Under no circumstances you should go to this place. First of all, their food menu is very limited,…read moreit is incredibly overpriced, and they must buy their cheese from a supermarket and just plop it on a plate. Second, the waiters are very rude. Their English is very limited and I have just witnessed one of them yelling at a customer. Third, while their beer is extensive, most of them are way overpriced compared to the rest of Ghent. This place is famous for serving over two hundred beers but honestly who wants to be treated poorly with mediocre service and terrible and overpriced snacks?

We came here for a beer and some snacks after touring Gravensteen castle. It was Assumption Day so…read morethe place was packed and they definitely did not have enough staff working. We snagged a table closer to the water and ordered a Delirium Tremens, a Chimay, a dry sausage, and their cheese spread. The beers, of course, are the best, as they have been this entire trip. The food was subpar. The sausage was hard and quite chewy and while we enjoyed the three different cheeses, the bread seemed like it came out of a bag. Needless to say, service was harried and everything took forever. Still, this was a nice place to sit by the water and watch the people go by. You better love people smoking in your face though. Three stars.

We arrived at a super busy time and we're given the appropriate beer as we were looking for…read moresomething super Belgian. Martin came through for us! Delicious beers, and great staff and the ambience is super funky.

This was definitely my favourite place in all of Ghent. During our one week stay, we came back like…read morefour times. THE BEER IS AMAZING! First off, the look and design: the place is troll themed -it's whimsical and weird, in the best way possible. It has a very fantasy/medieval tavern feel to it, with gnomes and trolls EVERYWHERE. There are neat paintings, beer mugs and steins hanging about, and three floors, each with their own little sections if you want less noise. The third floor is less troll themed, and more 1800s-ish for on of the rooms. Second, the beer selection is absolutely incredible. There are so many beers, you'll get lost in the choices. There were two guys working there, both quite friendly and helpful. One of them (the leaner, taller one), was super knowledgeable about their selection, and was awesome at explaining how each beer tastes as well as choosing something for us based on what we said we generally like. Which brings me to the last point : cherry beer. If you are anywhere in Belgium, definitely, definitely, definitely try some cherry beer!!! Generally, they are much less sweet than cherry cider, and especially the Belgian ones have an almost vinegar-y taste to them (lambic beers do in general). This specific bar has quite a few cherry beers. I personally love the sour cherry beers, so the bartender guy I mentioned recommended several sour cherry beers, and I loved all of them. My favourite was 'Hof ten Dormaal kriek- sour', although the 'Kriek Girardin' was also quite awesome (but even more vinegar-y / lambic tasting). Out of curiosity, my boyfriend wanted to try the much sweeter but stronger in alcohol cherry beer on tap, which the guy recommended against, and I personally really didn't like it, while my boyfriend loved it (the bartender guy said "I told you so" ). Anyway, they have lots of other beers on tap, like lambic, Belgian IPAs, trapist, etc. Definitely try some Belgian beer while in Belgium- it's so different from other beer. I'm not a huge beer lover, but Belgian beer (especially Belgian sour cherry beer) has me completely hooked and missing it when I'm back home.

Fun atmosphere... blend of locals and tourists. The novelty of 1.5L beer and shoe deposit is fun…read more.. 500+ beers to choose from is overwhelming.

Pretty cool bar to stop in and grab a beer in Ghent!…read more There is a large selection to choose from so I asked the bartender for a suggestion! I tried the local beer and it was tasty! The decor is very all over and cool! So much to look at! There is a lot of seating inside and through the back!

They have 20 taps. They have 20 GREAT taps. This is Ghent. Ghent is in Belgium, where they brew…read morea lot of great beer. This is not the touristy side of Ghent where they try to please mass-production tastes while also fleecing the aspiring Belgian beer fan. This is a superb selection of superb brews at really nice prices, and portion sizes are ample. This is a world-class beer bar. The service is respectful, but if you show some warmth, the warmth is returned. The place is hard to find if you take public transportation - - I almost passed by thinking it was closed till seeing the entrance tucked around the back from across the canal. The atmosphere is sleek in spots, sweet funky in other spots, and the written beer list is augmented by a chalk board with recent arrivals. Go here if you are not into tourist hype, but just want to choose from a great selection of Belgian beers at prices that put the rest of world-class beer bars to shame (in other words: a Belgian beer bar of your price/selection dreams). There's an Indonesian take out-place a couple blocks east if you want to cap it all off nicely.

