SF to Brussels

Obvious advice is obvious https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/places/city/brussels/0/23/

I've been to most of the top places, and they're all worth checking out in their own way.

 

Cantillon - http://www.cantillon.be/br/3_1
Moeder Lambic Fontainas - http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/21739/?view=ratings
Le Poechenellekelder - http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3709/?view=ratings

Cantillon is a must. I was blown away by the place! The self tour is a reasonable €7 and you will get to sample two beers at the end. Of course you can also enjoy some beers there too, many of which you won't find easily outside of the brewery and at reasonable prices.

Moeder Lambic is also a great spot. Good service and knowledgeable staff. Around 30-40 beers on tap most of which are Belgian with a decent but pricey bottle list (Vintages, rarities, etc).

Le Poechenellekelder right across from Manneken Pis is also a great experience. Quirky little place with hanging puppets and really cool decor. Nice bottle list (60+) and good vibes.

Though reluctant to recommend it, the Delirium Cafe may be of interest to you. Boasts a really big selection, though most of the goodies are found on the bottle list and many times not found at all!

Enjoy

 

Don't always agree with some on here about Brussels, however our favourites were,

1. Monk - Great range on draught, excellent service and lovely place.
2. Le Poechenellekellder - Great range of bottles, nice food, quirky.
3. Neutnigenough - Small, but good beer range and good food.
4. Cantillon - Obvious is obvious, beer was fantastic, but had a bad experience en-route, kinda put us off.
5. Delirium Café - Strange choice because the first day we went there we sat upstairs where the staff were rude and the place was full of drunk tourists. Second time we went in, we sat downstairs and the staff couldn't have been more helpful, even suggesting beers we should try.

We were desperate to go to Moeder Lambic and it was one of our first ports of call. After being shown to a table, we then waited an age for a waiter to take our order, then waited even longer to actually being served. 45 mins from sitting down to receive 2 beers and a clod plate of mixed meats and cheese. Beer and food was great when they arrived, but we we'd had enough by then.

Go and enjoy yourself, there's plenty of beer to try.

 

Quite close to South station (and not so far from Cantillon) is an area called “Parvis de St Gilles” (tram stops there, or a cab can drop you there). It’s a nice square with an old church and about a dozen bars, in the summer it’s packed with people sitting outside. Very few tourists.

There’s a bar called “l’égalité”, meaning “the equaliy”. They have a big fridge with all their beers on display and you can grab what you want. Much nicer than staring at a beer menu. Though they don’t have tons of special beers, they do usually have some cantillons, pannepot, westvleteren, and all the usual suspects



It’s a nice place not known by many tourists so I thought I’d mention it.

 

Aw, you let the secret out.......................

 

Good call on the place but I'd say that's actually a pretty darn good bar selection. Maybe not chock full of whalez sought from abroad but any visitor would find plenty of worthwhile stuff to explore. Actually that's true of most bars, so I often say, if you see a nice looking place on a fetching street corner, just stop in, nevermind if it's not a landmark spots.

 

Damn, why didn't you guys post this in the spring? That place looks awesome and we loved that neighborhood.

 

We walked through that square after suffering through the Victor Horta "museum" and thought about stopping but didn't. I would have liked to explore Sint-Gilles more but there was some big carnival (and crowd) we had to navigate each time we ventured that way. Does anyone have any other suggestions for that area?

 

OK, that's one vote against the Horta house (which I love but concede it's not always a crowd-pleaser). While you're by the museum, by the new, the new addition to the neighborhood is l'AuBiereGiste or however they spell/capitalize it. Legit-looking selections on the tables when I passed by earlier today. I haven't been in, yet. Otherwise, from Parvis de St Gilles, downhill on Ave. Jean Volders there's the classic Porteuse d'Eau -- but if you didn't dig the Horta house, avert your eyes, because it's more of the same architecture -- and, incidentally, the Malt Attacks shop. Obviously you know Moeder but if you were to keep going uphill, you'd come to Bar du Matin, a cool joint with enough selection for an evening without exactly lots of rarities.

 

BTW where are you staying, and do you have other fixed spots on your itinerary, in order to build recs around?

 

Some of this is retreading old ground, some newish... Ixelles covers a certain amount of territory so it depends what neighborhood.

East of Ave. Louise: Around Place Flagey, the beer-ier spots are Cafe Belga in the ship-looking building on the square, Black Sheep around the corner on Chaussee de Boondael, L'Amère à Boire around the corner from that on whatever that street (basically it's on the opposite side of the block from Belga), and the Malting Pot beer shop on rue Malibran. One of the cheese vendors at the weekend market there openly sells (bootlegs?) Westvleteren. Around Place Fernand Coq, De Haus is the newer choice for beer and gin (so you know they're hip), and older-schooler Volle Gas as a passable brasserie with a couple more than the usual beers. A bit north of there is Les Brassins for excellent belge grub with a fine list, and then over into Matonge, there's l'Ultime Atome with a decent list and food with better atmosphere, and the Beer Mania shop that also serves a very good list from its stock. Further east into Place de Londres, there's London Calling for the expats (could be said about most of the above, really) and Stoemelings for old-school atmosphere. Down south by the university, L'Atelier is the classic spot.

West of Louise: up north by the swank shopping, Mig's wine shop on Chaussee de Charleroi stocks a good selection of beer. Lots of bars and such around there, nothing I can recall ever warming up to. Down around Place du Chatelain is probably the best concentration of dining in town, if you're not insisting on traditional Belgian cuisine (in which case the center and St. Catherine), and a vibrant bar scene down rue de Baili and nearby streets from the up to Place Brugmann. We need more beer-centric spots, though. L'auBieregiste on rue l'Aqueduc is trying to fill the void. Le Chatelain on the square is fine and you'll find enough variety for a session pretty much anywhere.

There's the surface, scratched...