Just back from Brussels last night, what an exhausting couple of days! I’m still not at 100%, this virus seems to have really worn down my system, it’s taking me ages to recover.

I said I’m just back, there was a seafood convention being held at the same time as our conference so the organizers had no choice but to book us into two different hotels for the two nights.
The first hotel I stayed at was the Hotel Abbey. I always like to check out the hotels I will be staying at before I arrive so I have an idea of what to expect but I couldn’t find much information aside that on their website.

Here are what I thought:

Hotel Abbey cites itself as being ****, and whilst the rooms were huge, there were few of the characteristics of what I feel are implicitely implied when you stay at a four star hotel. I have seen one website describe the hotel as luxurious and whilst it was comfortable I don’t think I would necessarily agree with their description.

The setup my room was rather strange, no welcome pack with information about the hotel (such as hotel facilities, opening time of restaurant, serving times for dinner/breakfast), no details about the city of Brussels, no room service menu, no soap in the bathroom!! (only those little sachets of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel), no air conditioning (there was a fan), no details of the tv channels and no details about whether there was any kind of internet connection available wireless or otherwise.

The room was bright and airy with three rather large windows, two of the windows faced out to the front where there was a busy road but the other window looked out over the main entrance and some beautiful greenery.

I unpacked, got changed pluged in my laptop to check for a wireless hotspot.  A hotspot was detected, it cost €20 for 24 hours, I was quite taken aback since most four star hotels offer this facility free of charge. I paid my €20 but the connection wasn’t great, I was kicked off a couple of times and the speed of the connection was variable.

I called down to reception to ask whether I could order something from the restaurant downstairs to be brought up to the room, the manager told me to come downstairs at 7pm when the restaurant opened and that should be ok.

I was presented with a rather empty menu, I’m not sure if this was because it was an English translation and the specials were not there, that being said the head waiter was helpful and said that if there was nothing on the menu I fancied then the chef would make me whatever I wanted within reason.

I ordered a salad of Prawns with chive sauce and Steak with garlic butter and french fries. Once back in my room I got a call from reception saying that there were no prawns but chef had fresh langoustine if I would like these instead, I agreed.

The salad arrived and looked delicious, it was mixed leaves, white asparagus, and avocado. It was nice, my only complaint was that it was a little too buttery but that’s only because I’m really not a butter fan.

My steak arrived about 20 minutes later, it wasn’t the best steak I’ve ever eaten but it was edible.

My whole stay was rather disappointing I was glad it was only for one night. My room cost €135 for a single room and my two course meal came to €48, expensive in my opinion for what it was.

In summary:

The hotel wasn’t in the center of town and there didn’t seem to be anything in the immediate area, the facilities were not in my opinion four star, the food from the restaurant was ok but not brilliant. The room was spotless but the decor was rather dated.  On the plus side, the staff were really friendly and helpful.

I didn’t think it was value for money and I wouldn’t rush back.

Hotel Abbey
Kerkeblokstraat 5
1850 Grimbergen
info@hotelabbey.be
Tel. 32 (0)2 270 08 88
Fax. 32 (0)2 270 81 88

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