After having read some glowing reviews of this place on TripAdvisor, I made sure to come here on my last day in Brugges after visiting the Béguinage (cloister) for lunch and some beers.
I think my disappointment really stems from the fact that this place really is just a pub that also will serve food from the restaurant next door, whereas I was mostly there to eat.
It also seemed like the normal staff were on vacation and we were served by someone who was brand new to the staff and not well trained or knowledgeable about the beer selection. We got there around 12:15 (the place opened at Noon) and he was still running around doing opening tasks, which interfered with his ability to serve us. There was a lot of running back and forth from the shop next door to the bar, and uncertainty over what's on the menu, and a few other little things that made it just a bit awkward.
I wasn't too fond of the interior decor either, it felt very claustrophobic and cluttered in the front room, with a low ceiling and all sorts of things glued to it to make it even lower. The music that was a bit too loud and felt like it was trying to create a "party" atmosphere that wasn't a good fit for midday lunch hour. It seemed like a good place to go for drinks during an evening out with friends, but just not the right character for a calm lunch. The back room seemed a bit more relaxed, with less random things glued to the walls and a higher ceiling, but still too dark so we opted for sitting at a table in front.
Overall the beer selection was pretty decent, save for the kriek. I had been enjoying the variety of kriek beers (cherry lambic) while in Brugge and the one kriek they had here was the most boring of any I'd tried during my visit. It wasn't sour, but it wasn't very sweet either and had very little body or character at all, it tasted rather watery. The other beers we tried there were pretty good but it was a bit of a gamble whenever we ordered since the server couldn't tell us much about them.
Their own menu offers a meager selection of snacks, but the more substantial food actually comes from the restaurant next door, De Poulin, and was really superb. As you can probably tell from the name, the menu is mostly chicken, and they really know how to do chicken well. They also serve pork ribs, though I didn't try those.
All in all, had I known that the wonderful food that people were praising in reviews for this place actually came from the place next door, which also has quite a decent selection of beers, I probably would have just gone to De Poulin and saved our server from having to run back and forth from the pub to the next door restaurant numerous times. (It seems like they could streamline that process a bit more and save the poor server some running around.) read more