Belgique Boutique W1

London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Bloomsbury, Euston and St Pancras

Update: This shop appears now to have closed (10/01/12).

Belgique Boutique W1

Shop (Belgique)
179 Tottenham Court Road W1T 7NZ
T (020) 7436 7006 Website www.belgique.co.uk
Open 1030-1830 (closed Sun).
Cask beers None, Other beers 100 bottles, gift packs (Belgian), Also A few Belgian genevers and spirits
Food Belgian cheese, charcuterie, chocolates and other specialities
Fri fortnightly beer tastings.

This boldly branded shop — think Hercule Poirot and the colours of the Belgian flag — on the Bloomsbury side of Tottenham Court Road is something of an unexpected find, an emporium of Belgian food and drink. The beer range, though not a treasurehouse of rarities, reaches notably beyond the mainstream, and at reasonable prices given the area. You’d expect to see Trappists (Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle) and the likes of Delirium Tremens, but there’s also Belgoo, Ellezelloise, Gouyasse, Proef’s Reinaert beers, Viven and one of the better Belgian pilsners, Slaghmuylder’s curiously named Slag Pils. Lambics, unfortunately, are represented only a by a few more mainstream sweetened and mainly fruity versions. There’s much besides the beer, including Chimay and Maredsous cheeses, Rochefort butter, mouthwatering chocolate patisserie, artisanal bread and some products that can only possibly be of interest to expat lowlanders, like hagelslag — chocolate flakes for sprinkling on your breakfast bread. The shop is the West End outpost of a largely East London-based group run by Belgian Igor Bekaert which also includes several brasserie-style restaurants.

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