The Belgian Cafe, Eastbourne

The Belgium Cafe has a prominent position on the seafront grand parade in a striking white period building and brands itself as a bar, bistro and brewery, which is a pretty accurate description from our experience. As a bistro it is mainly focussed on seafood with a couple of burger and pasta options as well, but most people come here for the mussels and there are 50 menu options on how to have them. As a bar, alongside some wine and cocktail offerings the main attraction is the beer with plenty of bottled options including a decent list of Trappist beers, and then the seven chrome taps on the bar dispensing the beers brewed by the in-house Belgium Craft beer brewery Bear Me, hence the brewery bit. There are some outside tables on the grand parade side and then as you enter there is a raised area to the right which has tables mainly laid for dining, an area to the left that mainly has communal bench style seating which was mainly utilised by drinkers although you can eat in this section also. This area also has a large pull down screen which was showing the Ladies football World cup in the evenings. And then the bar itself is directly in front of you with its shiny chrome beer taps. We found this place on our first night in town and finished up going back to try the mussels on the second and for a final beer on the third. During that time I managed to go through all the house brews, primarily because you can purchase a four glass paddle taster for £5. This was a good idea first time round as it taught me to avoid the Mango Unchained, which was far too sweet for me, and focus on the 5% dark Dubbel Trubbel and the 6.5% Big Blonde, both of which were very decent for my taste. On the second night I managed to catch the Oyster Stout being on, but it was a bit too thin for my liking. Standard pricing is £5 a pint for all the draft beers , or £2.50 a half, unless you catch it during the 5PM to 7PM happy hour when its £3 a pint. So this is clearly not a traditional pub experience but as a venue to visit for your good lady it ticked nearly all the boxes. Very decent mussels, some good beer supping and a pleasant environment in which to enjoy them.