I was over going to costly work farewells and birthday lunches so for my birthday I was thinking really hard where I could go in the city for lunch that:
- Served food quickly so everyone could eat & go back to work within an hour
- Had quality meals for under $20
- Where I could have a wine or two
- Close to my work so we didn’t waste time in transit
- Could cater for up to 20 people
- Could do separate billing
I had walked passed the Belgian Beer Café on the way to work one morning and saw that they had a pot of chilli mussels for $15 on Tuesdays…I hadn’t eaten there before and the building looked a bit old but I kept it at the back of my mind as I wandered to work.
I did a bit of a Google and found that there was a 20% discount as part of the Eat Drink Perth festivities so that prompted me to call to see if they did separate billing as I didn’t want to deal with sorting out the bill especially with so many people lunching - I’ve seen my other colleagues do it and it’s stressful just watching! They didn’t offer separate billing but my friend mushie offered to coordinate my birthday lunch and the discount was too good to pass so Belgian Beer Café it was.
We ordered our drinks inside and the bartender knew about SO2GO (my handy preservative remover) and showed me that the best way to spray was to spray it into the empty glass and then pour into the wine. I normally try to be discreet so I was pretty pleased (and I learnt something new)!
Within 5-10 minutes of sitting down at our table, our meals were served. I was dressed in black (I didn’t want to take the risk of going back to work covered in sauce) all prepared for my pre-ordered pot of chilli mussels which was good for $12 (with the 20% discount) - the sauce was chunky and there were plenty of mussels. In total we had ordered three pots of mussels and my friend who was served her mussels last wasn’t happy with hers as there was very little sauce…they should have really made sure each of the pots had enough sauce! Other than that, all meals arrived at roughly the same time and everyone else enjoyed their meals - the poached warm chicken salad (rrp $18, with discount $14.40) was a popular order and I heard the beef burger (rrp $21, with discount $16.80) was nice too.
It was a relaxing atmosphere, only problem was the heat. I had asked for a table inside when I booked but we were allocated a table in the Bier Garden. It was warm but the wonderful service / food quality offset the heat.
Overall, I had a wonderful time at the Belgian Beer Café and would recommend it for group lunches in the city.
I’ve only had the pommes frites here before but had heard the chilli mussels were worth a try. Definitely worth a try at that price, I’m impressed they allowed the discount to be applied to the special mussel price too.
Well done on wearing black
ah yes all that effort and I didn’t make a mark on my black outfit at all…only ever happens when I’m wearing cream!
Yea worth a try for that price, they have other lunch specials too which are pretty good for $15 (especially around the city anyway!)