Saturday night in Saint Gilles, Brussels

Saint-Gilles lies south of Brussels Midi / Zuid station and the city's Petite Ceinture inner ring road. It's easy to reach by Premetro lines 4 and 10 with routes southwards via Gare du Nord and Gare du Midi.

There are many Art Nouveau buildings in the neighbourhood. Landmarks include Porte de Hal / Halle Gate in the south, Saint-Gilles church at the west end of a broad plaza 'Parvis Saint-Gilles', the Barriere roundabout with a central La Porteuse d'Eau statue where seven roads meet and the Town Hall 'Administration' building (photo below). 

Moeder Lambic Original

On Saturday 8 March 2025, after spending two nights within a half mile radius of the Grand Place, our group agreed to go further afield for the last night of a long weekend trip. Jeff wanted to visit the original Moeder Lambic bar and Tim suggested travelling to the Albert stop which is at a high point in this sloping neighbourhood.

Heading downhill from 'Albert' along Rue Arthur Diderich we reached Moeder Lambic, Rue de Savoie 68, at 7.30pm. Only one outside table was free but a group was leaving as we arrived, freeing up tables inside. The furniture is made from chunky pale wood in a distinctive style.

The draught beer and snacks menu on a blackboard above the bar offers a wide range of styles including six Lambics and Bieres Acides. Two 'Les Pintes du Mois' are keenly priced at €6.50 for 50cl.

Our choices included Harmony (Brasserie des Legendes 6% ABV, in foreground, from Bieres Douces section) and Berliner Bros (Brasserie de la Mule, in the straight glass). There is another Moeder Lambic bar at Place Fontainas 8 in Brussels. We could easily have spent longer at this original bar but the novelty of a different bar also appealed.

Brasserie Verschueren

A longer walk downhill, past the Town Hall (top photo) and then past the Barriere roundabout, continuing past Snack Murat on Chaus. de Waterloo, brought us to Brasserie Verschueren on Parvis Saint-Gilles near the church.

The many outside tables were busy but we found a good table near an open window and ordered beers at the bar before a queue developed at this busy bar where drinks are quickly served. A relatively short list on the blackboard above the bar makes the choice easier. Rich chose a bottle of Tripel Verschueren (Brasserie de la Senne) and Tim chose draught Verschueren Saison (Brasserie De Ranke) which was tasting especially good.

The football league table on the wall at the far end of the bar is one of the special features here. We could have spent longer here but we needed a meal at this point.

La Porteuse d'Eau

We had decided to try La Porteuse d'Eau with its broad menu that included Mussels and Frites. It is only 200 metres down Avenue Jean Volders and features Art Nouveau windows and an illuminated sign of the girl carrying water who is also featured in the central statue at the Barriere roundabout.

The good news was that a round table seating five was available on the first floor up a spiral staircase and underneath a colourful stained glass dome. The bad news was that mussels were off the menu tonight. 

Rich and Mike consulting the menu

We started with a drinks order and consulted our menus. While Tim chose Hopus, Rich chose Rodenbach Alexander, Mike chose a Trappistes Rochefort, Jeff chose Rodenbach Classic and Pat switched to red wine. There was general satisfaction with our meals when they arrived but Tim would have liked more gravy with his Stoemp and sausage! However, the art nouveau decor and surroundings were hard to fault.

Brasserie de l'Union

Leaving the restaurant just before 11pm, left us with time for a beer at Brasserie de l'Union, a short walk back to Parvis Saint-Gilles and then a left turn to the east end of the lively pedestrian plaza where it's located at the junction with Rue de Moscou.

Rich and Mike pour their Flanders Red beers

While Pat switched again to Pastis, Rich and Mike stuck with Flanders Red beers and Tim enjoyed a Tripel Karmeliet. Brasserie de l'Union has links with Royale Union Saint-Gilloise football club. 

The small board with the menu of the day included some good value options with payment in cash suggested.

A short walk down Rue de Moscou, then Rue de la Victoire and then west along Av. de la Porte de Hal would bring us to a Metro entrance after passing the floodlit Porte de Hal, set in gardens, around midnight. 

This had been Jeff, Mike, Pat and Rich's last night in Brussels but Tim stayed on for an extra day in Belgium, allowing for a visit to Ghent on a sunny Sunday and described in a Ghent on foot blog post. 

Brussels (Marolles & Saint-Gilles) - Monday 1 July 2019

Visits to La Brocante (Marolles), Brasserie Égalité and Brasserie de l'Union (Saint-Gilles) would round off our fifth and final day in Belgium.

