The 10 Best Coffee Bars In Leuven, Belgium

It didn’t take too long for every coffee-guzzling Leuvenaarto get closely acquainted with MOK. The specialty coffee roaster, named after the cozy Dutch word for ‘mug’, opened in the winter of 2012 and has become a household brand since, supplying many Leuven businesses with its coffee and slowly expanding to other cities as well. Owner Jens hopes to have a real influence on Belgian coffee culture and gets to try out his artisanal roasted product in MOK’s bar, a small shop in the Diestsestraat.

New on the Leuven coffee scene, Thelma Coffee & Design has attracted a lot of buzz since opening in the increasingly hip Vaartwijk area. Owner Katrien, who left a career as a dentist in the rearview mirror to pursue her concept store dream, prefers her guests to enjoy their MOK coffee amid beautiful design and floating Pyth plants. Clothes and accessories by young Belgian brands like LN knits and Sternum combine effortlessly with Scandinavian furniture in the bright, open space. A nice selection of children’s clothes for sale too make Thelma, sweetly named after Katrien’s oldest daughter, a home away from home for young urban moms.

Turkish Mutlu and Leuven-born Annelore embarked upon multiple adventures when they not only married each other, but when started a coffee house together as well. The small, mustachioed façade of Le Mustache actually hides a spacious business, where an extensive menu includes coffee made the traditional Turkish way. For breakfast, the always smiling Mutlu is happy to offer up a colorful assortment of cereal, to mix and match as you please.

Inspired by the phrase, ‘Life is too short to drink bad coffee,’ the tiny coffee bar Mont Café is a stone’s throw away from the KU Leuven classrooms and keeps true to its slogan. The thousands of sleepy students dragging themselves to morning classes with a monkey-adorned take-away cup in hand clearly agree.

Who knew coffee and steel would turn out to be a match made in heaven? The vintage bar in the Mechelsestraat is filled with handcrafted furniture by Lino (steel) and self-designed jewelry and homemade pies by Nouchka (coffee). By embracing sustainable materials and placing a communal table in the middle, the couple has created an warm space at Koffie en Staal with an authentic feel that is well worth walking a couple of minutes out of the town’s center for. The divine Greek yogurt pie is a must-try.

The charming cobbled ‘Paris street’ boasts a nice number of homey places for drinking and eating, not in the least Koffie Onan. A massive wall-to-wall cabinet filled with bags of Onan’s home-roasted coffee takes up the entire left side of the bar, betraying a deep knowledge and love of the black gold. The barista vibe is a strong one, with Hans Onan and his companions more than willing to recommend a cup suited to your personal tastes and cushion covers made out of the burlap sacks that the green beans arrived in.

The fact that the circles in the venn diagram representing coffee lovers and book lovers overlap quite a bit has not gone unnoticed by Lies and Mark. When the married couple found out their favorite neighborhood bookshop-coffee house, De Dry Coppen, was closing down, they decided to recreate the place they most wanted to exist in Leuven themselves as Barbóék. Take your steaming cup of joe into one of the many peaceful corners surrounded by wooden bookshelves or catch some sunny rays on the patio.

After tasting Caffénation’s (caffeine king of Antwerp) espresso, coffee was no longer just coffee to Kris. The result: Noir Coffeebar in the Naamsestraat, where the atmosphere is amiable and a cup of grandma’s slowly filtered coffee brings a peaceful moment to a hectic day. Broke students will be relieved to know it’s totally fine to bring your own ‘bokes’ (sandwiches), though you’ll probably end up craving a piece of their delicious pies anyway. https://instagram.com/p/BFECM95PYH6/?taken-at=267300347

Waiting for you right across the street after a visit to the essential Museum M is ANNA. Specializing in tea as well as coffee, owner Christel (middle name Anna) is committed to using high-quality products whose origins she knows perfectly. The exceptionally comfortable sofas are perfect for settling down with one of the many different slow brews or refreshing iced teas. https://instagram.com/p/BExnIFfF0qq/?taken-at=559266420