Cafe Bruxelles, Leicester

Built in 1903 and currently residing on one of the city's main retail thoroughfares, this is a remarkably ornate faux-Art Nouveau bar with a loose Belgian theme. The main bar is a roughly square shaped room with parquet flooring and a servery along the rear wall. Seating comprises standard tables and chairs through the centre of the room, with a wide parting down the middle for vertical drinkers. Meanwhile, wide padded U-shaped banquette booths run down the left and right hand walls between a series of grand looking white pillars. The servery is a lovely, symmetrical, curved C shape with a nice contrasting light and dark wood counter. The bar back is most impressive with its arch centrepiece flanked by large angels and cherubs with a plain mirror inset. Large boards in dark wood frames hang either side, detailing the drinks available and the possibility of attending cocktail and spirit tasting master classes. The pub's undoubted highlight however, is the huge cupola which covers most of the high ceiling. It's a remarkable feature, with gold bands radiating from a central rose, from where a huge chandelier hangs. The bands are decorated with depictions of fruit and flowers and in between each band there is a painting of a scene from somewhere around the world, with panels beneath explaining where that might be (Strasbourg, Sylhet, Chongquing and of course Leicester, to name but a few). Some stained glasswork has also been incorporated and the overall effect is quite dazzling. Stairs to the rear left lead down to the Hendricks Gin Bar - a tile floored room with café-style tables and a few sofas. A dark wood servery runs to the rear, with a nice carved counter, and the whole room has some good low wood panelling with orange, white and blue tiles running in a band above. A cabinet full of Delft ceramics stands near the stairs and the toilet doors have the appropriate genders written in both French and Flemish. Signs pointed the way to a 'Secret Garden', but I didn't get round to taking a look. There is no cask ale sold here, perhaps because they feel it doesn't fit with the Belgian theme, but there were some interesting keg options and, after a chat with the helpful barman, I ended up with a pint of Flying Dog Easy IPA for £3.90. The remaining taps had a mix of mainstream (Carlsberg, Guinness etc...) and craft beers such as Whitstable Pale Ale. A good bottled range could be viewed in the fridges and as you would expect, there were plenty of Belgian options, all listed on a large board on the left hand wall. My early afternoon visit saw this place pretty quiet and I felt that this was probably the best sort of time to explore this place, as it gives you the chance to relax and take in the fine interior. I thought it was a really interesting building and whilst it's a bit of a shame that there is no ale sold here, there was still plenty enough to make me consider returning.

A fantastic looking bar, very ornate with a great domed ceiling, parquet flooring and a chandelier. It's worth a look in for the decor alone. Sadly there's no real ale on the bar and the list of Belgian beers is just that, a list with no tasting notes or description. It was the end of a very long day for me and a bottle of 9% Trippel would probably have finished me off, so I just had a half of San Miguel whilst I had a look round. It was very quiet at about 10:30 on a Thursday evening with there only being 2 other people in the bar. I'd visit again for the decor, but not for the beer range.