leuven belgian beer cafe

i pretty much only go here for the mussels as they are the best value in town. i send all my overseas visitors here to try them. service is pretty good too.

very nice!! good service, great drinks and yum food.
i come here all the time, breakfast, lunch and dinner - no matter what time you come here the food is always excellent.

this is a step by step walk through of our experience tonight.

we'll start with 10 points with additions and subtractions made based on my 7+ years in hospitality and experience in the basis and basics of how hospitality is done right. i have spent an excessive amount of time in the industry at the copthorne and millennium hotels and resorts all around canterbury.

nb. deductions made for negative experience.
additions made based only on an exceptional experience, other wise +0 for standards met.

°greeted at the door in an acceptable time frame. +0
°we were shown to a 4 seater table despite me seeing a clean and set 2 seater table without a reserved sign insight. -1
°weirdly she then went and got a menu and asked for our drinks. then she returned with a tab card and took my visa with her when she left. within the next 10 minutes 3 more tables were sat directly next to or very near us and they were not asked for a credit card nor given a tab. now me and my partner are 30 and 27 respectively. you can imagine how i felt. -5
° meals arrived in an acceptable time +0
° noone came back to ask how our meal was. top bun of meatloaf sandwich was well and truly overdone. and it wasn't until i glared at a waitress that it was given any attention. they offered to do something about it. too late. service too late and i was there to eat as i was hungry, not to wait. -2
°music was too loud. a friendly reminder to management. you are running some form of a restaurant/bar. not a nightclub.
°food presentation. ok. looks like i did it. -1
° food quality. carrots had burn marks round circumference from being heatednuked in a overheated pan. +0 still tasted good. steak was cooked to my liking for about 2/3rd of it. rest was medium to medium well owing to the poor cut of the meat. -1. chef should be able to cook/prepare steak correctly.

if you have read this far, i shouldn't need to summarize this review. by coming here you should expect to be disappointed.

this place is open weekend among many cafes closed. as we are tourists from auckland we just want to get lunch.  my lunch was rye breads, 4 mushrooms, porched egg and 2 spinach stalks on the plate over $20. my son had hash potato and bite size bacon and bread croutons star-fry in the bowl near $20 ( we didn't expect these) . it is belgian cafe, i was expect much more. i don't know this is wellington standard or not. it was so poor meal for what we paid.  if i go to wellington on weekend, i will search more eating place.

the brunch options go far beyond your normal eggs benedict. the price is very good considering you can buy the same thing from your local cafe but leuven offers more variety and also is very tasty. we also had dinner where everyone was extremely satisfied with their mussels. would definitely recommend and also come back! also remember to bring id if alone/with company.

character aplenty, great food and fantastic coffee. a word of warning though - only order the big breakfast if you are really hungry! very generous plating of some very tasty morsels. the weekday breakfast special, while not as hearty, at $9 is very hard to beat.

had lunch at leuven on a very recent trip to wellington. i ordered mussels with a blue cheese sauce.

service was fast and friendly notwithstanding it was busy in the middle on the day.

the mussels looked great - pity they were overcooked to the point where 1/2 of them had shrunk considerably. that’s the second time in two visits that the mussels have been way overcooked. why?! it can’t be that hard surely.

a 3/5 rating seems about right.

great main dishes. mussels are delicious and love the fish !!! good service and the staffs are nice . really recommend the mussel and sure will come back again!!

goedemorgen... ok, thanks to google that is as much dutch as i will attempt to know here but thought it apt for a visit to leuven.

popped in starving for a late brunch catch up on a fab-o welly day and walked out feeling satisfied and contemplating a second visit.

i havent been to belgium so no idea what the pubs are like but leuven is decorated with a particular style that makes me think they're trying to emulate that style. overall, the place is tidy however a mop of the floor to the bathroom was needed. it felt stickier than the back of duraseal cover.

the wait staff are helpful. ours was happy to provide me with a gf menu which was a surprise and super appreciated. they checked in to make sure we were ok and genuinely seemed to give a damn.

the food was good. i had an omelette with gf bread. the bread wasn't buttered and while i probably dont need the evil butter anyway, the toast seemed slightly redundant on the plate. the omelette was good; lots of mushrooms that had a smokey flavour. wasnt too overpowering but the chives did get slightly lost in the flavour combo.

i am still doing no caffeine so had decaffeinated. thank god there is only one week of this no caffeine challenge to go... my catch up buddy's looked good and he went back for a second if that gives any indication to caffeine goodness.

overall, decent visit. didn't knock it completely out of the park, but did a good job. will probably bring mr raerae here at some point...

i always love the food and beer here. the service is always warm and friendly. the brownie is so yum and i also loved the raspberry and apple pot pie! can’t fault anything really

as they have a mussel special on sunday and monday’s, my husband and i came to check it out as he has told em that the mussels are better in nz compared to sydney.

we were well looked after by the lovely staff who even let us sample some beer as we don’t have much experience with them. for mains we tried their blue cheese mussels and their white wine and garlic. they were definitely larger compared to sydney and they had good flavour but i prefer some of the stronger flavours they have back at home. still, it was a filling dinner and we couldn’t finish the two pots as it does become a bit too much in the end.

i usually only go here for double mussels on sunday’s and monday’s. had the coconut cream lemongrass ones and my
mate had the curry apple ones. very hearty. the fries and mayo are delish. had with a stella and a hoegaarden beer. dessert was nice - had house waffle with fruit and rhubarb crumble.

decided on a whim to eat here for dinner. place wasn't too busy, and a variety of families and couples eating there for dinner. our waiter didn't write our order down, which isn't usually a problem, however he had to come back to check what we ordered for a starter and then again for one of the mains. we were a couple dining so it wasn't a big order. unfortunately we were brought the wrong starter, but we chose to eat it anyway, and for some reason our side of chips came out with the starter. we were brought the "leuven crepes" which seemed to be enjoyed by number two at the table. our mains were "moules po pei" which was a very delicious meal, and "worst met stoemp" which was also enjoyed. the meals are of a very generous size, and starters would probably be best skipped due to this. we had a bit of a wait between our starters and mains, but one of the serving staff did come and initiate chasing this up for us apologise to us for the wait.

caught up with a few colleagues at the wellington branch, apparently leuven belgian beer cafe is a favoured spot due to its weekly breakfast special.

had the croque madam myself, a little pricey for essentially a toasted sandwich with an egg on top however it was a filling breakfast.

my toaster was crunchy and the smoked gruyere did make it a little more exciting compared to your basic blt sandwich. colleagues all loved the $8.50 weekly special and it’ll probably be my choice too in the future.

showstopper: weekly breakfast special

overall grade: b+

friendly service, and a pleasant shelter from a driving wet icy wellington day. caught up with friend over lunch. relaxed atmosphere, plenty of private space, efficient service and good drinks and food.

beware, even the small plates are quite substantial. apart from my excellent chicken and duck vol au vent having succumbed to the wind on one side, all was interesting, and the venison burger with poached pear a hit.

i usually enjoy sitting outside in the sun, but yesterday was not the day for that.

the beers are of course fantastic, and the mussels equally so. just be hungry!