The Best Chocolate in Brussels

Frederic Blondeel

Rue de Ganshoren 39, Koekelberg. Blondeel roasts cocoa beans on site and works bean to bar, with single-origin bars as the core of the range. Gault & Millau named him Best Chocolatier of Brussels in 2019.

The 2026 ranking by Tartine et Boterham and the City of Brussels put him first among the ten best Brussels chocolate makers. He also won the Honour Prize 2026 for pioneering bean to bar chocolate in Belgium. Koekelberg is outside the central clusters.

Laurent Gerbaud

Rue Ravenstein 2D, with a second address at Rue de l'Etuve 19. Gerbaud works to a stated motto: less sugar, no alcohol, more cocoa. Expect unusual pairings such as curry, olive and tea ganache, plus Madagascan pepper, Shanghai orange and Izmir fig.

Gault & Millau named him Brussels Chocolatier of the Year 2021. The 2026 Tartine et Boterham ranking placed him joint top of the city alongside Blondeel. His organic dark hot chocolate carries no added sugar, which makes the shop counter worth more than a quick stop.

Arthur Amblard

Rue Lebeau 61, in the Sablon. Amblard is 28, trained at Ceria in Anderlecht and works from a Zavel workshop. He is known for sugar-free chocolate.

On 15 September, Gault & Millau named him Brussels Chocolatier of the Year. The 2026 Gault & Millau chocolatier edition was its tenth and judged 145 chocolatiers across Belgium and Luxembourg by blind tasting on flavour, texture, creativity, finish and presentation.

The Belgian Chocolate Makers

Rue Lebeau 7/11 in the Sablon, open daily from 10:00 to 19:00. Bruxelles Secrete calls it the largest chocolate store in Brussels, with in-house production. Stephane Perrin and Elisabetta Passafaro founded it in April 2020, and Passafaro is the master chocolatier.

The company runs five units across Belgium and the Rue Lebeau shop is served by buses 48, 33 and 95. The house also runs a 90-minute workshop where you make truffles and a personalised bar, reached from its ticket office at Place de la Justice 5.

Mary

Rue Royale 73, with further addresses at Grand Place 23, Galerie de la Reine 36 and the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. Mary Delluc founded the house in 1919 on rue Royale and it has held the Belgian Royal Warrant since 1942. The presentation is deliberately Art Deco, with glamorous packaging, and one guide describes the boxes as ultra-feminine with pastel branding.

Known items include pistachio marzipan, champagne rose truffles and hazelnut praline. One of its addresses is on the Grand-Place itself, at number 23.

Wittamer

Place du Grand Sablon 12, the heart of the Sablon cluster. Henri Wittamer opened his bakery on the Grand Sablon in 1910 with his wife, a tearoom followed in 1955 and the house became a Royal Warrant holder in 2000. Signatures include the Pave de Bruxelles, the Sumo ganache, the Tarragone praline, Bulle truffles and a sugar-free Pleine sante line.

Wittamer invented the speculoos macaron in 1984 and won the Valrhona competition in 1986 with the Samba mousse cake. Pierre Marcolini and Marc Debailleul both worked here.

Neuhaus

Galerie de la Reine 25-27, the founding address in the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. Jean Neuhaus, a Swiss immigrant, opened an apothecary there in 1857 selling cough drops and licorice. In 1912 the house created the first filled bonbons, the Belgian pralines, and the ballotin gift box followed in 1915 because pralines were crushed in paper cornets.

Neuhaus received the Royal Warrant in 2000 and Bloomberg Pursuits called its truffles the best in the world in 2017. Try the Bonbon 13, the Astrid and the Caprice.

Pierre Marcolini

The Sablon shop is listed at Rue des Minimes 1. Marcolini founded the house in 1995 after winning the World Pastry Cup in Lyon and works bean to bar, buying beans from plantations in Brazil, Equatorial Guinea and Mexico. His e-shop lists the 4-drawer Collection box at €176.

He worked at Wittamer before going solo, and the full story of the house and its boxes belongs on the Pierre Marcolini Brussels page.

Leonidas

Place du Grand Sablon 41 per one listing, with a factory outlet at Boulevard Industriel 8 in Anderlecht selling 1 kg boxes for between €18 and €23, according to Brussels Times. Wikipedia dates the founding by Leonidas Kestekides to 1913, and the company registered in Brussels in 1937 at 58 Boulevard Anspach. It is the budget option among the big names, with more than 1,030 points of sale in 32 countries in 2019, about 450 of them in Belgium and Luxembourg.

The signature is the manon, a buttercream chocolate on a white chocolate praline base, and the chocolate uses cocoa butter with no palm oil.

Godiva

Place du Grand Sablon 47-48. Pierre Draps founded Godiva in Brussels in 1926, making pralines in a home workshop and selling them through the Sarma department store. The Draps brothers opened the first shop on Boulevard Leopold II in Koekelberg, and the name, taken from Lady Godiva, arrived in the mid-1940s.

Godiva became official chocolatier to the Belgian Royal Court in 1968 and now sells in over 100 countries under Yildiz Holding.

