Which estaminet to choose in Lille?

You want the postcard estaminet, the best known in Lille: Au Vieux de la Vieille, place aux Oignons.

You are eight, twelve or thirty and want one single table: Chez la Vieille, rue de Gand.

You want a dish that has simmered, served in its pot: La Vieille France, rue de Gand.

You came for a welsh and cannot pick one: L'Estaminet du Welsh, rue de Gand.

You want a board and a beer at four in the afternoon, without booking: Au Petit Vieux, place aux Oignons.

You are in Dunkirk, or you want the sea across the road: Aux Aïeux, on the Malo seafront.

You want the Flanders hills, a brewery across the street and a Sunday in the country: L'Hazewinde, in Saint-Sylvestre-Cappel.

You want a wood-fired grill in a former village town hall: L'Ancienne Maison Commune, in Hondeghem.

The detail follows, house by house, then the criteria.

This is the house everyone has seen in pictures, hops on the ceiling and tables spilling onto the square. Open every day, lunch and dinner, with a terrace on the prettiest square of old Lille. People come as a couple, as four, as a family, for a welsh or a carbonade, and for the mood.

Worth knowing: it does not take groups, and on Saturday night you book. For a long table, go to rue de Gand. The menu, the hours and the booking button are on the page of the estaminet Au Vieux de la Vieille.

A few metres from the previous one, the little brother: a counter open all afternoon, sharing boards, northern beers, afternoon tea. It is the no-booking house, the one where you sit down when you pass by. Closed on Mondays.

Worth knowing: no bookings, no groups, and a shorter menu than the others. That is deliberate. The hours, which vary by day, are on the page of Au Petit Vieux, place aux Oignons.

The house of birthdays, stag nights and team dinners: long tables, a room that gets louder as the evening goes, and maroilles in half the dishes. Up to seventy-five covers in a single group, which exists nowhere else in old Lille.

Worth knowing: closed on Sundays, and on Mondays it opens in the evening only. For a group, write first, the groups page says how. The menu and the hours are on the page of the estaminet Chez la Vieille, rue de Gand.

Waterzooi, chicken with maroilles, marrow bones, carbonade: the menu of childhood Sundays, served in the pot in a room whose walls are covered in copper. Below, a vaulted cellar that can be booked whole for thirty-four people.

Worth knowing: closed at lunch on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and in the evening you book, the room is small. The menu, the hours and the link to its own site are on the page of the estaminet La Vieille France, rue de Gand.

A house built around one dish. The welsh comes in several versions, cheddar or maroilles, and the menu adds a few comfort dishes for those who do not want one. A big room, up to eighty covers for a group.

Worth knowing: closed at lunch on Wednesdays and Thursdays. If the welsh intrigues you, read the Lille welsh, its history and its recipe. The menu and the hours are on the page of L'Estaminet du Welsh, rue de Gand.

On the Malo-les-Bains seafront, an hour from Lille: the terrace looks at the beach, and the menu follows the coast, mussels, potjevleesch, fish. It is also the biggest room in the group, up to a hundred and twenty covers.

Worth knowing: open every day, and in summer you book, the seafront fills up. The menu and the hours are on the page of the estaminet Aux Aïeux, in Dunkirk.

In the Flanders hills, forty minutes from Lille, a village estaminet on the church square, across from a brewery. People come on Sundays, as a family, for the carbonade and the beer from down the street. Up to ninety covers.

Worth knowing: open Thursday to Sunday only, lunch and dinner. The menu and the hours are on the page of L'Hazewinde, the estaminet of Saint-Sylvestre-Cappel.

The village's former town hall, forty minutes from Lille, with a great fireplace where the meats grill over wood. It is the best rated house of the group on Google, and the one for long country tables, up to eighty-six covers.

Worth knowing: open every day, and Sunday lunch books up well in advance. The menu and the hours are on the page of L'Ancienne Maison Commune, the estaminet of Hondeghem.

The district, because in Lille you often pick your estaminet by the square you happen to be on. The size of the tables, because it is the first question on the phone. The menu, because a welsh and a carbonade are not eaten in the same frame of mind. The closing days, because that is what makes you miss a meal. The terrace and booking, because they change the evening.

We did not keep price: all eight houses sit in the same range, that of a dish and a beer, and exact prices are on every menu, in plain text. Nor the Google rating, which is on every page with the date it was read, and which we do not comment on.

And we do not compare our houses with the other estaminets of Lille, which are many and several of which are very good: this guide is written by the restaurateurs, it only speaks of what it knows.

Look at the houses page for the eight pages side by side, with today's hours. If you are more than ten, go through the groups page, and for a team through the corporate offer. And if you do not yet know what an estaminet is, what an estaminet is, the Flemish café explained takes five minutes.

All of it starts from the home page of the guide to Lille's estaminets, which is what it is for.