Where to eat the best shrimp croquette in Antwerp

We love a good shrimp croquette in Belgium!

You can find quite a few croquettes here.

Croquette with cheese, fish, pulled meat.

Perhaps the most famous croquette is just the potato croquette, a popular side dish.

However we will be talking about another classic today…

The classic Belgian shrimp croquette!

The Dutch have their lush veal croquettes, we are king of the shrimp croquettes.

Yas!

We could eat shrimp croquette every day.

And there are 2 ways to eat them.

Buy or make shrimp croquettes yourself and deep fry them at home.

Or simply eat them in a restaurant or as a hot takeaway snack.

We were initially going to make our very own shrimp croquette from scratch.

But then we thought that it would be great to eat them at several places and see which one is the best.

Starting with takeaway croquettes.

We might add a restaurant chapter as well later on.

We are always in for a comparative eating battle.

We already did a similar test for a double cheeseburger in town here.

Next battle: the famous Belgian shrimp croquettes!

Or in other words, where to eat the best belgian shrimp croquette.

So what are a couple of things we should pay attention to?

Color: is the shrimp croquette nicely golden brown? Or in other words, deep fried at the right temperature for the right amount of time?

Crust: is it thick enough to keep the gooey filling inside? Does it contain breadcrumbs or panic breadcrumbs?

Filling: are there enough brown shrimp in the creamy batter? How is that ratio?

Sides: is the shrimp croquette served with something extra on the side? Dipping sauce, lemon, deep fried parsley perhaps? Oh and for the record: the lemon in just there for decoration, don’t kill your croquette!

Price: how much does this freshly deep fried shrimp croquette cost and is it reasonable compared to the quality you get? Prices are for 1 croquette, unless mentioned otherwise.

Let’s find out!

Where to eat the best shrimp croquette in Antwerp

1. Bubba

Where: Saturday farmers market at Theaterplein, 2000 Antwerp
Website: www.bubba-kroketten.be
Color: golden brown, excellent
Crust: perfect thickness
Filling: creamy, good ratio of brown shrimp and filling, well seasoned
Sides: a lemon wedge, freshly chopped parleys
Price: €4
What we think: highly delicious croquette for an unbeatable price

2. Jean Sur Mer Harbor Cafe

Where: Groenplaats 15, 2000 Antwerp
Website: www.jeansurmer.be
Color: golden brown, perfect
Crust: panko, thick and crunchy
Filling: good ratio of brown shrimp and filling, perfectly seasoned
Sides: rouille dipping sauce, lemon wedge and a slice of bread
Price: €7
What we think: excellent croquettes and delicious dipping sauce, great quick lunch!

3. Frites Atelier

Where: Korte Gasthuisstraat 32, 2000 Antwerp
Website: www.fritesatelier.com
Color: golden brown, excellent
Crust: panko, looks fragile but has the perfect thickness
Filling: good ratio of brown shrimp and filling, well seasoned
Sides: tartar sauce, lemon wedge, deep fried parsley
Price: €5,75
What we think: delicious!

4. Fish A’ Gogo

Where: Handschoenmarkt 1, 2000 Antwerp
Website: www.fishagogo.be
Color: golden
Crust: panko, quite thin which makes it too brittle to eat it with your fingers (that’s probably why it comes with a fork)
Filling: very creamy, lots of shrimp, perfectly seasoned
Sides: lemon wedge
Price: €5,5
What we think: flavorwise the best croquette so far!

5. Bourla

Where: Graanmarkt 7, 2000 Antwerpen
Website: www.bourla.be
Color: golden
Crust: breadcrumbs, thick enough to keep the filling inside nicely
Filling: creamy fumet flavoured béchamel, not a lot of shrimp in it
Sides: lemon wedge, fried parsley and fresh shrimp
Price: €9,5
What we think: an OK shrimp croquette but not the best in town, our least favorite so far

6. De Bomma

Where: Willem Ogierplaats 3, 2000 Antwerpen
Website: www.restaurantdebomma.be
Color: golden
Crust: breadcrumbs, not too thick and quite solid
Filling: nicely creamy, an OK amount of shrimp, well seasoned
Sides: lemon wedge, fried parsley
Price: €18 for 2
What we think: classic restaurant shrimp croquette, not mind-blowing but a good choice for a light lunch bite for instance

6. Fiskebar

Where: Marnixplaats 12, 2000 Antwerpen
Website: www.fiskebar.be
Color: golden brown
Crust: breadcrumbs, excellent crispy crust
Filling: very creamy and flavourful, good amount of fresh shrimp, perfectly seasoned
Sides: lemon wedge, fried parsley, shrimp mayo
Price: €18,50 for 2
What we think: delicious and very rustic looking shrimp croquette (must be homemade), definitely in our top 3!