Galler

Rue au Beurre 44, near the Grand-Place. Jean Galler founded the company in 1976 and it is based in Liege, though Bruxelles Secrete lists him as an official supplier to the royal family. Galler says its cocoa is 100 percent fairtrade.

The house is known for filled chocolate bars and playful flavours.

Corne Port-Royal

Galerie du Roi 24-26, inside the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. The house was renamed Corne Port-Royal in 1932, which makes it one of the older trading names on this list. Corne Dynastie lists an address at Rue des Brasseurs 1-3, and the Artisan Chocolate Tasting Tour can include a stop there.

It is a family chocolatier, and it sits in the same galleries as Neuhaus.

Passion Chocolat

Two useful addresses: Galerie de la Reine 32, open daily from 10:00 to 22:00, and Rue Bodenbroek 2/4 in the Sablon. The pralines are made in a Brussels workshop and the house received the Certified Artisan label. The Galerie de la Reine boutique has a surrealist-themed design by Marie de Giey with illustrator Tatiana de Nicolay.

Spotahome highlights the 85 percent dark chocolate in flavours such as cherry cognac and mint. The late opening in the Galeries makes it the easiest stop after dinner.

Elisabeth

Rue au Beurre 43, with another address at number 49 and further addresses at Rue du Marche aux Herbes 55 and Rue de l'Etuve 55. This is a small artisan operation rather than a national brand, which is exactly why it earns its place a few doors from Galler and Dandoy on the same street. The range covers pralines, chocolate-covered waffles, tablets and biscuits.

Maison Dandoy

Rue au Beurre 31, with a tea room at Rue Charles Buls 14 and a shop at Galerie du Roi 2 in the Galeries. Jean-Baptiste Dandoy, a baker from Uccle, founded the house in 1829 and the family's seventh generation still runs it, with 13 stores. Chocolate is not the core business here: Dandoy is known for speculoos, pain a la grecque and marzipan, served alongside waffles in the tea rooms.

It pairs naturally with the chocolate crawl because it sits on the same street as Elisabeth and Galler.

Planete Chocolat

Rue du Lombard 24. The house was founded in 1991, uses 100 percent pure cocoa butter and draws about 55,000 visitors a year to its workshops and demonstrations. The shop window carries chocolate sculptures of Manneken Pis, the city hall and the Atomium.

Herman Van Dender

Rue des Minimes 8, on the same street as the Marcolini shop. This is a pastry house that has made its own chocolate from the bean since 2014, which puts it in the same bean-to-bar camp as Blondeel and Marcolini despite being better known for patisserie. It is also one of the stops the Artisan Chocolate Tasting Tour can include, a 90-minute walk from the Grand-Place at $34 per person.

Mike & Becky

Avenue Brugmann 243 in Uccle, open 14:00 to 18:00 and closed on Mondays per Le Fooding. Julia Mikerova and Bjorn Becker founded it after leaving European institutions in 2016 and they make bean-to-bar chocolate in an Anderlecht workshop. The bars are single origin from 70 to 100 percent cocoa, with milk versions as well, and a 60 g bar of 70 percent Dominican chocolate costs €5.95.

Benoit Nihant

Chaussee de Waterloo 506 in Ixelles, south of the Sablon along the same avenue as Wittamer's Fort Jaco boutique. Nihant is known for single-origin chocolate and pastilles, the same single-origin focus as Mike & Becky. He also appears in the city's hot chocolate listings, so the shop serves as much as a warm drink stop as a praline counter.

No founding year is stated in the sources, so take the craft as the reason to go rather than the history.

Jerome Grimonpon

Avenue Coghen 2 in Uccle. Grimonpon creates a new praline flavour every month and is known for pralinettes, spreads and melo-cakes. Uccle is also home to Mike & Becky.

One search summary lists Grimonpon as a Gault & Millau 2026 pick.

The Full List at a Glance

The table gathers every shop on this page with its area and its headline reputation. Use it to build a route: most of the central names sit in the Grand-Place and Galeries Royales cluster or the Sablon, with a smaller group of makers south in Ixelles and Uccle and one roaster in Koekelberg.

Shop Brands Versus Artisans

Five names you see across Belgium are shop brands with industrial scale: Neuhaus, produced in Vlezenbeek with over 1,500 selling points in 50 countries, Leonidas with more than 1,030 points of sale, Godiva selling in over 100 countries under Yildiz Holding, Galler based in Liege, and Cote d'Or, founded in 1883 and owned by Mondelez since 2012, whose Halle factory once made 1.3 million bars a day. The artisans work differently. Blondeel roasts his own beans, Gerbaud cuts sugar and skips alcohol, Amblard removes sugar altogether, Mike & Becky makes single-origin bars in an Anderlecht workshop.

The 2026 Tartine et Boterham ranking says what that difference is worth: both of its top two names are artisans, not shop brands. The self-guided route above and the guided walks compared on chocolate tours in Brussels let you taste both camps in one afternoon.

