I’ve got a lot of time for Belgium. It’s a small country that does a few things very, very well.
- Augustly preserved medieval towns. Tick
- Cartoons. Tick
- Large international institutions. Tick
But above all it’s the world-beating beer, mussels, chips with mayonnaise and chocolate that really set this understated low country apart.
So, I had high hopes for our trip to The Dovetail, a bar/kitchen down an alleyway in Farringdon. Inside it’s low ceilings, white tiled walls and wooden panels that transport you to somewhere you once went in Bruges on a romantic getaway.
It seems the bar is run by a Belgian-beer obsessive, who wasn’t Flemish or Walloon himself, but who clearly has a commanding knowledge of the country’s trappist tipples (and trippels). I kicked off with a Satan Gold, one of those 8% ABV beers that really let you know you’re drinking an 8% beer. Rich and yeasty and full of citrusy flavour, I started feeling lightheaded after about two sips. Alf got in a pint of De Konnick, which, I swear, tasted of those Guylian seashell pralines.
Not long after our Dovetail trip, I actually went on holiday to Belgium and found most of the food unappetising at best. But, as noted above, they do a couple of things extremely well.
This is reflected in The Dovetail’s moules in white wine, which come in a huge sharing pot, where you lift off the lid to steaming alcoholic, garlicky, creamy vapours. You use the previous mussel shell to tweeze the next mollusc from its shell, stuff a wodge of chips slathered in mayonnaise in your mouth, sip some extremely strong beer and feel that all is right with the world. In short, it’s near perfect.
Besides that, we started with a meat platter of various pates and cold cuts, before polishing off a waffle drizzled in chocolate and cream.
As a belgophile, I was always going to love The Dovetail, and with its huge selection of beers, decent food and fair prices, I think you will too.
Score: 9/10
Cost: £81
Location: 9-10 Jerusalem Passage, London EC1V 4JP
The A to Z of World Food in London 
There’s a lot of waffle about WW1 graves which could be misconstrued as inappropriate, however I beered with the blog and found it to be very useful, neatly dovetailing both food and drink together.
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