Benelux Brewpub & Café

What I had: Benelux SMASH Amarillo American Pale Ale, Congo Belgian IPA, and Sabotage American IPA on tap, Chicken Tex Mex Panini with chips and olives.
What I liked: Dark, bustling and cosmopolitan ambience, clearly visible chalkboard draught list, cozy bar, quick and pleasant service, tasty pub grub, beers ranged from average to good quality, love the focus on hop-forward and Belgian styles, reasonable prices.
What I disliked: Neither the beer nor the food blew me away, but this is still a very solid brewpub.
Would I go back? Yes.
Overall rating: 80

 

 

 

The food is minimal but good - the beers I tried varied from good to excellent - the focus is Belgian as the nsme suggests but also American and British style beers - the service is rather disorganized and I watched tables around me who arrived later served while I waited. It happens, but a simple sorry would have been better than "we're busy". On parle ici seulement en français.

I love this place... the beer is amazing.. the food is great although they basically only have sandwiches.

 

 

Nice brewpub in the city center. They do flights which is a plus. Most people are out on the patio and we found a spot at the bar. 12 taps of craft covered all the basic styles. Great spot for a beer and service was solid.

Atmosphere: kind of cool interior but I didn't get to check it out thoroughly as it was empty with everyone out on the patio. nicish patio just down the street from downtown, just a short stone's throw away. otherwise nothing to quite set it apart.

Quality: I sample 3 of their beers ranging from decent to good. wide range of style from german to Belgian and American, maybe some English too.

Service: we had a nice waiter. switched to English no problem and was attentive and good.

Selection: around 10 or just more beers, wide range of styles but I didn't see any quite being the top of their style

Food: small basic menu. snacks, paninis and hot dogs. the sandwich I had was tasty but nothing to write home about.

Overall: A good middle of the day downtown Montreal stop. good beer. not far from where you need to be. good for a snack or smaller bite. not the greatest atmosphere but relaxed and pleasant.

 

 

This is a really cool place located in an extremely off spot in town at the foot of an office/condo high rise. The beer was very good and the variety of different styles was also good - offerings included a stout, saison, pale ale, DIPA, Flemish Red (among others). Really cool and vibrant atmosphere.

 

 

Very nice. Good beer, good food, good service.

They do flights which is great. Beer was by far the best I had in montreal.

Server was great. He was working hard for sure. Gave me a sample of what he thought was the best beer, and he was right. I ordered a pint of it.

Nice vibe with lots of outdoor seating. Could turn the volume down on the EDM a bit, but I guess I'm an old man.

They have mostly pale ales, ipa, saisons, and sours.

 

 

 

 

Great vibe, an awesome space for a quiet afternoon. Love the owner, who was down to chat and teach us more about his craft.

 

 

 

Pretty fun brewpub right next to the hotel JLindros and I stayed at. About 10 or so beers on tap along with a list of upcoming beers. We walked by first around 7:30pm or so and the place was elbow to elbow with hipsters so we opted to wait until 11:30 (as the place closes at 3am) when most had cleared out. The bartender was quite attentive, recommending beers left and right. Only knock (aside from hipsters) would be the music selection was a bit dodgy. LOADS of American pop from the 60s-00's with random rock mixed in. Didn't really flow at all. There was also some seating in what looked like an old bank vault, which was kind of odd. Did not try any of the food.

Very interesting brew pub. They had about 12 beers on tap and list of up coming beers, which the bartender allows you to sample and most are pretty good. Average priced. Server was very friendly and tentative, pretty knowledgeable and suggested great beers.

Atmosphere was the only downfall, Loud annoying music, just loud and some bad pop songs mixed with music, very disjointed. Lots of hipsters, modern hipster bar feel many randomly placed tables, etc.

This is a pretty nice bar with some very good beers, constant rotation of taps, regular casks, decent food, central-ish location and good service.

The look is pretty dark but it is neat to see how they set the bar up in a former-bank. It is positively sleek. You can even drink in the old vault. The bar is big, long, and curved with the brewing stuff behind, taps in the middle and levels with tables and bars everywhere else. The service is very good in my experience. The staff is nice, knowledgeable, quick to offer samples and most of them seem into the beer.

The beer is well above average in my opinion and even their beers that I don't like much are still pretty solidly made I feel. The food is simple but not really pub food. It is a bit expensive maybe, but is good quality. the dogs and the plate with olives, nuts and cheese are always good bets.

All-in-all this is probably my favorite place to get beers in Montreal. It is big enough to where there's usually room, the beer is good. Also I feel like they do a good job of always having a really wide range of styles at a given time. Even a chalk board to see what is currently fermenting for taps or casks. Beers are discounted before the 5 à 7 (happy hour). Well worth visiting.

 

If I had to make a list of the top 5 places to visit in Montreal based on the quality of their beers, Benelux would be included. Every beer I tasted was right on for style, but also with a little house character thrown in, and they were all clean and very well made.

I felt the decor was a combination of "posh" and "slick" with some down-to-earth character thrown in (the air ducts and wacky sprinkler pipe in front of the vault door). At night it has a kind of "glowing light" inside a concrete box kind of thing going on, and although the seating appears kind of stiff, in the end it's actually very comfortable. I guess all of that has to do with the vibe, which is casual and fun. College students mingle with tourists and professionals stopping in for a beer before they head home.

I did not try the food, but watching them toast the rolls for the wurst on pointy spears rising above the grill was interesting.

Absolutely worth checking out.

 

 

Sherbrooke location. Tried the stout and American brown ale. Both very good. Brown ale much happier than many. Food is simple but good. Tex msex chicken wrap and "European" hot dog both simple but nice flavor. Service was prompt and friendly. 11 beers available on our visit. Sat outside with nice atmosphere. Well worth a visit.