Restaurant Photography in Brussels: Delivery Apps, Google and Menus

What Brussels restaurants actually need photos for

Most Brussels restaurants need the same dish shot in four or five different ways, not one perfect image. A delivery listing thumbnail is viewed small and vertical on a phone, a Google Business Profile cover is wide, a printed menu may be reproduced at 10 cm across, and an Instagram post is square or 4:5. Shooting once and cropping five times is how you keep the same plate recognizable everywhere.

Start by listing your channels and what each one does with the image. Delivery apps show a small tile in a scrolling list, so the dish must read at arm's length. Google Business Profile photos appear in a carousel next to your map pin, so a wide shot of the plate with a hint of the room works better than a tight close-up. A QR menu loads on a phone in dim restaurant light, so contrast matters more than fine texture.

• Delivery app tile: shoot 1:1 or 4:5, keep the dish filling 70 to 80 percent of the frame
• Google Business Profile: include one wide 16:9 shot per signature dish with some table or room context
• Printed menu: shoot the same dish slightly wider so text can sit beside it
• Instagram: shoot 4:5 vertical with space at the top for a caption overlay

Which apps have published photo specs, and which do not

This site keeps dedicated spec pages for two delivery platforms in Belgium: Uber Eats at /delivery-photo-specs/uber-eats/belgium/ and Deliveroo at /delivery-photo-specs/deliveroo/belgium/. Takeaway.com also operates in Belgium, but there is no spec page for it here, so check the upload screen in your partner portal for its current requirements.

Deliveroo does not accept AI-generated or altered images. If you list there, shoot your own real photo of the dish and upload that file. Do not describe any image as Deliveroo-ready unless you shot it yourself. For your own channels, a photo of your real dish with improved light, background and crop is fine.

Pixel dimensions and file size limits change without notice. Where a platform does not publish exact specs on this site, open the upload screen and read the guidance shown there before you export a batch.

A seasonal window-light schedule for Brussels

Brussels sits at about 50.8 degrees north, and the sun's height drives everything. In late June the noon sun is roughly 63 degrees up, so light through a south-facing window falls steeply onto the floor near the glass and reaches deep into the room only in the morning and evening. In late December the noon sun is only about 16 degrees, so it comes in almost horizontally and can throw long, low beams across tables for most of the short day.

Use that difference deliberately. In summer, shoot between about 09:00 and 11:00 or after 17:00, when the sun is lower and the light through the window is softer and more directional. Avoid 12:00 to 15:00 near a south window, when the light is hard and top-down. In winter, the reverse applies: the low midday sun is your best soft side light, so book shoots around 11:00 to 14:00 and expect to finish before 16:00, since December daylight runs out around 16:00 to 16:30.

Choose the window by orientation. A north-facing window gives even, cool light all day in both seasons and is the safest choice for dishes with pale sauces or white plates. East windows are strongest in the morning, west windows in the afternoon. If your only window faces south, hang a thin white curtain or a sheet of diffusion material and shoot 1 to 1.5 m back from it.

• June: shoot 09:00 to 11:00 or after 17:00, avoid the 12:00 to 15:00 top-light window
• December: shoot 11:00 to 14:00 and finish before dark, around 16:00
• North window: usable all day, best for pale dishes and white plates
• South window in summer: diffuse with a white curtain and shoot from the side

Shooting dishes that hold up on a phone screen

Brussels menus draw on Belgian, French and other European cooking, and many classic dishes are brown or beige on a plate: stews, croquettes, gratins, roasted meats. Those photograph flat under top light. Put the plate near a window and shoot from the side so the light rakes across the surface and shows texture, then add one small element of contrast that is genuinely in the dish, such as a green herb or a slice of lemon the kitchen already uses.

Shoot at a 30 to 45 degree angle for most plates so the diner sees both the surface and the height of the food. Use a straight-down 90 degree shot only for flat items like tarts, waffles or a composed salad. Keep the camera at the level of the plate rim rather than standing over the table, and step back rather than zooming so the perspective stays natural.

Under EU Regulation 1169/2011, allergen information for the 14 regulated allergens must be available for food sold without packaging, and for distance selling, including delivery apps, mandatory information must be available before the purchase is concluded. A photo never replaces that text, and the image should not suggest ingredients the dish does not contain. Do not add a garnish to the shot that is not served with the dish.

Menus, languages and the Brussels guest mix

Menus in Belgium are commonly written in Dutch, French and German, and a Brussels guest may read any of them alongside English. That affects photography in a practical way: leave clean space in the frame where text will sit, and keep the same dish photographed from the same angle across language versions so the menu looks consistent.

If you print a multilingual menu, shoot each dish once at 16:9 with the plate offset to one side and empty table on the other. That single file can carry Dutch text on one layout and French on another without reshooting. For a QR menu that loads on a phone, export at a smaller size and check it on an actual handset in the dining room before you publish.

Keep a simple folder structure by dish name rather than by date, so the kitchen can find the current photo when a recipe changes. When a dish changes, reshoot it. An outdated photo is the most common reason a guest feels misled on arrival.

Keeping the whole set consistent

A menu looks professional when every photo shares the same light direction, background and crop. Pick one table near your best window, one neutral surface, and one camera height, and shoot the entire menu there in a single session. Consistency across twenty dishes matters more than perfection in one.

For your own channels, FoodPhoto takes a real photo of your own dish and improves light, background and crop for menus, delivery apps and social, keeping the food as it is, and every photo comes as a kit of sizes for those channels. It does not generate a different dish and cannot guarantee approval by any platform, so for Deliveroo you still shoot and upload your own real photo.

• Same table, same surface, same camera height for the whole menu
• Reshoot any dish whose recipe or portion changes
• Check each export at phone size before publishing
• Keep allergen text separate from and visible alongside every photo