Restaurant Review #73 – A couple of weeks ago, we were in Louvain and had breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. It is located in the city center of Louvain, just next to the old market. Le Pain Quotidien (LPQ) is a world wide chain of organic bistros, founded by Belgian Alain Coumont. We already wrote some reviews of LPQ (the one in Bruges, and the one in Hasselt). Alain Coumont has recently also started a vegan branch of bistros, Le Botaniste, of which we visited the one in Ghent recently (see our review here).
Le Pain Quotidien, Louvain
Le pain Quotidien Louvain, interior
Pain Quotidien is French for Daily Bread. LPQ sells a wide variety of bread over the counter, and you can also sit down for breakfast, lunch or just a coffee with some baked goodies. There’s always something vegan available and vegan items are clearly marked on the menu. Most of the breads are also vegan (see our blogpost about LPQ in Bruges)
For the two of us, we ordered a blueberry muffin (4,10€), a bowl of fresh fruit (4,80€) and the bread platter (3,40€). There are jams on the table to cover the bread (the hazelnut spread on the tables is onfortunately not vegan). And coffee (2,50€) and tea (3,10€) and freshly squeezed orange juice for each (3,80€).
Freshly squeezed orange juice
Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien
some chocolates on the side
We had a nice breakfast. Total price was 25,50€ which is cheaper still than breakfast in a lot of hotels (where vegan options are often limited). Some more vegan options on the menu would be nice though.
we had breakfast in a relaxed atmosphere (there weren’t that many patrons in at this early hour, I’m guessing it is louder when fully packed though). Service was swift and friendly, although we were again served butter with the bread, despit having asked for a full vegan breakfast. Old habbits die hard it seems (we have encountered this at every visit to LPQ).
Can’t you have some vegan butterspread available please, Le Pain Quotidien? 🙂
Le Pain Quotidien, Louvain, interior
le Pain Quotidien in Louvain, location
Parijsstraat 35
3000 Louvain
+32 (0)16 22 43 70
website: http://www.lepainquotidien.be/en/store/leuven/#.VzBlUYSLSHs
See our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and outside Bruges.
Toilet is upstairs, clean and tidy, narrow (in recent reviews, I try to include a pic of the bathroom, as it also determines the overall impression of a place)
pastry sold over the counter (note that not all items are vegan)
The Bruges Vegan 
As I read the post I assumed and hope it’s a little bit better than LPQ Bruges.
Still, they can do a lot better than that. Especially for the same money.
I don’t wanne be negative but if we never tell them it wil never change.
We have been a few times in LPQ and I was everytime very dissapointed!
Compared to the non vegans it was VERY dissapointed. Even after I wrote to the big boss.
A few months later nothing happend. My wife and I has years of experience in horeca.
We knows when it’s great or not.
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