Senzanome closes in Brussels as Giovanni Bruno opens a trattoria
Five months after losing the Michelin star it held for 21 years, the Sablon restaurant shuts on 31 October. Its chef is moving his team to GIO, a simpler Italian kitchen nearby.
Senzanome, the Italian fine-dining room on Brussels' Place du Petit Sablon, will close on 31 October, and its chef Giovanni Bruno is moving a few streets away to open a trattoria called GIO.
The news was first reported by L'Echo and followed on 22 October by La Libre Belgique. It comes five months after the restaurant lost the Michelin star it had held for 21 years, in the Belgian guide presented on 4 May 2026. Bruno opened Senzanome in 1997 and runs it with his sister Nadia; the restaurant moved to the Petit Sablon in 2015.
The closure lands in a difficult autumn for the city's top tables: earlier this week Christophe Hardiquest announced the closure of Menssa, his starred Brussels restaurant.
A star held for 21 years could not fill a dining room that was half empty.
Why Senzanome is closing its doors
Bruno blames a squeeze from both sides: guests are spending less while costs keep rising, leaving restaurateurs without a margin. According to La Libre, occupancy at Senzanome had fallen to around 50 per cent, and the chef says the neighbourhood itself has lost its pull. “The Sablon is no longer as attractive as it used to be,” he said.
He had put his own money back into the business several times. “My pension savings went into the restaurant,” he told the paper, adding that he had burnt through all his reserves. L'Echo's headline puts the losses at 600,000 euros over two years. “Today, a restaurant does not make money,” Bruno said.
The warning signs were public. In a May interview with La Libre, days after the star went, he said roadworks around the square had cost him 35 per cent of his clientele and that he had already let go of his sommelier and a waiter to cut costs.
GIO, a trattoria on rue de la Régence
Rather than go bankrupt, Bruno opened a judicial reorganisation procedure with his lawyer and chose to keep cooking under a simpler formula. GIO will move into 55 rue de la Régence, the address where he opened his second restaurant, Miss Rose, in 2024. He will take his kitchen equipment with him and has offered the whole Senzanome team a place in the new project. No opening date or prices have been announced.
“I will no longer do haute gastronomy, but my hands remain the same,” he said. Senzanome was one of three Brussels restaurants to lose a star in the 2026 guide, alongside Pigeon Noir in Uccle and Villa Lorraine. The last tasting menus go out on 31 October; after that, the Petit Sablon loses an address that held a star for two decades, and the rue de la Régence gains a trattoria.
