Recommended Eats: HUIS Belgian Bar & Kitchen - A Southsea mainstay that has gone from strength to strength

Simon Docker opened HUIS Bar & Kitchen in Elm Grove in 2015 and it has gone from strength to strength ever since. The intimate restaurant is dotted with nods to Belgian culture as well as a huge display of the 100s of beers that are available. Having started as much a bar as a restaurant, recent years has seen the food side grow in reputation and popularity, with it now taking precedent.

Simon said: “We have changed a lot since we started. Initially we were 50/50 food and bar but now we are more 80/20 with the focus on food. The eat out to help out scheme during covid saw us get a lot more customers from outside Southsea and saw our TripAdvisor rating shoot up. When we re-opened after covid the food element of the business was really supported.”

Despite the food now being at the forefront it was Simon’s passion for Belgian beer that gave him the idea to open HUIS. His dad would bring home different Belgian beers after working abroad and the colours and styles peaked his interest long before he was old enough to drink it. That passion has not veered over time and gave him the impetus to start the business.

You would do well to find a bigger selection of beers in the region. Simon said: “We have around 100 beers from Belgium, there are 90 on the main menu and then we have a rotating specials list that changes throughout the week. We scour the breweries in Belgium and see what's new, what's interesting, and what you probably can’t get elsewhere. We import from Belgium regularly, we have a guy in a van who goes over there and collects rare kegs and bottles.”

Beer is a big part of Belgian culture and is also used in their cooking. Simon went above and beyond to ensure the chefs provided an authentic experience to HUIS diners. He said: “Belgium is a really small country, it’s the equivalent of a few counties in England. The food is centred around waffles, beef carbonnade, and mussels. We wanted to give ourselves an edge so we sent our chefs to train in Belgium, with a famous chef that was known for cooking with beer.

“That became our edge, cooking meat in beer, cooking muscles in beer. We also do things that border Belgium, so we have a lot of influences from Germany, the Netherlands, France, and my wife is Romanian so we have some influences from there. We try to diversify and be creative with some of the traditional dishes to make them more interesting.”

When The News visited, we tried one of those variations. A Thai style moules et frites, which is cooked in coconut milk, green Thai curry butter, coriander and finished with cream. Oh and of course, wheat beer. It was delicious, the Thai flavours were balanced nicely with the beer and cream, and the mussels were cooked perfectly. Alongside that were genuinely some of the nicest chips I have tasted, crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside with a good amount of seasoning.

They have much more besides mussels with one dish in particular being chosen regularly. Simon said: “Our most popular dish is the pork belly, it’s slow roasted in our apple beer and served with a cider and mustard reduction. We get a lot of regulars that come in for that. Our meatballs are also really popular, we do them with different sauces including cooking them in beer. Everything we do we make onsite, except for the ice cream,

Another traditional Belgian dish that they have perfected is beef carbonnade. Simon added: “Carbonnade is the equivalent to a Belgium Irish stew. We slow cook beef with vegetables and three different beers. We use a wheat, cherry, and dark beer to get all the sweetness, sourness and maltyness that you wouldn't perhaps get with an Irish stew.”

Having only tasted the mussels, another trip is needed to taste more of the tantalisingly tasty dishes on the menu.

Watch the video embedded in this article for the full interview.