Walvis opened in 2016 on a wedge-shaped corner at Walvisstraat 1, by the Dageraadplaats, as the second café from the owners of Vitrin. Its windows run down both sides.
Category: 🍺 Cafés
Looking for the best cafés in Antwerp? Browse our curated selection of top cafés in the city. This guide covers cosy, intimate spaces to trendy hotspots.
Bar Paniek, the Kattendijkdok summer bar that comes down every autumn
Since 2015 the artists’ collective Timecircus has built Bar Paniek each spring in two sheds on the Kattendijkdok, from salvaged wood and old window frames, and taken it down each autumn.
Vitrin: a spritz in the shop window on Marnixplaats
Michiel Thys and Kenny Aernouts opened Vitrin on Marnixplaats in 2011. Fifteen years on, the bar in the shop window still sells the square as its view.
Hopper, the jazz café opposite the KMSKA, has played since 1991
Hopper opened on 23 October 1991 opposite Antwerp’s Royal Museum of Fine Arts. It is named after Edward Hopper and has had Toots Thielemans on its stage.
De Koninck still pours the Bolleke in Antwerp, but brews it in Breendonk
De Koninck brewed in Antwerp from 1833 until 2025. The Bolleke now comes from Duvel Moortgat’s brewery in Breendonk; the tours, the butcher, the cheese and the chocolate stayed on the Mechelsesteenweg.
Luddites Books & Wine: the Antwerp bookshop that pays you to stay
Richard Bolte and Jorien Caers opened Luddites in a 1902 townhouse on Hopland in March 2020. Buy a book downstairs and the first glass of wine upstairs is half price.