around €9, I scored a sizeable vegetarian main and a dessert, so the prices are well within the budget of the average, barely taxed Commission worker, and even within the budget of the outrageously taxed POLITICO reporter. The grill was offering chicken with veggies and fries for a few euros extra.

Spotted: Preparedness Commissioner Hadja Lahbib was glimpsed striding through the Berlaymont’s lobby, as was Katharina von Schnurbein, the Commission’s coordinator on combating antisemitism. The canteen was a sea of Commission staffers from various Cabinets and units; a Brussels bubble nerd’s dream.

Fun fact: Among the EU institutions, the Commission’s canteen is generally regarded as top tier, along with the Council’s (which POLITICO has also reviewed, naturally). We hear there’s fierce competition between the two.

Insider tip: You’ll need an institution or visitor badge to get into the Berlaymont building. Sorry, no plebs allowed.

How to get there: The Schuman metro stop deposits you literally steps from the Berlaymont. Walk through the revolving doors and it’s basically a straight shot to the canteen.

Review published on  May, 15 2025. Illustration by Dato Parulava/POLITICO