The Chocolate Line Bruges: Dominique Persoone's Simon Stevinplein Shop

What The Chocolate Line is

The Chocolate Line is a family business with shops in Bruges and Antwerp, founded by Dominique Persoone and Fabienne in 1992 and now working with their son Julius. Its reputation rests on pralines that treat flavour as a playground, from tomato and caramelised shrimp heads to the house Criollo Mexico chocolate. The shop also supplies Michelin-starred kitchens, including The Fat Duck, Noma and El Bulli, which is the kind of line most chocolate counters cannot put on the wall.

If you are mapping the wider scene before you shop, our Belgian chocolate guide sets out the styles, key names and reading worth knowing. This page stays on one shop: what it is, what it sells and when you can walk in.

Where it sits on the Simon Stevinplein

The shop's address is Simon Stevinplein 19, a small square off the east side of the Markt, reached on foot in a few minutes from the Belfort. That position puts it on a natural loop between the Markt, the Burg and the lanes running towards the Groeningemuseum, so it slots into a morning's walk without a detour.

Treat the visit as a short stop at the counter rather than a behind-the-scenes attraction: the shop's factory at Sint-Pieters in Bruges is listed as not open to visits, so the draw is the range on the shelves, not a look at production. Pair it with the sights on the same square and the chocolate shops elsewhere in the centre if you are comparing.

The pralines worth knowing

The house chocolate is Mexico Criollo, used at 45% in milk and 70% in dark versions, and it turns up across the assortment in different guises. The Yuzu combines white chocolate with a caramel of Antwerp yuzu and a raspberry ganache, while Paloma Love layers white chocolate, grapefruit and tequila against a Criollo 70% ganache. King Kong sets dark Criollo 70% against white chocolate with vanilla caviar, and Moai pairs milk Criollo 45% with Mexican Arabica coffee.

Not everything is a classic praline, and that is the point. The range has included pralines made with homegrown tomatoes, caramelised shrimp heads and artificial saliva, flavours that read as experiments rather than crowd-pleasers. If you want a safe box for a gift, the milder fruit and ganache pieces are the sensible pick; if you want the story, buy one of the strange ones and see.

For a broader tasting route across the city and the country, our picks for the best Belgian chocolate cover the houses worth your euros. Use The Chocolate Line for the experimental end of that spectrum.

Tree to Bar: the shop's own Criollo cocoa

Since 2012 the company has grown Criollo cocoa at its own plantation in Yucatán, Mexico, and controls the growing, fermentation and roasting itself. That is what Tree to Bar means here: chocolate made from beans the business grew rather than bought on the open market. Very few chocolate shops in Bruges can say the same, which makes the origin bars the most distinctive thing on the shelf.

Profits from the Mexico products go to The Chocolate Line We Care Foundation, which supports animal welfare in Mexico, and the shop also frames its buying, packaging and waste policy around sustainability. If you want a bar with a traceable origin and a stated purpose, ask for the Tree to Bar range and the Mexico Criollo pieces rather than the novelty shapes.

The 2023 Gault & Millau recognition

In 2023, Gault & Millau named The Chocolate Line the best chocolate shop in Belgium. That is a dated award, not a live ranking, so read it as evidence of the shop's standing at that moment rather than a claim about today's field. The shop also appears in the Michelin guide, which is a separate kind of listing.

Opening hours and address

The Bruges shop publishes Tuesday to Saturday opening from 9h30 to 18h30, and Sunday and Monday from 10h30 to 18h30. It trades every day of the week, so it fits a Monday itinerary built around walking rather than museums. Sunday shoppers get a later start than on a weekday.

The address is Simon Stevinplein 19, 8000 Bruges, with the shop reachable by phone on +32 (0) 50 34 10 90. It is a retail shop, so expect a counter and shelves rather than seating; a visit takes minutes unless you deliberate over the boxes.

Buying to take home

The range is organised into collections, including the Classic, Deluxe, Love, Koi and Julius lines, plus seasonal boxes and the bars. The webshop lists examples with euro prices, among them the Dessert Collection at €24,00, the Deluxe Collection at €33,50 and a Megabox Deluxe Collection at €143,50. Those are online figures; the counter may price and stock things differently, so treat them as a guide to what the collections cost rather than a quote for the shop.

Shipping from the webshop runs Monday to Thursday, with no parcels leaving on Friday, which matters if you are ordering a gift to arrive before you travel. Chocolate is fragile in warm weather, so a box bought at the end of a trip travels better than one carried around all day. If you plan to Post something home, order early in the week.

Bruges has plenty of other counters if you want to compare before committing, including Dumon chocolatier. Buying a small box from two or three shops is a better use of a short break than one large haul.

The Antwerp branch on the Meir

If your trip takes in both cities, the second shop sits in the Paleis op de Meir at Meir 50 in Antwerp, with the same published hours as Bruges: Tuesday to Saturday 9h30 to 18h30 and Sunday and Monday 10h30 to 18h30. That makes it an easy stop on a shopping street rather than a special journey. The Antwerp address is a branch, not a substitute for the Bruges original, but it saves carrying chocolate between cities.

How it compares with other Bruges chocolate shops

The Chocolate Line is the stop for anyone who wants chocolate as ideas: odd fillings, a named cocoa origin and a story about the maker. Shops built on classic pralines and neat boxes do the traditional gift better and usually cost less for a large assortment. Neither is wrong; decide whether you are buying a souvenir or something to talk about.

It is worth the stop if you are near the Markt anyway, if you are shopping on a Sunday or Monday, or if the Tree to Bar cocoa interests you. Skip it if you want a quiet, old-fashioned shop, or if you are short of time and already heading to a chocolate museum or workshop elsewhere in the city.

Is The Chocolate Line worth the stop?

Yes, if you want one shop in Bruges that combines a famous name, an unusual house cocoa and flavours you will not find on every counter. Go on a Sunday or Monday when much of the city's museum life is shut, or fold it into a walk across the Markt and Simon Stevinplein.

Buy a small mixed box rather than a large collection, check the published hours on the day, and use the Antwerp branch if your route continues north. If you would rather make chocolate than buy it, a chocolate workshop Bruges session is the alternative way to spend the same couple of hours.