The Saint-Gilles room defending modern Belgian cocktail technique under deliberately ugly lighting.
· Concrete BarBeton on Chaussée de Charleroi is the Saint-Gilles room that takes a Berlin-leaning brutalist aesthetic — exposed concrete, fluorescent lighting kept deliberately bad, no music after 10pm — and pours genuinely technical drinks beneath it. Lead bartender Karin Sluyterman trained at The Pontifex in The Hague, and the programme reflects that lineage: a clarified milk punch built on Buss No. 509 gin and Tasmanian whisky, a Mezcal Negroni with Biercée vermouth, a Belgian Boulevardier that uses Owl single malt.
The list runs to twelve signatures and a tight classics roster. Forty seats, an L-shaped concrete bar, no reservations.
Food is short Korean-Belgian (kimchi croquettes, beef tartare with gochujang, a single rotating noodle plate). Seventh because the modern cocktail programme is genuinely first-rank and because the room operates without pretension.
For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best cocktail bars in Brussels, the broader Brussels cocktail bars guide, and our category index of cocktail bars worldwide.
