Belgium & Blues, Southampton

Belgian themed place, with the main bar downstairs in the basement though there are a small amount of tables on the ground floor entrance. No WiFi here which is a bit rubbish given that you can’t pick up a mobile signal. Decor is fine if somewhat by-the-book - exposed brick, battleship grey walls, tin signs. GBG listed with three cask pumps. Your correspondent did the 'when in Rome' manoeuvre and went for a genuine Belgian draft which was good and sensibly priced. In another weird jarring element, the Bob Marley background music was out of sync with the vibe the venue is trying to create. Oddity – well-worth a nose for something unusual but as a venue I was ambivalent. 6.5

This is a Belgian-oriented basement bar. To be honest, I found the the UK craft keg to be more interesting than the mostly easy-to-find imports, featuring the likes of Burning Sky, Vibrant Forest and Three Hills. There's a few ciders out of boxes, plus 4 cask ales, all from smaller breweries - my choice being a locale-qualifying Session IPA from Vibrant Forest. Southampton isn't the best city for beer by any means, but this is a worthwhile port in or out of a storm.

Obviously much changed from the 2009 review below, still of course a cellar bar though there is also street level seating. Belgium and Blues is now very much a place for the beer specialist and although as the name suggests there is a great emphasis on Belgian style beer it also caters for cask real ale and keg craft stuff. The downstairs bar is divided into several areas including a couple of open booth type rooms complete with normal tables and chairs but also leather upholstered bench sofas along the back wall,there are wall mounted displays of bottled Belgian beers. On the pumps for my visit ale wise was Vibrant Forest Kick Start and Citra along with Tiny Reble Cwytch, Cider wise there were three on pump but I fail to remember what, the 12 keg taps had a mix of craft beers and Belgian stuff plus a couple of top range Lagers. Two large glass doored fridges behind the servery was home to numerous bottled beers, Belgian and craft. Music was playing at a sensible unobtrusive level. A good find this one.