Belgo Centraal, 50 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London – April 2011

Located in touristville London this once quirky restaurant/pub combo is a sad reflection of it’s former good self. The industrial decor is still unusual however the feeling is now of a school canteen rather than sitting in a darkened celler in some monestery in Belgium.

We nipped in for the express lunch of a beer and a meal for £7.95. For that price we received a small bowl of moules with the most watery of sauces. The small portion of fatty beef stew came with what appeared to be your average frozen chips. Both came with a 1/3 pint of cristal beer (which was pleasant and cooling on the warm day).

Having raved about Belgo for years, I tried to save it’s reputation by ordering some beers Barbar Honey 8% at £4.95 a bottle and Satans Gold 8% at £5.50 a bottle. Followed by a 4 stick of schnapps for birthday boy (vanilla, melon, cherry and hazlenut). These saved the day a little, but not much.