How old are the Brussels pâtisseries Dandoy and Wittamer?

Jean-Baptiste Dandoy, a baker from Uccle, opened his first shop on Rue du Marché aux Herbes in 1829, and his son moved it to Rue au Beurre 31 in 1858. Wittamer has baked on the Sablon since 1910 and stayed with the founding family for three generations, until its sale to three investors in 2021.

Bakery Cafés in Brussels: Pâtisseries, Bagels and Coffee

Q: What is pain à la grecque, the Brussels pastry?

An oblong milk bread flavored with brown sugar and cinnamon and topped with crystallized sugar. Despite the name it has nothing to do with Greece: it comes from grecht, Brussels dialect for a canal, after the bread Augustinian fathers gave to the poor by the Fossé aux Loups in the 16th century.

Q: Which bakery cafés in Brussels open at 07:00?

Karsmakers on Rue de Trèves and Abricot's Boulangerie & Sandwicherie on Chaussée d'Etterbeek open at 07:00 on weekdays and close at weekends. Kapa Specialty Coffee & Bakery opens at 07:00 from Tuesday to Sunday, and Arôme on Avenue Rogier at 07:00 from Monday to Friday. L'Alchimiste in Saint-Gilles follows at 07:30 on weekdays.

Brussels bakes in French and Dutch: a boulangerie or bakkerij sells bread, a pâtisserie sells cakes, and a salon de thé (tea room) gives you a seat for both. The city's own pastry is the pain à la grecque, an oblong milk bread with brown sugar and cinnamon, topped with crystallized sugar.¹ The name has nothing to do with Greece: it comes from grecht, Brussels dialect for a canal, after the bread Augustinian fathers gave the poor by the Fossé aux Loups in the 16th century.¹

Two old houses set the standard for something sweet with coffee. Jean-Baptiste Dandoy, a baker from Uccle, opened on Rue du Marché aux Herbes in 1829, and his son Philippe moved the shop to Rue au Beurre 31 in 1858.² Wittamer has baked on the Sablon since 1910; the third-generation siblings Paul and Myriam ran it until the family sold to three investors in 2021.³ Among bakery cafés today, the European Quarter and Etterbeek have the most, ahead of Schaerbeek, Sainte-Catherine and the Marolles.

Local tip: Most bakery cafés close by 19:00 and several by 16:00; for a late slice, Arôme on Avenue Rogier stays open until 21:00 from Thursday to Saturday.

Where these cafés are: Sainte-Catherine & Dansaert (4), European Quarter & Etterbeek (4), Schaerbeek & Saint-Josse (3), Marolles & Sablon (3), Grand-Place & Centre (2), Flagey & Matonge (2), Saint-Gilles (2), Châtelain & Avenue Louise (2), Uccle & Forest (1), Laeken & the north (1).

At a glance

24Cafés listed

19With opening hours

07:00Earliest opening

04:00Latest closing

Opens earliest: Arôme, from 07:00 (Mon–Wed 07:00–18:00 · Thu–Fri 07:00–21:00 · Sat 08:00–21:00 · Sun 08:00–18:00).

Closes latest: Jon's Cafe, until 04:00 (Daily 11:00–04:00).

Most common features: outdoor seating (46%), indoor seating (25%), specialty (25%).

Early starts in Etterbeek and Schaerbeek

Karsmakers on Rue de Trèves (Trierstraat) and Abricot's Boulangerie & Sandwicherie on Chaussée d'Etterbeek both open at 07:00 on weekdays and stay shut at weekends. Kapa Specialty Coffee & Bakery opens at 07:00 from Tuesday to Sunday, and Urkunina Specialty Roasters on Chaussée Saint-Pierre is open 09:00–15:00 from Monday to Saturday.

North of the center, Arôme on Avenue Rogier (Rogierlaan) opens at 07:00 from Monday to Friday and keeps going until 21:00 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. KET Café on Rue Gaucheret serves on weekdays from 08:00 to 16:00.

The Sablon, the Marolles and Sainte-Catherine

Crème on Rue de Rollebeek, a lane below the Sablon, is as much a kitchen as a coffee bar: ELLE Belgique wrote in 2021 that the coffee is almost secondary to the food, and picked out its affogato, vanilla ice cream drowned in espresso.⁴ TICH opens at 09:00 on weekdays and 10:00 at weekends, and Poz" on Rue Joseph Stevens has tables outside.

In the lower town, Bigg Cake on Rue de l'Écuyer (Schildknaapsstraat) is open daily 08:30–18:30, and L'Aca on Rue du Midi has a terrace. DRACHE Specialty Coffee Bar on the Quai au Bois à Brûler starts at 10:30 on Saturdays and 11:00 on other days, and Café Tiera on Rue Van Artevelde serves daily 09:00–19:00.

Kafei, Kaki Cake Bar and Asian baking

Kafei, at Chaussée de Vleurgat 147 (Vleurgatsesteenweg), is one of three Kafei cafés run by Belgian-born siblings of Chinese heritage, and the Brussels Times called its Japanese-style pancakes the finest in the city in 2025.⁶ The same article noted that laptops are discouraged on busy weekends.⁶ Visit.brussels counts Kafei as the city's first Asian coffee bar.⁵

In Saint-Gilles, Kaki Cake Bar served cà phê phin (Vietnamese drip coffee with condensed milk), a dirty matcha latte and an ube latte made with purple sweet potato when ELLE Belgique visited in 2021.⁴ It opens Tuesday to Friday at 09:00 and at 10:00 at weekends.

Forest, Châtelain and the bagel counters

Honest, on Rue du Croissant in Forest, builds its menu around coffee traced from farmer to roaster to barista, and around local food.⁵ It opens 08:00–17:00 on weekdays and from 09:00 at weekends.

Holy Bagels, a short walk from Place du Châtelain, makes New York-style bagels with a Belgian twist; in 2023 they started at €12.⁷ It closes at 16:00 and all day on Wednesdays. L'Alchimiste on Rue de Savoie in Saint-Gilles opens at 07:30 on weekdays.

Bakery cafés in Brussels

At a glance

Arôme

Bigg Cake

Café Tiera

Crème Brussels

DRACHE Specialty Coffee Bar

Honest

Kafei

Kafei Dansaert

Karsmakers

KET Café

L’Alchimiste

L'Estaminet 1030

Urkunina Specialty Roasters

Abricot's Boulangerie & Sandwicherie

BROL

Fika

Holy Bagels

Kaki Cake Bar

Kapa Specialty Coffee & Bakery

Maison Renardy

Poz"

Jon's Cafe

L'Aca

TICH

Early starts in Etterbeek and Schaerbeek

The Sablon, the Marolles and Sainte-Catherine

Kafei, Kaki Cake Bar and Asian baking

Forest, Châtelain and the bagel counters

Sources

Other ways to browse Brussels

Specialty coffee

Terrasses

Wi-Fi

Open late

Bakery cafés in Brussels: questions

What is pain à la grecque, the Brussels pastry?

Which bakery cafés in Brussels open at 07:00?

How old are the Brussels pâtisseries Dandoy and Wittamer?

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