Worth the walk from city center for sure, if you like beer. 20 taps, to say nothing of the bottle…read moreselection. Friendly bartender, excellent conversation, excellent recommendations. Just what I hoped to find in a brief trip through Belgium.

Happened upon this place quite by accident when exploring the quaint Patershol area. This place is…read morean EXPERIENCE. It looks like a quirky café from the outside, it's called a "museum" officially, but let's be honest: it's a hoarding hobbit hole drowning in a million artifacts displayed with an authentic shire smell of crackling fireplace smoke. FANTASTIC! It's not 'business as usual' here, but if you pop your head in (& it fits), succumb to Lieven's invite and share a beer you'll never forget!

The maddest pub in the world. Lieven de Vos owns this mad…read morepub which has bikes hanging from the ceiling, and all sorts of other stuff too. Shake hands with the boss, he'll choose your beer according to the quality of your handshake. Not to be missed.

Stopped here for a quick coffee in the morning. They don't serve food in the morning so coffee stop…read moreonly. Will be back in the evening for their beer

This was a teeny bar in a busy square, and while it has a cool history of being the smallest bar,…read morethere isn't much here. We stopped by in the morning for coffee and sat outside on their patio. The coffee was good, though they do not serve food so we ended up leaving after we finished our coffees to find another place nearby to grab a pastry.

After years of conniving about how to make a quick trip to Belgium and bring back a suitcase full…read moreof beer, De Hopduvel has become mecca. The prices are warehouse. There are other great warehouse beer outlets in Belgium, but this one you can get to by streetcar. The others you all need a car, car. Much cheaper than the beer shops in central Brussels, you also get to hang in Ghent, which is the best city in Belgium (more casual and more enchanting than Brussels, but not overrun by tourists like Bruges). I looked up their selection before going to pick out what to get. This visit, I stayed at an Airbnb right across the canal from de Hopduvel, had a couple days of tourism, and then loaded up the bags with loot from de Hopduvel (at top in picture). The streetcar then takes you right to the train station.

If this beer shop did mail order, I would be an alcoholic…read more It's a short walk away from a Hopduvel pub but it's not clear if they're related- possibly not, since when we visited the pub most things were out of stock, but when we visited this beer shop everything was quite definitely IN stock. It's a stockist of many many hundreds of beers, most of them Belgian, and beer-related goods such as glasses from dozens of different manufacturers, beer-making equipment and a few bits of memorabilia. The prices are excellent- just round the corner in the tourist heart of Ghent you could be paying up to 10 Euros for some of the more special lambics and gueuzes, yet in here most of the bottles are under 3 Euros each, many under 2 Euros. An absolute bargain. We took home as much as we could possibly carry. It's open to the public, they don't seem fussy about wholesale though there is a separate wholesale section. Beware the opening times though- they do close down for lunch every day, which I think is between 12.30 and 1.30. It feels a bit like a cheap supermarket, with cardboard boxes piled up from the floor, and some hand-written label notes. There is a small section of soft drinks, which is mainly bottled water. There's no guidance about 'best' beers or any real promotion of one beer above another- if you don't know much about Belgian beers you might want to read up on it first to make sure you don't buy the wrong ones... It's a minefield out there, with some absolutely amazing drinks, but a few not so good ones. I wish this shop was within walking distance of my house. If it were, I would be so drunk and happy I wouldn't be able to type.

Amazing view of the river and cute patio. Delicious beer list, prices are good. $4-6 for a beer…read more Great little local place!!! Highly recommend!!

I liked the place. It was tourist season, so they were hustling us along. The view is terrific if…read morethe weather is good, and it provides a good stop for those of us who walked all over town.

Of course the 1898 would have a wonderful bar! I received drink tickets through my hotel booking,…read morebut ended up staying for another round and snacks, as the vibe was really cute! I wish I was in to craft cocktails a bit more, because they all looked amazing and thoughtfully put together.

A super popular, high end cocktail bar in the beautiful (hogwarts-like) post hotel. There's usually…read morea line to enjoy these creative concoctions so you may have to wait. The place is pretty small. Tip: they save a couple of tables for hotel guests so be sure to let them know if you are a guest (like us!) We tried a couple delicious cocktails-Birds and the bees, (gin-bases) and Lucky Luke (bourbon-centric). Not cheap but hey, it's just money, you can make more, plus you are on holiday-it's ok to live a little. The 18c science / cobbler shop is a plus too. There's even a real fireplace that was in use on a chilly night in December but this place is the very definition of cozy. Highly recommended