Hotel Review: The Standard, Brussels
Hotel Name: The Standard Brussels
Classification: 5 stars
Book this hotel: On Booking.com
The Standard Hotel in Brussels opened in 2025. The hotel features 200 rooms, two restaurants, a gym and a swanky rooftop bar with garden. Having stayed at the Standard Hotels in Pattaya and Hua Hin, I was quite curious about the Standard hotels in Europe too.
I stayed for two nights as part of a weekend trip to Brussels, the capital of Belgium.
Read below my hotel stay review!
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Note: The below review summarises my independent thoughts on my stay at the The Standard Hotel Brussels. This isn’t a collaboration with this hotel as I stayed there on my own cost. Also, the views and opinions expressed in this blog post are solely mine, the content creator of Things Nomads Do.
Hotel Grounds
Lobby
The lobby has quite the aesthetic appeal - it can be described as a sort of timeless retro / art deco design with a modern twist. I loved the colour scheme of the furniture and the hip bar on the other side of the lobby. Honestly, too many hotels don’t pay enough attention to their design details, but the Standard hotels always excel in their design.
What is interesting is that in the same building of the hotel there is an office - and the floors alternate between office floors and hotel room floors. This means that at night, you will never hear anyone below or above you since it is an office space. I thought this was quite cool and clever!
Terrace
At the restaurant next to the lobby - called “Double Standard” - there was a beautiful green patio where you could sit and enjoy a coffee, also in the morning for breakfast. It was really lovely sitting there and looking at the greenery and the occasional bird hopping by.
This greenery is what I missed slightly in some other places in the hotel, especially hallways - this is what I particularly enjoyed at the Standard hotels in Thailand, where the decor was tropical and lush.
Room
The Junior Suite I stayed in had a gorgeous 180 degrees view on the city of Brussels.
The bed was King sized and perfectly comfortable for a good night’s rest. I also loved the little corner table with the built-in couch.
What was a bit particular is that there was no TV in the room - the lady at the reception mentioned this already and said it didn’t fit because of the way the room was designed 🤔 peculiar argument.. Anyway, it is not like I needed the TV.
The bathroom was spacious, with a separate toilet, and there was a big rain-shower too. I love the design of the sink - made out out of a kind of red stone pattern that looks retro yet modern.
In the room, you can also find sachets of specialty drip coffee, which you can brew in-room. There’s also a few Kusmi tea bags, which I loved! Especially the Rooibos vanilla tea - it was superb.
Breakfast
Breakfast is served at the restaurant downstairs and while it features a modest selection, the quality is high.
The pastries were so delicious. I basically devoured the croissant and pain au chocolat. The coffee was also decent - the flat white I ordered was made from flavourful beans. There was also a selection of cheeses, cold cuts, as well as your usual standards such as scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and fruit. I was missing a bit the egg station - it would have been a nice touch, and something I would expect from a 5 star hotel.
On the first day, while waiting for the room to be ready, I also had lunch at this restaurant. I ordered some cheese croquettes and a mushroom burger - both were perfectly fine, though nothing exceptional.
Rooftop
The rooftop at the top of the Standard Hotel is supposedly the highest rooftop in Belgium! Especially in the summer, it’s a great spot for a drink or even dinner. While I didn’t try any food here, it looked good and their drink selection is quite abundant as well.
There is a gorgeous view on Brussels here, and I would especially recommend going here for the sunset views. Next to the restaurant, there’s also a pretty rooftop garden, which definitely makes for a lovely lounge spot.
Gym
The gym is located on the top floor and was decently equipped for both weight and cardio training. All the fitness equipment was very new and there was free drinking water.
Service
Throughout my stay, the hotel staff was kind and professional. At check-in, they made sure I could get a room that was available earlier.
The only exception was when I went to the rooftop bar on the first evening to redeem my drink voucher - the staff seemed very busy and I had to ask several times for the menu. The first two waiters seemed very absent minded; only the third one was more on top of it.
Location
The Standard Brussels is located to the north of the city centre, and it’s about a 17 minute walk to the city centre. You’re also literally next to the Brussels Noord train station, which is rather handy in case you want to do day trips (for example to Bruges or Ghent).
PROS & CONS
PROS
The design of the hotel is very stylish (as with most Standard hotels), and especially the green courtyard where you could sit and sip your coffee was so peaceful.
Room is comfortably sized and the bed is big and of high quality
The pastries at the breakfast were some of the best pastries I’ve ever had in a hotel! (Get the croissant AND the Pain au chocolat!)
The coffee is also decent - definitely much better than your standard hotel coffee. And this is a big plus of all the Standard hotels.
The rooftop bar and restaurant is quite gorgeous - and the view on Brussels - especially around sunset - is breathtaking.
CONS
When visiting the rooftop one evening to redeem my drink voucher, some of the waiters seemed very busy and it felt a bit like I was forgotten.
There were two sachets of specialty drip coffee in the room, however, they didn’t replenish them the next day, which I found rather sad:( not sure if it’s intentional or oversight
There was no TV in the Junior Suite. Although that doesn’t bother me in particular, maybe other guests would expect to have one in the room.
Another thing I missed in general was some sort of spa or wellness room - though I would probably not expect this from a city hotel in Europe.
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Convinced about The Standard Hotel in Brussels? Book it here.
