I spent six nights in Brussels in April - had a wonderful time, but did three day trips (and 2˝ days in Brussels proper were plenty).
We stayed at Le Dome hotel, for around $120/night. A few blocks to the Grand Place, but near north train station (convenient for day trips) and right at a Metro station. We booked through a web-site/agent (Belgian)with lots of hotel choices at all prices; I may be able to dig it up if a search engine doesn't help you find it..
Chex Jean restaurant was good. Sundays (in the Gallery St. Hubert) is great for desserts…and has the most amazing self-cleaning toilet seat!
Fodor's (which I otherwise found excellent throughout the BeNeLux region) failed to mention the Royal Belgian Museum for Central Africa (that may not be its exact name) to your Brussels section - it was wonderful! Given Belgium's history in the Congo, it's not surprising that they have terrific stuff. About half the museum was anthropological, and the other half zoological.
The museum is located in the suburb of Tervuren: take the Metro to the Montgomery station, and there take the #44 streetcar to the end of the line. Total time from downtown: about an hour.
Day trips are easy. Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp are each less than an hour by train (and you wouldn't want a car in them anyway)
Final tip: order from the prix fixe menus, not a la carte. Much cheaper this way. Most restaurants have choices at two or three price levels, with a few choices for each course; they usually post them outside their door, so you can decide where to eat based on this! And when you convert prices, don't forget that tax and service (tip) are included. Here that would add ~25% to the posted price, so what at first seems slightly expensive is actually rather cheap!