Sainte-Catherine occupies the old port of Brussels. The basins were filled in long ago, but the long open squares of the Marché aux Poissons — the former fish market — still trace where the quays once ran, and the neighbourhood remains the city's traditional address for seafood. Around the 19th-century Church of Sainte-Catherine you will find oyster bars, standing fish stalls, and brasseries that have been shucking and frying for generations.
In the evening it is one of the most enjoyable parts of the centre to eat and drink — less touristy than the Îlot Sacré a few hundred metres east, with a mix of old Brussels institutions and a younger bar crowd. By day the squares are calm and the fishmongers busy.