Leonidas

Those Gianduja Pralines… mmm.
There is no shortage of chocolatiers in Belgium, for sure, and competition for good chocolate is strong. Leonidas was one of our favorites during the course of the trip. The prices here are just as high as other shops, but I did find that some of there packaged chocolates are a little cheaper if only by a smidge.
My mother almost did all her chocolate purchasing at Leonidas which included a lot of pralines and a few of the ½ shot liquors. I purchased only the small crate of the shot liquors as well. A friend of our host friend had actually introduced us to the pralines and it was instant love. A soft, creamy, and not so overly sweet milk chocolate flavor with bits of nuts mixed in. Leonidas offers prepackaged bags of them which contain an equal number of the three types they sell. The gold one seems to be plain chocolate praline and the other two– silver and bronze– have nuts or some sort of crispy bits inside. I like the silver ones myself.
Me and some friends all split up the chocolate liquors when I returned state side. We weren’t at all familiar with the ½ shots and had thought they were like the liquor cherries we know of. which have a creamy sugary center that oozes. To our surprise they were full liquid ½ shots of the assorted alcohols labeled— Cointreau, Poire Williams, Grand Marnier, Amaretto, Curaçao, and good olé Whiskey. The chocolate is also lined with crystalized sugar and made a really great treat. If you like chocolate + alcohol don’t skip out on these.
I never bought anything by the gram, but we did spend a pretty penny on pralines and liquors. The shop seems to also have a small freezer that sells ice cream. If I wasn’t so finicky with milk this would have been a solid yes. I can imagine they’re pretty good though.
If in Brussels there is no shortage of Leonidas shops though or chocolate and not something to be missed. Leonidas is definitely one of the better around for price and quality.

Chocolate is very good. The prices are ridiculous. I got 1.5 KGs of assorted chocolates for 40 euro. A great place for gifts if you don’t want to break the bank.

They have a great assortment of chocolates! If you go in and try to buy one or two they might just give it to you on the house! Love it. Pleasant surprise :) thank you Leonidas. Definitely a must stop if you’re around strolling the Grand Place/​Market Brussels area.

After dinner just off of Grand Place our last night in town, we wandered around the area a bit and decided to hit up Leonidas because a) we’d been to so many chocolate places already — so what’s one more, and b) the window said that they specialized in pralines, which I thought was interesting — I’ve seen pralines featured as part of an assortment of truffles, but the focus here is definitely on creamy bites of chocolate in ganache, praline, or cream form. Maybe because it was later, we were able to get devoted attention from one of the ladies behind the counter who spoke very good English (and gave us a sample to enjoy in the shop), so service was very solid. With a broad selection to choose from, we were able to fill up a 500-​gram box (which ended up being quite larger than we anticipated) rather easily. Although it seems like it’s not as ’boutique’ as some of the other chocolate spots in Belgium, it is still very good nonetheless. I prefer the pralines myself, but I’m impressed at just how many iterations — dark chocolate, milk chocolate, all sorts of nuts crushed up, rum and champagne, and so on — you can get as pralines and ganaches. I really like the intensity of the marzipan praline, and everything with milk chocolate was so smooth and creamy.
I think the finer points of flavor are a bit obscured given how creamy everything is, so I wouldn’t give it 5 stars compared to some of the other chocolate spots we came to (like Pierre Marcolini and Mary). However, the price is very reasonable compared to the higher-​end boutiques, and, compared to the vast majority of chocolate in the U.S., it’s not even a real competition (even though this is apparently a chain that mass-​produces!). Definitely worth stopping by for some pralines and getting a cheaper taste of what Belgian chocolate is all about.

The chocolate produced by Leonidas is quite alright, but this specific branch is incredibly inefficiently run. Avoid.

3 nights in Belgium and we sampled six different chocolatiers… Leonidas is the BEST!
Allegedly, Leonidas isn’t as high quality as the others such as Neuhaus, Galler, and Godiva, but my wife and I couldn’t tell the difference.
Also, its only 6 euro for 250g (15 – 16 pieces) of chocolate, versus the others whom charge 5 – 10 euro for only 100g of chocolate. Needless, to say, we kept coming back for more and at other locations as well.

Bien que Leonidas est parfois considéré comme le chocolatier «bas de gamme» en Belgique, il n’en est rien ! Leurs pralines sont très bonnes et offrent un bien meilleur rapport qualité/​prix que les autres chocolatiers belges.
Seul reproche, les pralines sont en général moins élaborées que celles chez les chocolatiers plus «haut de gamme» et leurs «Manons» né valent pas les manons glacés de chez Neuhaus, Corné ou Godiva.

Este sitio me lo recomendó una compañera porque me iba un verano a Bruselas, ciudad que recomienda y que me encantó, lo hizo por la calidad y el buen precio en relación con otras marcas con fama de allí pero algo más cara, especialmente si vas a traer a España bombones a la gente.
Lo recomiendo 100% si vais, aunque sea para quedar bien con alguien con una bolsita de bombones. Tienen de todo.

