Beer in Brussels

i bet you were yesterday in Antwerp ...

 

Nope, unless I've been sleepwalking . We did 3 nights in Bruges and currently in the middle of 5 nights in Brussels.

Beer related stuff we've done so far is the beer museum in Bruges (very cool), tour at Timmermans (really awesome, our tour guide was amazing), and Cantillon today (kind of a disappointment after Timmermans but still good). Planning to fill up my 12-pack shipper tomorrow, which currently has 9 bottles of assorted Cantillon. Thinking about Oud Beersel and 3F for the remaining 3. Maybe a Fantome depending on what I find. I saw 3 different Fantome brews in a bottle shop but I needed to look them up and didn't have time at the moment.

 

How is Brussels compared to Brugges?

 

Skip the Fantome and Oud Beersel.

I'd grab De Cam. Mountains of it.

 

Thanks, I'll be on the lookout.

As for Bruges vs Brussels, it's hard to compare them directly. Bruges was small and touristy and pretty much shut down after dinner, but it was very easy to get around with only English. Brussels is a sprawling metropolis, less picturesque, sometimes confusing to get around, hard to manage not speaking French, but it has its own charm. I've enjoyed both so far, they're just very different animals.

 

I disagree with your disagreement, but regardless, I'd be happy to share a beer with you on your next visit. Perhaps we could go to Delirium and have an Oude Beersel Lambic since they have it there too

"See my review. Ignore most recent review." Priceless!

 

You're surely welcome to your opinion of Delirium. I don't care whether they have Oude Beersel lambic, it's the atmosphere, location, and tourist clientele I dislike. Have you been to le Fleur in Papier Dore? It's a much more enjoyable place to drink one, IMO.
I made that comment because the reviewer based his unimpressive comments on a visit around noon on a Sunday - hardly a time to get a true picture of any cafe. I felt it was misleading because of that.
Here's what he said:

"The service was friendly and the joint was slowly filling up with families having Sunday lunch outings. I had their last bottle of 'De Konnick' and the wife a 'Palm'. Well behaved children now seemed to be the main customers, sat with their casually dressed young parents. We had eaten at a stall a little earlier, so didn't eat anything here. What food we saw however, looked good.
The beer list wasn't very interesting and although the bar is obviously popular with locals it isn't the sort of place a 'beerhunter' would find inspiring enough to stay long, so we left."

It's a totally different place in the later afternoon and evening, and that's why I recommended going then. It doesn't have the best beer list in Brussels, but it has plenty that can be enjoyed in a really cool Euro-modern atmosphere, and it's well away from the tourists. I enjoy meeting and talking with the young Belgians that fill the place. Have you been there?

 

I've spent months in Brussels and never had any difficulty from speaking English. Like elsewhere in Europe, it's everyone's second language.

 

I agree for the most part, but there were 2 restaurants we went where they didn't speak English. I don't know if I'm just unlucky or what, but we still figured it out.

 

And I'll add that both those events were on our first full day in Brussels, away from the usual tourist areas, so that colored my impressions quite a bit. We've spent the last couple days in museums and that's all been really easy. I think we just had some bad luck early on.

 

Purely out of local resident interest, where was the fight? Do you remember the place, or whereabouts? I think of Brussels as a bit messy and chaotic in some places, but not usually with a lot of throwin' down in the street, or in the bar, for that matter, and most of the policy sirens are the motorcades leaving EU territory -- in now way am I trying to change your mind, I'm just saying this for the sake of other potential visitors. That was rotten luck. Indifferent service, however, is reliable as the rain. Anyway, don't look back, there are a thousand other reasons to go elsewhere in Belgium on a return trip.

 

That's actually prime time for many a cafe. Families coming in for lunch and whatnot -- *that's* as much a part of the cafe as the later crowd. I just wouldn't want a future potential visitor to be put off. UA is a classic place, BTW. (Even further by the way, the later crowd is not some sort of Belgique profonde, it's a very varied mix of Europe expats, which is part of what makes Brussels fun.) It's not a place for beer-hunters to tick off whales, so actually the comment has its use for some readers, who can take in the whole sweep of views and decide for themselves. I suppose the tickers have Delirium by day...

 

I agree with you that Brussel is not one of the nicest towns to stay. I have been there several times and i am always glad i can leave that place. The people are not like the rest of Belgium. In the rest of Belgium you will feel at home....

 

Boo that I love Brussels. There's some pretty ugly neighbourhoods and people can be somewhat grumpy but that's just the surface you need to scratch.

 

I'm not gonne give to much comment on this but i disagree with you !
It's more then just the surface that needs to be scratched !

 

Sorry guys but Brussel is the toiletdrain of Europe. I just do not feel comfortable there.... But everyone has his own opinion!

 

And Cantillon is the toilet cleaner?

 

Correct.....