On the way from Hotel Barry, Place Anneessens 25 to La Brocante, Rue Blaes 170, Steve and I passed the impressive Palais du Vin. The art nouveau style warehouse building has been recently renovated since construction in 1909.

Walking up Rue des Capucins, we passed the Léonard mural by Turk and De Groot where the actual Palace of Justice (featured in the painting) is also visible in the distance.

We passed La Brocante and made a quick tour of the daily market held in Place du Jeu de Balle.

Returning to La Brocante, on the corner of the market place, we found a table and looked through the menu card.

Eventually a waiter found time to take our order. Steve ordered an Oude Kriek from Oud Beersel but as it was only 11.30am I ordered tomato juice and a ham and cheese sandwich.

2/3 remainder of baguette sandwich - saved for later!

The large baguette sandwich was good value (4.20 euro) and freshly made. We didn't see the cafe's cat today but see Tim's post from 22 March 2019 for more photos from La Brocante including its cat.

Getting a WhatsApp message from Keith alerted us that his group had arrived at our rendezvous point Brasserie Égalité so we headed to Saint-Gilles via the gardens around Porte de Hal and then up Chaussée de Waterloo.

Égalité is one of the Saint-Gilles bars featured in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide Belgium by Joe Stange & Tim Webb.

Brasserie Egalite - Steve arriving as Keith, John & Richard are seated outside.

Brasserie Égalité, Parvis de Saint-Gilles 47, is open most hours of the day and night. 

We arrived just in time to find beers from the large refrigerated display before access was temporarily suspended for an interior cleaning exercise. 

I had been on the look out for Brasserie de la Senne Bruxellensis but picked up a bottle of Brusseleir by mistake. However, this 8% ABV black IPA proved to be an excellent alternative!

From our table outside, the five of us had a good view west towards the church of St Giles which gives the neighbourhood its name. The temperature had dropped since the weekend and it was a bit windy so once the cleaning exercise was completed we found a table inside near the front windows.

Reverting to Saisons, my next beer was a bottle of Saison Voisin from Brasserie des Legendes. 
This is a bar for people who know what beers they will like and can choose a bottle from the fridge but is less suited to anyone seeking advice on what beer to drink.

Brasserie de l'Union (photo 25/3/2019)

The visit to Saint-Gilles had been my idea and for the next bar I suggested either Brasserie Verschueren, by the church, or Brasserie de l'Union a few doors away at the east end of Parvis de Saint-Gilles / Sint-Gillisvorplein. Dear reader, we opted for Brasserie de l'Union.

Arriving at 2.30pm, after the lunchtime trade, we were able to find a table inside.  Our animated waiter was wearing a Brussels Beer Project t-shirt. Unlike our earlier experience we now had advice and strongly held opinions from a beer connoisseur and champion of small local breweries. As well as bottled Saisons from L'Annexe, 

I followed our waiter's advice to have their draught Saison de Bruxelles (6% ABV), served from a surplus keg from a recent party organised by the nearby nanobrewery.
This was a good final beer on my annual Antwerp / Brussels trip. Now there was only time to retrieve luggage from Hotel Barry before catching the 16.56 Eurostar back to London St Pancras International. 

Leaving Saint-Gilles, I passed by Brasserie / Restaurant La Porteuse d'Eau, Jean Volders Avenue 48, another bar featured in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide Belgium and now marked for a future visit.

Tim Webb / Joe Stange comment in the Guide 'It's an (Art Nouveau) imitation, faux Horta, but who's checking? More obviously authentic is the list of 70+ beers with goodies from Dupont, Lindemans and St. Bernardus.' 

Also nearby is Malt Attacks, a specialisst beer bottle shop, at Jean Volders Avenue 18. 

Steve would catch up with me at Brussels Midi / Zuid. John and Richard would return on a later Eurostar service and Keith would head back to Germany. 

Brasserie Verschueren (photo 22/3/2019)

I was glad to hear that before leaving Saint-Gilles, the latter three also had time to visit nearby Brasserie Verschueren where they met the bar's cat. Richard later commented '... St Gilles was fantastic, relaxing and a nice change from the tourism of the centre.  Three excellent bars and one indifferent cat, with more on the list for next time.  So convenient for the centre, a nice place to live I'd say, and everyone that passed along that street seemed to know everyone else.  Maybe a nice area to stay in future.'