An homage to Jacques Brel and Belgian beer, bar Brel is the best thing on Ashton Lane.  Where else in the city can you lounge outside on a sunny afternoon sipping Gueuze or Fruit beers whilst listening to some cool summer jazz.  My only complaint is they dont play enought of Jacques himself.

The food generally is excellent, I have eaten here a few times, sometime just the old moules frites, which you cant really get wrong, but on the few occasions we have tried something a bit fancier on the menu it has been top notch, considering this is essentially a bar.

With seating front and back, Brel really is the place to be on a sunny afternoon.  Jazz on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with the best selection of Belgian beers this side of Brugges.  Beware the Belgian beer however…..given respect the Belgian Lambics will induce in you a warm and halcyon seduction.  Treated with nonchalance on the other hand and the deceptively strong Belgian beer will annihilate your central nervous system, and leave you a slavering and gibbering wreck (sunburnt examples of which can be found bouncing down Ashton lane all throughout the summer).  All joking aside, the belgians like their beer strong, a few which must be tried: Gueuze Boon (sour & sherbety), Kwak, Chimay Blue, Mongozo banana beer.  A decent beginners guide to Belgian Beer can be found here.

The only downside with sitting outside on a sunny day (if you can find one in glasgow) is the insistence that drinks be taken outside in plastic glasses,   but hey its all in the name of safety etc etc.  The bar has a mixed clientelle, young and old, on the whole one of the better bars Glasgow has to offer.

Bar Brel

Ashton Lane

Glasgow G12 8SJ

0141 342 4966