My trip to France has been a tale of woe so far, beyond picking up some Pibarnon 2001 for a knock-down price. Dinner was, perhaps, even more depressing than what approximated for lunch.
We had a recommendation to go to a microbrewery in Lille called Les 3 Brasseurs. Going to a microbrewery is usually an interesting experience, and one can generally expect beer of passable quality. It was piss-quality at Les 3 Brasseurs.
We tried all of their beers. The Blonde, Blanche and Brune all tasted pretty similar, which was bad enough. Worse was they tasted disgusting. They had a strange flavour of that shameful concoction known as 'mixed herbs', and mixed herbs that had been left lying around for too long. There was no life, freshness or style. They were simply dirty with a freaking awful flavour. The only differentiation between them, beyond the colour, was that the Brune had a vague hint of bitterness. The Ambree beer was not so utterly vile, instead it was totally bland and characterless. I'd rather be offended than bored and this was piss boring. I hated all the beers with a passion and found the drinking experience there to be completely depressing.
It did not cheer me up that the food was also total crap, the dried-out tarte-flambees were notably awful. The final nail in the coffin of this dire dive was that the service was hopeless from our complete twat of a waiter. He might have been less mortifyingly awful if he was less drunk.
I cannot recommend highly enough that you avoid Les 3 Brasseurs if you should find yourself in Lille; I bet the Buffalo Grill opposite is less of a misery-inducing dump.