leuven belgian beer cafe

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

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

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

themusselslooked 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 themusselshave been way overcooked. why?! it can’t be that hard surely.

a 3/5 rating seems about right.

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

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 themusselsare 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 cheesemusselsand 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 doublemusselson 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.

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 themusselsequally so. just be hungry!

we had a family brunch one saturday morning. the kids had waffles and the adults shared 2 pots ofmussels(yep hadmusselsfor brunch). both were delicious. the service was warm and friendly and food was delicious. we felt themusselswere a tad overcooked, so a bit chewy. didn't bother us too much. normally i'd give this place 4 stars, but on this occasion i've given it 3. we'll be back though.

themusselswere gigantic in size compared to the ones i had back home in perth. i was in heaven as themusselscame with hot crunchy frites. my darling loved his burger too.

moules & frites are the order of the day here (other choices too of course!).

i am not a fan ofmusselsbut do enjoy the way they are served here.  excellent washed down with a chimay or similar belgian brew.

leuven is also a good spot for breakfast in what is a pretty devoid part of town for choices.

went with five friends for two for one mussel night on a monday night recently and was impressed with the food and service. i don’t likemusselsso my friends divided the 6th pot ofmusselsbetween them and i had the venison burger. my pals said themusselswere delicious and that the fries which accompanied them were fresh and tasty. my burger was delicious. my problem with the burger was that it hadn’t been constructed very well. at one end of the burger was the venison pattie and at the other end was half a poached pear. so i had to cut the both the pattie and pear in half and reconstruct it. it was quite fiddly and i’m not sure why they had made it this way. nevertheless, it was really yummy. i brought a cake along as it was my friend’s birthday. they were really helpful about the cake and didn’t charge us a cake fee. the service was very friendly and attentive. i’d definitely come back here!

belgian cuisine is a mix of local regional dishes mixed with those from neighbouring france, germany and the netherlands. the plethora of belgian beer bars in new zealand and australia capitalises on a brilliant range of belgian beer coupled to reasonably hearty eclectic fare.

leuven, like the others, is not high end gastronomy. however on a saturday afternoon in winter after shopping in town it is nice to come here for a beer and snack before heading home.

the decor is ... well ... belgian beer bar decor - a clever wood panelled space, usually with a few old oddments or tin signs that try to give a european feel. once you've been into one you'll recognise the others.

the beer list is great but there are some gaps and it's my impression that it may be time for a few additions to keep up with craft beer fashion - geuze for example or higher end flavoured beers. everything on the belgian list is highly drinkable but watch the abv%.

food - i try to go for something traditional (what's the point of doing anything else here) so my eyes usually rest on things like herring, stoemp, oxtail, flemish beef stew. i also love meat loaf so i've had that a couple of times too.

the national dish of belgium ismusselsand fries moules-frite so you have to try them at least once. although traditionally steamed with onion and celery - moules nature - exotic bases also have appeared such as coconut and lime.

seating is wooden - pretty hard, but after a 9% beer your anatomy becomes less sensitive. the space is cosy and, when it's cold outside, the beer, frites andmusselscan make the world seem a very pleasant place to be - for a little while anyway.

always great food at leuven so thought it was time i did a review. this is a favourite place for my mussel loving partner and he always has the grilledmusselswith wilted spinach, bacon & cheese and rates this highly. big portion as well!

i don't likemusselsmyself, but there is always something else good to choose from. the meat loaf is always great. this time i had the pork belly salad which was devine.

as some reviewers have said - and i agree - the service is a bit rushed, but to be fair, it was lunch time so they probably working on the assumption most people have less than an hour to eat and get back to work. sure can't fault the food.

we went here for my dad's birthday not long ago. it was quite noisy, but i suppose this is expected for a restaurant/pub. the service was ok, the staff were nice but kept forgetting we had asked for water and bought my mother the wrong glass of wine. we then had to request the one she asked for originally again, they did not bring it out to us themselves. the fourth waiter we asked for water finally brought us some. i had themusselsand chips which i enjoyed, but could not finish. the portion was huge. the lamb salad that my mother ordered was sub-par, basically just a mountain of mesclun lettuce leaves, and the fish cakes that my father ordered were very bland.

moules, frites et bière - the classic belgian combination. and this is indeed the classic belgian beer bar, no monks lurching around in roman sandals after imbibing a little too much of their own home brew, but otherwise the complete package. i ordered the moules au safran, a generous serving of green lippedmusselsserved with a cone of chips and perfectly washed down with a bottle of duvel. if only every weekday lunch could be so civil... my colleagues all seemed to be enjoying their food as well, and weren't even able to finish everything which was frankly amazing as we have some decent appetites in the team. it is quite noisy which is pretty much the norm for these bars - all that authentic looking wood also makes one heck of a good amplifier - so don't come here looking to whisper sweet nothings into your beloved's ear, you'd need to bring an ear horn with you which might spoil the romance a little :o

the food is ok, nothing to jump up and down about since we're talking belgian pub and various mussel dishes with fries and aioli. the last time i ate here, themusselswere also overcooked.

the service is horrendous, though. the servers look like they're completely overwhelmed (even if there aren't that many people in the pub) and there's confusion as to who takes the order, who clears the plates, who brings the food, etc etc etc etc...

management really needs to take control of the situation and provide some training before unleashing their wild and bewildered staff onto the legions of rwc revelers because, really, the combinations of drunk rugby fans and freaked out waitstaff is like throwing a lit match into a tinderbox. in other words...funny.

the atmosphere is dark wood-paneled pub circa 1995.

the beers are delicious, though, and there's quite a nice selection of belgian brews. 2 stars for that.