EBG Rating: 7.6/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️
Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️
Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️

Description:
Always hovering around an inclusion as far back as our first visits around 2014.

Based in ancient 13th century vaults which were formerly a cooperage, as you enter, the gothic vaulting will genuinely take your breath away – it’s that level of Medieval preservation Bruges can just keep on delivering. These were restored for future generations in the 1970s.

This is heavily leaned on by the current pub’s current operators, as well as it’s enormous menu of draft beers.

Why then the nervousness around its inclusion?

In times past the venue was very smoky although at least that has since disappeared. The beers and operation are pitched at foreign tourists and the atmosphere is more obnoxiously UK/US inside than I would ideally wish for – the balance elsewhere seems fairer. The staff also appear tired and unhappy whenever I’ve been, while the prices are certainly a little higher too.

All of that adds up to a conflicting mixture that had been causing me to reassess over and over.

Ultimately it has made it on to the list because you can’t argue with the selection of drinks or the skeleton of the venue itself, even if the operation and audience detracts from fulfilling its true potential.

(Added October 2026)