Usually we know or discover a venue first, and then visit it to find out which beers — and possibly food — they’re serving in that venue. In the case of Contrebande however, it was a Facebook post by brewery L’Ermitage about one of their beers being used in a dish, that put us on the trail of this new bar in Ixelles. It’s a lovely new place, and as we expected, the beer list was rather interesting. So interesting in fact, we initially overlooked one little but important detail: Contrebande is a bar without beer taps…
Bites
Places where you can go for lunch or dinner, and enjoy a nice beer with it.
Monk
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
For years, Monk has been a reference point in the nightlife of Brussels centre, especially for the Dutch speaking community of the city. Live music, great beers and booze, plenty of space and a huge bar counter. In 2012, it all ended, and for a year, the curtains were closed. It did reopen eventually, however, and with new owners and a slightly tweaked concept — adding spaghetti to the mix — the bar managed to lure many of the old customers back, and a lot of new ones as well.
Pin Pon
UPDATE: Closed, and was replaced by a Broebbeleir.
It was about time we wrote something about a place serving dinner again, and one of the places we’ve been wanting to try for a while already, was Pin Pon, in the Marolles. Sure, we had been there a couple of times before, but only for drinks, never even having seen the restaurant space on the top floor.
This time we took the plunge and went up the stairs to try their kitchen as well. We weren’t disappointed!
KICK tap’ASS
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
The Rue de Laeken doesn’t seem to be the best of places to open a bar for some: geek bar Schrödinger’s Cat didn’t last very long, and Tapas Soif? didn’t remain open for very long either. However, the latter has risen as a phoenix — apparently there even was some actual fire involved — with a little help from crowdfunders, and is now serving Belgian tapas and beers again under the name KICK tap’ASS. Time to go back to try the tapas we missed out on during its previous incarnation!
Scott’s Bar
Scott’s Bar is a place we’ve been visiting every once and again for a while now. They have a nice beer selection, it’s quite nearby for us, it’s often open when other places are closed already, and when it’s sunny, the terrace is great – if you’re not bothered too much by this typical example of Brussels facadism!
Not too long ago, they installed an open kitchen next to the entrance and expanded the menu, so it was about time for us to try some food there as well.
Le Bier Circus
Le Bier Circus is one of those places you’ll find in a lot of tourist guides, offering exactly what a tourist would expect: typical Belgian dishes on the menu, and lots of Belgian beers to choose from. Coulrophobes be warned though: this place is full of clowns, as you would expect in a ‘circus’!
BALLEKES
Apart from carbonnades flamandes and stoemp, there are few dishes as Belgian as meatballs in tomato sauce. At the recently opened BALLEKES restaurant they do meatballs very well, but not just with tomato sauce! Other options you’ll have to try, are a cherry sauce, a mushroom sauce, a sauce with sirop de Liège, a trappist beer and chicon sauce, and a regularly changing special.
L’auBIÈREgiste
Update 1: There has been a change of management and name (now Ramdam).
Update 2: There has been another change, and of and concept as well now (now Clair Obscur), so the bar as described here, does no longer exist…
A bit hidden behind the Trinity church, at the border of Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, you can find a quaint, cosy bar, named L’auBIÈREgiste. The name of this bar is a play-on-words, putting bière in the middle of the word l’aubergiste – innkeeper – thereby shortening the popular phrase “A beer, innkeeper!” to just one word. However, in a bar with an offer like they have here, asking for just “a beer” will not suffice!
CHEZWaWa
Food places keep popping up in Brussels all the time, introducing cuisines from all over the world. We’ve seen Mexican or Tex-Mex on some restaurants before, but so far, they haven’t been able to impress us. Cali-Mex, or Californian Mexican however, was new to us, and I believe to Brussels.
After having tried this Cali-Mex food for the first time at CHEZWaWa, we’d say: welcome, and bring on the giant burritos, the soft tacos, and the hot salsa!
Viva M’Boma
Update: Out of business…
Viva M’Boma is not your typical restaurant, since it is specialised in offal dishes: livers, kidneys, tongues, intestines, cheeks, udders… For the less adventurous eaters, there are more familiar Belgian dishes on the menu as well, like stoemp saucisses and carbonnades Flamandes with chips.
We decided to have a mixed starter dish, consisting of boudin blanc, dry pork sausage, and bread with rillettes, followed by the ‘safe choice’ stoemp saucisses, and the fried liver with cream sauce and bacon. We thoroughly enjoyed al dishes served, and are curious to try some more!