Qype User (ritama…)
Yelp
For somebody who has to travel to Brussels four to five times a year, I know very little about the city, a fact to be blamed on hard work, not lack of curiosity. The Cercle des Voyageurs is my very first favourite café in Brussels and I was delighted to find it, but I assume there will be many other great cafés in the city that I have so far missed on.
Having explained why I do not know what I am talking about, here is to the café: it is a beautiful, colonial style café in a historical building, with very confortable leather armchairs and a bookshop/library in which you are welcome to spend hours browsing through travel books planning your next trip (or dreaming about it with no concrete plan to act on your fantasies, unfortunatelly a classic with me).
I have not tried the food, but my espresso was correct and the juice I was served with it, pineapple with fresh mint, was the perfect refreshment to a very hot summer morning.
Prices for both of these were ok, but lunch, which we did not try, was rather pricey (there is a Belgian theory that the combination of tomatoes and mozzarella is not to be found for under 10EUR) and cakes and pastries were the only option as far as snacks go and there was no breakfast menu, which was a real pity. The staff was also just nice enough not to be rude.
This much said, the sheer beauty of the place and the delicious juice still compensate all the rest and I am sticking with my four stars.