Belgian Beer Café

European theme bar with a varied drinks menu 1 Reviews

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Walk into the Intercontinental’s new Belgian Beer Café and a sense of Europe slaps you across the face like an EU directive. From the shiny trumpet, weathered leather satchels, amusing postcards and hundreds of other eye-catching clutter hanging from the coat stands and walls, everything is authentic; flown in directly from the land of chocolates and French-haters itself.

And the imports don’t stop at the trinkets. All the food, wines and obviously the competitively priced beers are strictly Belgian (including Stella for the less adventurous), right down to the correct glasses for the different brews. Indeed, the management plan to introduce Belgian drinking traditions too, such as ‘the shoe stealer.’ No, we didn’t have a clue what it was either until we asked a Belgian friend. Apparently, when you order a certain beer, it comes in a huge, expensive glass. So when barmen serve it they ask the customer to take off a shoe, kept in a same-sized glass until they finish their drink. (Note to self: remember to wear matching socks.)

We were lucky enough to preview the place ahead of its scheduled January 2 launch. Even punterless, the cosy space had atmosphere. We could easily imagine it packed with Saturday brunchers or the Thursday post-work, loosened-tie crowd, with every one of the 120 seats filled and the al fresco Creekside terrace taken – quite probably, with plenty of shoeless men.

• Previous reviews
  • 13 January,2009- reviewed by Daisy Carrington

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