Grand-Place and Rue Au Beurre

The Grand-Place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998 and measures 68 by 110 metres. Two streets running off it carry a dense run of chocolate shops. Rue au Beurre holds Galler at number 44, Elisabeth at numbers 43 and 49, and the Maison Dandoy headquarters at number 31, a house founded in 1829 that is known for speculoos as much as chocolate. Rue de l'Etuve has a second Laurent Gerbaud address at number 19, and Choco-Story Brussels at number 41 near Manneken Pis. Mary trades on the square itself at Grand Place 23, which is also the meeting point of the Chocolate Walking Tour and Workshop. Corne Dynastie lists an address at Rue des Brasseurs 1 to 3 on the square's edge.

For transport, De Brouckere station serves metro lines 1 and 5 plus premetro lines 4 and 10, and it opened as a premetro stop in 1969.

Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert

The Galeries are a 213 metre glazed shopping passage designed by Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, built between 1846 and 1847 and inaugurated on 20 June 1847. About seventy shops operate inside, and the passage became a protected monument in 1986. The entrance address is Rue du Marche aux Herbes 90.

This is Neuhaus country. Jean Neuhaus, a Swiss immigrant, opened his apothecary here in 1857 at numbers 25 to 27 of the Galerie de la Reine, first selling cough drops and licorice. The house created the first filled pralines in 1912 and brought out the ballotin gift box in 1915 because pralines were getting crushed in paper cornets. That original shop remains one of the most visited chocolate shops in Belgium. Also inside: Corne Port-Royal at Galerie du Roi 24 to 26, renamed in 1932, Passion Chocolat at Galerie de la Reine 32, open daily from 10:00 to 22:00, a Mary address in the Galeries, and third party lists also place Marcolini at Galerie de la Reine 21.

• Neuhaus, Galerie de la Reine 25-27, founded 1857
• Passion Chocolat, Galerie de la Reine 32, open 10:00 to 22:00 daily
• Corne Port-Royal, Galerie du Roi 24-26
• Mary, an address in the Galeries as well as Rue Royale 73

The Sablon

The Grand Sablon is the upscale cluster. Wittamer has stood here since Henri Wittamer opened his bakery in 1910, today at Place du Grand Sablon 12, with a second chocolate boutique at number 6 since 1986. Pierre Marcolini's Sablon shop is listed at Rue des Minimes 1, and Herman Van Dender is at Rue des Minimes 8. Leonidas sits at Place du Grand Sablon 41, Godiva at Place du Grand Sablon 47 to 48, Passion Chocolat at Rue Bodenbroek 2/4, and The Belgian Chocolate Makers and Arthur Amblard are a short step away on Rue Lebeau at numbers 7/11 and 61. Laurent Gerbaud's shop and workshop is at Rue Ravenstein 2D.

The area is easy to reach: tram lines 92 and 93 stop at Petit Sablon. On weekends the square also hosts the antiques and books market, and the Fountain of Minerva in the middle dates from 1751.

Gault & Millau

Gault & Millau judges chocolatiers by blind tasting on flavour, texture, creativity, finish and presentation. Its chocolatier edition covers 145 chocolatiers across Belgium and Luxembourg. Laurent Gerbaud was named Brussels Chocolatier of the Year 2021, Frederic Blondeel was named Best Chocolatier of Brussels in 2019, and Arthur Amblard, a 28 year old trained at Ceria in Anderlecht, took the Brussels title at the latest edition.

Blondeel also won the Honour Prize for pioneering bean to bar chocolate in Belgium.

The Tartine Et Boterham Ranking

Tartine et Boterham and the City of Brussels named the ten best Brussels chocolate makers, with the list topped by Frederic Blondeel and Laurent Gerbaud. Both lead names work outside the classic praline houses: Blondeel roasts cocoa on site at Rue de Ganshoren 39 in Koekelberg, and Gerbaud works to a motto of less sugar, no alcohol, more cocoa from Rue Ravenstein 2D.

The honest note: rankings move. Gerbaud held the Gault & Millau title in 2021 and Amblard holds it now, which tells you the crown changes heads. Treat the awards as a shortlist, not a verdict, and read the differences in the guide to Belgian chocolate before choosing a side.

The Four Tasting Walks

The cheapest entry is the Artisan Chocolate Tasting Tour at $34 per person, a 1.5 hour walk from Grand Place with five tastings. It passes the Royal Galleries and its stops can include Mary, Corne Dynastie, Pierre Marcolini and Laurent Gerbaud, with the guide picking the shops on the day. The Small Group Chocolate Tasting costs $55.95 per person, runs 2 hours through 5 shops with at least 7 pralines or truffles, and caps the group at 10, with children under 10 free. It meets inside the Royal Galleries at Galerie du Roi 10.

The Chocolate Walking Tour and Workshop at $85.64 per person lasts 3.5 hours and adds a 1 hour workshop where you make and keep your own chocolates, meeting outside Mary on Grand Place. And the Beer and Chocolate Tour at $113.04 per person pairs 10 chocolate tastings with at least 5 beers in 2 to 3 taverns over 4 hours, the most reviewed of the four. Note that none of these walks lists museum admission.