Belgo 44-48 Clapham High Road London SW4 7UR

Belgo is a small restaurant chain in London.  There is a wide range of beers and a loosly belgium typed menu including mussels and typical double fried chips as served in Belgium.

 

I visited the Belgos in Clapham for a friend's birthday.

 

I had a starter of a warm salad of duck bacon black pudding and hard boiled eggs.  there were also potatoes and

garlic croutons on the side.  This was very enjoyable and there was a decent portion.  As a main I had the mussels Mariniere which are described as steamed with white wine, garlic, cream and celery.  I have had these in Belgium and there was not enough sauce though they were quite pleasant.  I also tried a friend's steak which was quite tender though it was burnt on the outside and slightly raw in the middle. she did ask for it medium rare so it should be a bit pink in the middle but not burnt on  the outside.

 

My pudding was a

Bread & butter pudding made with brioche, orange confit, dark Belgian chocolate and Mandarin Napoleon liqueur.  this was a really interesting twist on a bread and butter pudding and I really enjoyed it.  It was not as heavy as a typical english bread and butter pudding but the taste was more interesting and varied.

 

Over all, the starters and the puddings were great but I felt the mains were a little limited.

 

There was a massive range of belgium beers available and there should really be a drink for all tastes here.  at £5 to £6 a beer though it is not cheap.  some beers are on draft and having halfes could keep the price down.  Despite the poor range of mains and less than perfectly cooked steak I would give Belgos 6.5 out of 10 if it were just food and drink I was measureing.  for more info and to read the menus visit www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk

I do have some serious concerns about the level of service at Belgos. 

Staff were friendly but service was slow and we had to ask staff over a few times to order the next course or we had a bit of a wait to put in a drinks order.  There is supposed to be a 2 hour turn around time on fridays and saturdays and a member of staff even asked if it would be ok to bring the bill with the pudding but the bill didn't come and we had to get our coats on and almost threaten to leave without paying before they saw us and gave us the bill.  given this level of service we did refuse to pay the discressionary service charge because the service was poor.  when we didn't pay the waitress then tried to give us a sob story about restaurant pay being poor.  that's not my problem.  3 beers and a 3 corse meal cost £35 and with those prices a restaurant should be able to afford to pay staff reasonable wages.  The chef was from albania by the way.  Dig that authentic belgium touch!!

 

 

over all then there is potential here to have a really decent place but the service must be improved and I suspect more staff would be needed.  I can't give an over all mark of more than 5.5 out of 10.