Bierbrasserie Cambrinus

Worth the wait ! I got here at 6ish and they were super duper busy. Since I was solo, I did not want to take up a table but unfortunately no bar seats were available. The staff was absolutely wonderful - they told me if I wanted to come by after 8 pm they would keep a table for me :) and boy was it worth it.

From the sampler beer, to the ambience, the staff and the food, this would be my regular spot.

This was recommended to me by a local friend and I agree. Good mix of local and tourists.

I've been wanting to try some fish waterzooi (stew) while in Belgium but most places seem to serve chicken. I found this place that served it, so we called on a Monday around noon to reserve for 1:30 PM later that afternoon. I am so glad we did because when we got there, there was still a bit of a wait, and shortly after we were seated, it was so packed that they were turning people away.

I had the fish stew (with salmon, sole fillet, North Sea shrimp) and hubby had the Irish ribeye with garlic butter and French fries. The fish stew okay. There's lots of fish in it and it's very hearty. It does get a bit much after a while and you'll feel heavy after eating it. I would definitely recommend splitting this with someone. The ribeye was nice, especially with the garlic butter. I appreciated the small side salad that same with it. Fries tasted liked your standard frozen restaurant fries. We also ordered cheese croquettes to start, but that didn't come out until after we already started eating our entrees and by then, we were already kind of full. So we couldn't really enjoy it and kind of just forced ourselves to eat it.

Overall, I wouldn't say the food is anything amazing. Service here is pretty slow. I'm not sure if it was because it was busy, or if it's standard here. We even had a hard time getting somebody to take our order. That being said, if you're in a rush, then you should probably skip this restaurant. It's got a bit of tourist trap vibes.

Great dinner. The service is slow, and you definitely have to make a reservation; this is different than American restaurants, so just settle in and enjoy. We got the rabbit, bread with ham, carbonnades, kids steak, and the sliced chicken. The apple tart for dessert was made to order. Overall a solid introduction to Belgian food.

Best meal of the trip so far! It's an older restaurant that's popular. Make sure you have reservations it was packed at 7. I tried the chicken stew, onion soup and mussels along with a beer. Service was casual and standard for Europe. It's an older restaurant decor inside. My favorite in Bruges.

I brought my family here for dinner and I would just like to start out by saying that I'm big on the "when in Rome" adage and try to immerse myself as much as possible in the food. I did a bunch of research and this place came up enough that it was one of the many places I decided to make a reservation. Belgian cuisine has not exactly been a hit with my parents so far on this trip. In fact, on the morning of our visit, my mother asked to see the menu of the place I had planned for that evening because she was considering "overriding" another restaurant serving local fare.

Everyone made her feel bad about saying that though because I really did put a pathetic amount of time into researching and planning our trip. We showed up 20=30 min earlier than our reservation and there was already a bunch of people waiting at the entrance.

The staff member who was greeting us said right out of the gate "we're already full if you don't have a reservation". Sorry to be a disappointment, but we did have a reservation. She was skeptical and double checked my name and the time a few times but eventually, reluctantly, gave in and sat us down.

After that warm welcome, we perused their gigantic menu which is conveniently in multiple languages. I greatly appreciated the vegetarian options which were more than many of the other Belgian restaurants we patronized.

The ambiance is ADORABLE and super quirky. I absolutely love it in there. Fortunately, our waitress was friendlier than the host.

I would have wanted to order a flight but I could barely see the board with the draught beers and the menu did not offer any description about what type of beer the options were or tha alcohol content so I elected to try their beer and lemonade combo. They have other combos too, including beer and cola and champagne and beer, which GF ordered.

To start, I ordered the cheese croquettes which were fantastic. They were crispy and the cheese was warm and soft. The acccompanying salad was tasty. My parents ordered the asparagus soup with smoked salmon and completely lost their minds over it. My mom, who had talked a bunch of shit earlier, mentioned numerous times that it was the best soup we have had on this trip. If you know how chilly it has been, you already know that we have been consuming a lot of soup. .

For our mains, most of us ordered pastas. I ordered the vegetarian tagliatelle which I found disappointing. The noodles themselves were too soft and the veggies were a bit mushy. The flavor was nothing to write home about.

My dad ordered the scampi tagliatelli which he really enjoyed. My mom ordered the mushroom and truffle spaghetti which she adored. She said this was the best meal of the TRIP and couldn't stop raving about it. I tried it and her noodles were cooked perfectly with a really creamy and delicious sauce serving a nice truffle flavor.

My little cheese croquette ordered fish stew, she says, "it was very rich. It was good but it was just very creamy and cheesy". I helped her with the accompanying fries and they were crispy and warm. I liked the mayo that came with them, it was more flavorful than other mayo I have had here but I may just be pulling that out of my ass. I did encounter a pool of what I hope was grease at the bottom of the bowl and I'm not sure whether that was a good or a bad thing.

