Kabuki Brussels: Keto at the Train Buffet

Kabuki is a Japanese buffet restaurant in Brussels with a model train. A small locomotive runs a circuit through the dining room on a track above table height, pulling cars loaded with plates of food, and you take what you want as it passes. There are also normal tables with standard buffet service if you prefer not to eat by rail. Both options are available and the food is the same either way, but the train is clearly the right choice.

The buffet format is genuinely useful for keto because you control exactly what ends up in front of you. The selection covers sushi rolls, nigiri, sashimi, yakitori, gyoza, various hot dishes, miso soup, edamame, and desserts. About half of it is immediately keto-friendly. The other half requires restraint rather than adaptation.

What to take from the train

Sashimi is the priority. Salmon, tuna, and whatever else is on the cars. Take it when it comes past, because at a busy service the good cuts go quickly. A few passes of the train loaded with sashimi and you have the core of a solid keto meal.

Yakitori skewers when they appear: chicken, beef, pork belly. Edamame, which is low-carb and good for grazing between proper plates. Miso soup if it’s on the circuit. Some of the hot dishes, like grilled fish and steamed items, are worth taking if they’re identifiable as protein without obvious sauce.

What to let pass

Sushi rolls and nigiri have rice. Gyoza are wheat dumplings. Noodle dishes are noodles. The dessert cars are not for you. The tempura is battered and fried.

The patience element is real. At a buffet train you are at the mercy of what the kitchen sends out and when. Sometimes three cars of California rolls go past before a sashimi plate appears. You wait. You take the sashimi when it comes and you don’t take the California roll just because you’ve been waiting.

If the train isn’t producing what you need fast enough, the standard buffet tables usually have a more consistent selection of the basics. Worth knowing if you’re hungry and the train is being unhelpful.

The experience

Taking children to Kabuki is an excellent decision because the train makes the entire concept of waiting for food into entertainment. Taking adults who haven’t been before is also good because most people haven’t eaten at a train restaurant and it’s genuinely fun for a dinner out.

The atmosphere is lively and the format means the evening moves at its own pace. You’re not waiting for a waiter, you’re watching the train and talking and occasionally reaching up to take a plate. It works well as a group dinner.

Somewhere in central Brussels, and worth checking the current address as they’ve had different locations over the years. Seating strategy matters: the tables closest to where the train emerges from the kitchen get first pick of each new car before it completes the circuit and arrives at everyone else. People who know this arrive early and position accordingly. Worth being one of those people.

The keto situation at Kabuki requires more active management than at a brasserie or a sashimi-focused Japanese place. But a table by the train track, a beer you’re not drinking, and a steady supply of sashimi and yakitori coming past on small wooden cars is a better evening than it might sound on paper.

Wait for the sashimi car. It will come.