Brussels Trip suggestions

Breweries: De La Senne, have great 'Brussels' beers.
Bars: Moeder Lambic, Monks (no typical beer bar but have a very good selection and is just a really nice bar).
Restaurants: Nuetnienough (my favorite for food and beer), Restobieres.
Scenic places: I would go to the Kunstberg (nice architecture, great view over the city maybe visit the Margritte Museum,...), De Marollen (I love the neighberhood and a great flee market at Vossenplein and near Cantillon).

Hope this helps a bit.

Enjoy your trip!

 

Pick up a copy of Tim Webb's 'Good Beer Guide to Belgium'

http://www.booksaboutbeer.com/collections/belgium/products/good-beer-guide-belgium

Enjoy your trip!

 

Try to hit St Sixtus/Westvleteren. Need to make an appointment to get any beer, but worth the trip!

 

Great suggestions, all. You need a group to go to de la Senne but just look for bars that have it -- a good calling card for a good bar. When you go to les Marolles / De Marollen, hit La Brocante overlooking that flea market and have some other lambics to compare with Cantillon. Many more suggestions if you search a bit more in this forum.

 

Drie Fonteinen has AMAZING food (try the rabbit w/ some sort of kriek or gueuze sauce, can't remember exactly), and it's only 20 minutes from downtown Brussels.

Delirium Cafe is a classic, busy bar that your non-beery friends will enjoy too.

 

For an overall scenic 4 days you might consider basing yourself in Brugge. From there you can still visit Brussels for a day trip. They have plenty of good bars to keep you interested. One bar you might consider is the one in my avatar, the Brugge Bear, closed on wed. opens at 4 on other days. A quick review of the Places tab on this site will give you more choices for this city.

Cheers

 

Be patient & polite and you'll get by fine. Don't be a dick of an American

Smaller, ethnic restaurants were the only place we had any language issues and then it was easy to point & grunt. The vast majority of the people we encountered in the service industry spoke quite passable english.

Oh, except for the post office at Midi station! That was PAINFUL.

 

Just like atpca said: be patient and polite. I also found learning a few phrases in French can be very helpful. Hello, please, thank you, do you speak English? little things like that go a long way.

 

Well if you don't speak French or flemish the best way is the english here why some flemish don't want to speak french and also in the other way . Normally we have the 3 languages at school in the flemish part ... so don't worry if they want to sell in Brussels they even speak japanees

 

I concur with the recommendation on the use of Tim Webb's book, the Good Beer Guide to Belgium.' It is the best. Period. Although dated, the new edition is due out any soon, it is still extremely useful for all things related to Belgium beer travel.

 

lots of good info here, thanks to everyone

 

Count me in for that bottleshare!

 

When/Where will you be in Germany?

 

Here are some of my favorite cafes and restaurants in Brussels. There are numerous others and the best thing you can do is buy a copy of Around Brussels in 80 Beers, by Joe Stange and Yvan De Baets. Unless you will be spending significant time outside of Brussels, I'd buy this over Tim Webb's guide as it's got much more Brussels info. It's indispensible if you'll be spending time there. It's expensive on Amazon, but the Waterstone's bookstore in the city center shopping district has it for 13 euros. Google map the cafes and locate on a good street map. Check opening hours - many places close early part of week. Have fun and explore.

Cafes:

le Bier Circus
57 Rue de l'Enseignement
One of the best beer lists at 200+. Spend an evening sitting at the small bar in the back and ask owner Patrick for recommendations. Check hours, closed Sun., Mon.

Monk
42 Rue Sainte-Catherine
Was a classic old brown cafe near city center but away from tourists. They tore out the great old wooden bar and replaced it with a modern one. Really changed the atmosphere. Still worth stopping if nearby.

la Fleur en Papier Dore
55 Rue des Alexiens
old, historic small cafe that is only place in city with Oud Beersel Lambic. Amazing interior.

Brocante
170 Rue Blaes
Great cafe in Marolles area that specializes in lambics. Great atmosphere.

l'Ultime Atome
14 Rue Saint Boniface(Ixelles district)
See my review. Great area with no tourists. Go in late pm or evening.

Cafe Belga
Place Eugene Flagey(Ixelles)

Restaurants with beer cuisine:

le Brassins
36 Rue Keyenveld(Ixelles)
Amazing, reasonably priced, food and good beer list. Can walk to/from l'Ultime Atome.

Restobieres
9 Rue des Renards
Great funky atmosphere and fantastic food. Deserts are excellent. Afterward you can walk down street a couple blocks to Brocante.
http://www.restobieres.eu/index.php?lang=en

 

thanks @Tut !!

 

Given you've only got four days, I'd pass on Delirium Cafe unless you enjoy college bar atmospheres. It's also right in the middle of the tackiest, tourist trap area in Brussels, with lots of pricy, touristy, rip off restaurants. There are just too many more interesting cafes and areas to explore.

I know Delirium get's lots of rave reviews here - here's mine to provide a different viewpoint:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/8986/?view=ratings&ba=Tut