Ultimately this was a really good experience and I can see why it is extremely busy. I would absolutely recommend stopping in for a meal if you are in town.

Wanted to try this place for dinner due to the hotel's recommendations. We were informed when we arrived that we needed a reservation for our party of 9. The place was packed and I can see why reservations were required. Before we left, we made reservations for the following day for lunch.
Upon returning the next day, the restaurant was not that full for lunch. Seating was tight and cramped. There were only tables for four at the most so they combined two tables together for us but it was in a weird location where there wasn't much room to spread out. The menu was like a book. Beside a brief history of the restaurant and the huge selection of beers, the actual food menu was only a few pages. Their claim to fame was their huge beer selection. When ordering, my party was basically divided between a few of us only ordering a couple of starters for lunch and some ordering an entrée. Food came out quickly but only a few dishes. After about 30+ minutes waiting, we inquired about the rest of the order and was then informed that they will be served after the starters were done. The waitress should have known that some of us were having only starters as the meal when she individually took our orders. So the end result was that the people who ordered entrees were finally served after the people with starters had finished eating. After we were finally served, the food wasn't tasty at all; not worth the wait nor the price they charged. Burger was tasteless, roasted chicken was dry, and fries were short and soggy pieces of potatoes. What really ticked me off was that they charged me a dollar for two spoons of ketchup for my bland burger with an oversized bun; hence the one star rating.

This was the most disappointing part of our entire trip to Belgium. We popped in between meals to enjoy a couple of Belgian beers. We received an unlabeled beer instead of one of the ones we ordered. We were then overcharged. When I tried to address it with the server, he first pretended to be too busy to talk to me and then proceeded to pretend he didn't speak English. We cut our losses by leaving before wasting more time. My assumption is that he didn't like that we were ordering only a couple of beers instead of full meals. Tourists beware; they will take advantage of you.

Our amazing tour guide recommended this place, which was 2 min from our hotel so that was great for us. We made reservations a few days before via our hotel. It wasn't busy at first but filled up as it got later because people eat later there than I'm used to. I got steak and mussels and both were excellent. The steak was a little rare for me but I dipped it in the mussels for a few seconds, which made the broth even better! The broth the mussels were cooked in was so delicious that we were drinking it like soup. My friend got the fish stew. I'm not a fan of cooked fish but acknowledge that it was well flavored and well made. Definitely recommend this place and would go back.

During our walk through charming Bruges we almost forgot the time. It was already past lunchtime but luckily this place still served meals. Our Bulldog was welcome to come in as well. It's a really nice, cosy place. A place you feel like keep ordering beers, sit by the window and watch the world go by. Staff was friendly, recommended some good beers. Prices are quite fair and the beer was great indeed.

For a starter we had the selection of "bitterballen". Veggie, meaty, spicy, creamy. A nice selection. Very good item. For the main we had the rabbit with apple sauce and fried croquettes. And the Fish stew with salmon, sole and shrimp. Fries with that. Price-wise both just a tad over 20 Euros. An ok price for a town like this. The fish was just ok though. We just came back from the coast of France and we've been spoiled with fresh fish and seafood for the past two weeks. So this one here couldn't hold up at all. But nicely cooked and presented. The rabbit on the other hand was a winner. I like rabbit and this one here was nicely prepared and well cooked. Nice match with the apples. A good choice.

All in all a nice place to grab a beer and a meal. Food not perfect, but enjoyable. And the atmosphere and the beer are both great.

Visited Cambrinus based on a recommendation by our hotel front desk. If you want to sample beers from Belgium and get a taste of Flemish cuisine in Brugge, look no further. Cambrinus has about 10 beers on tap and a cooler wall behind the bar stocked full of ...glorious beer!

We started the meal with a flight of beers of the bar's selections. There was one we already knew we didn't prefer and the allowed us to swap it out. After that, we sampled more tasty options from the taps. Gawd, I love Belgium!

For dinner we had the fish stew and sliced chicken.

The fish stew was rich and super flavorful. I was worried I wouldn't like a stew of fish. This is not boiled fish. This is a delicacy. Delicious! Order a side of their sliced homemade bread to sop it up! Yum.

We also usually don't order chicken at a restaurant, but my daughter couldn't bare to order the rabbit. I was pleasantly surprised, no floored, with the flavor. The chicken was a spot-on choice.

We came at the peak of tourist season. If you do the same, make a reservation. They were jam packed. That said, the ambiance was a fun bar scene with everyone having a good time enjoying each other and the great food and drink.

Cheers!