While things can get busy, the ambience is always very relaxed. The music is turned down low, and no newspapers or other distractions require your attention. Colourful stained glass windows effectively keep the world out, and it is indeed easy to imagine 16th-century citizen fathers dozing off in a corner while their drained pewter tankards and smouldering pipes sit in front of them on the table.
Loaded with literary anecdotes, the reasonably priced menu offers an excellent choice of honest, fresh food. Compliments to the chef are well earned here.
You'll even find two Japanese dishes. The signature dish, though, is the gezoden worst, a white pork sausage accompanied by thick brown bread and Tierenteyn mustard. It's the perfect snack to go with one of their many Belgian beers.
While you eat and drink, have a better look around at the bric-a-brac and framed poems. The Quinten used to be the hangout of several of Antwerp's pen-wielding celebrities. Jos Vandeloo (°1925) eternalised the pub with: "Waar de kraan loopt en de tijd stilstaat" ("Where the tap flows, and time stops"). And, as another story goes, Paul Van Ostaijen (1896-1928), a rebellious dandy and avant-garde poet, threw a brick through one of the pub's windows, shouting: "Lang leve de anarchisten!" The sleepy customers stirred but weren't shaken.
Willem Elsschot (1882-1960), on the other hand, readily acknowledged that the inspiration for his 1946 novel Het dwaallicht (Will o' the Wisp) came to him on a misty night as he made his way home after a night of cards and booze at the Quinten Matsijs.
If you want to know more about Elsschot, join the Elsschot walking tour (€21) that starts in the Quinten Matsijs every first Sunday of the month (or on request). But feel free to drop in for a hot meal or a cordial anytime.
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