Brouwerij Sint-Bernard (St. Bernardus)

The St Bernardus complex was surprising in many ways. It’s bigger than expected (shows how much of of an international powerhouse StB is), more industrial than expected among the Flemish farmhouses, and seemingly more local than expected - whereas most visitors to In de Vrede were from outside Belgium, this crowd was almost exclusively locals. The bar upstairs is quite large and the panorama views were great. Beer selection is 8 house beers, a few from Weihenstephaner and - what I really loved is also offering Brouwerij Kasematten on tap, promoting a smaller but quite good local brewery. Service was cold but did the job, I didn’t try the food. The beer is of course great, severed perfectly, but that’s a given. Nice brewery, excellent tour.

Only regret is that I wanted to spend the night at the guest house but it was booked six months in advance. Shame.

Now much larger and more modern than pictured above, this facility stands out as quite the startlingly industrial façade in an otherwise quietly pastoral surrounding, where here the grains change to hop bines that stretch out on one side of the building.

Our visit to the restaurant, now stylized as Bar Bernard as pointed out in another review, was on a very hot, sunny day after having just visited the café in the shadow of Sint Sixtus, so as to have a little Westvleteren 12 as freshly in mind as possible while ordering an Abt 12. While brewery tours will be offered within the next month or so, we were only able to take a few peeks through what windows were available to the public at the time, largely through the elevator, or office floor.

As with the exterior, the interior is abnormally stark, clean and geometric compared to the more picturesquely green and brown fields it relatively towers over--though they too are carefully cropped and meticulously organized. Along with some cushioned benches to go with picnic-like tables, the patio lining the outside of the restaurant floor is peppered with playfully colorful seating to further contrast the farmland panorama, while the interior is a little more hard and stark of greys and browns.

Service will come to your table right away at first, especially if you made reservations (and if you didn't, you may need to sit outside, though that didn't seem to be a problem this day), but thereafter you'll need to confidently flag them down if you're not already comfortable with the act as an American. That said, they largely speak Dutch here as opposed to French, and some don't even speak French or English, so be prepared to point at things and have minimal interaction if you're not okay with using Google translate. It is advisable to try to translate as much as you can before ordering, because I thought I ordered what were frites with a mushroom gravy but got a whole ass steak as well. It was quite a lot for lunch, and they aren't accustomed to patrons asking for to-go boxes, so feel free to sit for the long haul and slowly munch away the day. Either way, the food was good, particularly the seafood salad with its unique shrimp paste croquette.

The beer selection here is actually quite impressive, with a very wide array of not just their own styles, but often featuring a rotating cast of some guest breweries that might themselves include some more modern styles. My only regret is not having more time to spend in the countryside, and really get a feel for it while being able to dig through the entire taplist.

In 2018 'Bar Bernard' opened, a 360° panorama rooftop bar, with great views on the surrounding landscape. They serve great food and the beers from St. Bernardus, Kazematten and Weihenstephaner. Beautiful and inspiring place.