Bier Central

Stopped in for a couple beers with my wife on a weekday afternoon. Neat location, tons of beer available, easy to find what's on the menu but the menu is not entirely reliable. Order via web site accessed via QR code. Basically no interaction with staff.

 

 

I visited this bar three times during a five day stay in Antwerp as it was virtually across the street from my hotel. They have about 120 pages of beers in a catalog (that they also sell), with several dozen on tap. The prices were competitive with other tourist places and the draft beers were available in various size pours. All the contents of the catalog are Belgian so far as I could tell, though a few bottles were of styles more popular in other countries. I'm not a big fan of Belgian yeast, but their selection seemed fairly good for those local beers. They were missing some beers that I saw elsewhere. The service is initially slow, but I suspect they are simply allowing customers time to pick a beer. If you make fast decisions, then be prepared to wait a bit. The food was fairly good (especially the fries and other local dishes), though I would not recommend the veggie burger. It was too squishy inside. My wife had a sandwich once too, but discarded the generic white bun. It is located very close to the train station and some hotels that cater to international guests. Thus, the vibe can be very different each time. I saw tables of local students, young American tourists, Japanese business people, etc. Older men tended to sit along the bar alone, but I sat at a table each time even when I was unaccompanied. The outdoor seating was loud at night, with plenty of smokers.

 

 

 

 

This place is very close to the central station & attracts thus a lot of tourists.
It is a tourist trap & there is little more to this place than a means to take money from you.

There are quite frequently lots of drunk & rowdy tourists abound here.
Or local people getting drunk in a bad way, it is often too crowded to sit comfortable.
Service is not just bad but insultingly bad. I understand that this place pays badly.
Some of the people who work here almost go out of their way to insult you.
The beers that they have are common & uninteresting variety largely.
More importantly a lot of them seem to be stored badly.
Most of the stuff I tried here was infected, badly oxidized & overprized as well.
Plus lots of the stuff listed they don’t have, usually you need to try 3 times before you get a beer.
Tried some fries, food seems to be of an equal calibre & enjoyment as the beers & service.

Hilariously bad place, shame so many tourists are so easily suckered in by its magnificent location literally a stone throw away from Antwerp Central Station.

This place claims to be "Beer Paradise" with its selection of 300 bottles, but in reality it's nowhere near that. Sure, they easily impress anyone that doesn't know the first thing about beer ("Wow, this 'Chimay', what IS that John?"), but they won't fool anyone from this website, I can guarantee that much.

Its disgustingly overpriced bottle selection (Rochefort 10 for 7.60 (!!!) euros, which is 1.80 a bottle in shops and 4 in most pubs) includes some rare commodities which are literally NEVER in stock (most of Struise, Alvinne, ... to name a few) and its food selection offers no redemption. The final slap in the face is the fact they serve most beers in stock Bier Central glasses, and the waiters trot around with headsets like a troupe of clueless robots. The beers are stone cold and I swear: a setting such as this one even makes it taste worse.

Stay away from this place when you're in Antwerp. It'll leave a bad taste in your mouth, literally.

Well, I guess buying a beer in the Diamond district is like buying Diamonds in the Diamond district. Incredibly overpriced. I can see how they stay in business, as soon as you walk out of central station you're there.

I couldn't really stomach the prices. A regular bottle of cantillon gueuze, that's normally about 6-8 euros in a average pub, was 17 euros there. They have a decent beer list, but you might as well walk 5 minutes further, and you're bound to find a bunch of good places to drink.

I wont visit this establishment again.

Visited during the weekend of the 16th Essen Christmas Festival, December 2010.

Someone has spent a lot of money in setting this place up and it looks fantastic, really well done, a true olde worlde feel to it (of course all fake). Lots of beery bits (advertising boards and mirrors etc, etc). Upstairs the disco bar is all 'Austin Powers' in design, with a smaller tap and bottle selection.

Now the not so good: during the day there is just one barman and a young lady serving the tables, all a bit slow, but very civilised. At night the music is so loud you can hear it a block away (as an American would say) and fills with mostly young, also loud people. It has an interconnecting doorway to the Irish bar next door which of course is owned by the same people.

I thought the selection on tap a little weak in beer enthusiasm, meaning there was nothing really different to choose and they all came from the larger producers, the bottled list is however impressive.

We used it during the day when quiet, we went back later, the noise just defeated us and it was so busy we left straight away.

It isn't cheap either, the owners want a return on their investment. It is certainly popular with the Antwerpen younger set and I would recommend the less old BA's will love it during the darker hours and those of us of an older dispostion will enjoy a more leasurely drink in the day, as we did, you could speak then (those not covered by my age suggestions should go early evenings).

So, an interesting addition to the Antwerp beer bar choices, but one I think will be visited just the once by most BA's with a discerning eye and palate.