Okay, I’m not going to say this is the best chocolate I had in Belgium, but WOW… seriously their prices are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Awesome here!!!
Did I really just buy a 250g (about 15 pieces) box of chocolate truffles for like 5 euros? This is like the best discount from NY Leonidas EVER!!! I seriously wish this wasn’t the last chocolate store I hit on my chocolate excursion in Brussels — I would’ve bought SOOOOOO much more here had I known!
Their chocolate is very good for the price, once upon a time it was a favorite of mine, till I discovered Neuhaus and Pierre Marcolini, but also note that those two are about 3−4x the price of Leonidas, so you’re getting here 3 – 4 boxes of truffles for the same price you’d get 1 box elsewhere.

Léonidas est une enseigne incontournable du chocolat belge! Fan de chocolat et de pralines, j’adore les leurs !
Je voudrais, dans ce commentaire, parler plus particulièrement de ma dernière «expérience» Léonidas:
Il y a une semaine en allant au cinéma, j’ai découvert qu’il existait des glaces Léonidas. Il n’y en avait plus mais, curieuse, je mourrais d’envie d’y goûter! Aujourd’hui, passant devant un de leur magasin, je né me prive pas et fonce en acheter… J’en prends une à la gianduja (ma praline préférée Léonidas!) et une à la praline Manon. Grosse déception: je commence par la glacé à la Manon. Il s’agit en fait plus d’un glacé au café avec des morceaux de noisettes qu’à la Manon. La deuxième glacé né m’a pas ravi plus que la première, loin de là … :(
J’ai tout de même mis 3 étoiles à Léonidas car, même si je n’ai pas aimé leurs glaces, j’y retournerai bientôt pour leurs pralines! :)

Simply amazing chocolate. Totally fresh and rich. It makes a great gift for those chocolate lovers at home but be sure to keep some for yourself! They have loads of varieties to pick from but if you are feeling totally undecided, they include prepackaged boxes. Check out their specials as well! When I was there, they offered a bag of chocolate along with your purchase of a box.
Writing these reviews make me miss that beautiful city…

This is simply the best chocolate that you can buy. I would give it more stars if I could. The beauty of Leonidas is that it is almost half the price of other chocolatiers around Gran Place in Brussles. Pick your own chocolate or let the friendly employees there pick for you. You can tell them special things that you want/don’t want like «no white chocolate» or «extra pieces with alcohol (try the rum)». Seriously, this place is outstanding. If you are at this location, make sure that you visit the nearby Chocolate Museum.

Léonidas est vu en Belgique comme le Mcdo des chocolatiers !
Le chocolat noir laisse un mauvais arrière goût dans la bouche. Les pralines sont très grasses et écœurantes.
Passez votre chemin si vous voulez manger de bonnes pralines et rendez-​vous plus tôt chez Jean-​Philippe Darcis si vous voulez des bouchées raffinées à des prix raisonnables ! (Si vous êtes à Bruxelles)

Kann mich den oben abgegebenen Kommentaren nur anschließen und Das gute Stübchen wärmstens weiterempfehlen.

Hier kann man eigentlich nur eine kurze Bewertung schreiben:
Hmmmmmmmm, einfach nur lecker!
Am liebsten würde ich alle Sorten kaufen, aber das geht nunmal leider nicht.
Das Personal war sehr freundlich und hat mich geduldig beraten.

Ich liebe diese süßen kleinen Dinger von Leonidas, zum Glück komme ich nur alle paar Jahre nach Brüssel, aber dann müssen es Pralinen von Leonidas sein.
Natürlich habe ich auch schon die Pralinen der bekannten Konkurrenz probiert, aber ich muß sagen, Leonidas schmeckt mir besser und ganz nebenbei sind sie auch noch etwas günstiger.

Egal wo es Leonidas in Brüssel gibt, von der Bedienung bis zu den Truffé — einfach lecker! Fantastisch! Und leider teuer… lässt sich aber beim Truffé Kauf in Bruxelles kaum vermeiden…

Ce magasin est vraiment fantastique! Le chocolat est très bonne, j’ai acheté il ya beaucoup de cadeaux à prendre à l’Italie.

nice fresh chocolate shop — great for buying presents to take back and they wrap everything so beautifully too. Better to choose a mixture rather than just buy the made up ones. Buy just before you go but be careful i tend to buy several kilos for friends then end up being over weight in luggase but friends definitely love them as being fresh.

Les Leonidas en Belgique sont beaucoup moins chers qu’en France. On s’achète un ballotin de chocolat comme on s’offrirait un petit pain pour le goûter.
De très bons chocolats.

les meilleurs pralines qualitée prix, mais de toute les pranilles manons vraiment les meilleurs

Grandísimo grupo de chocolaterías, sin hacerles publicidad, creo que tienen el mejor chocolate de belga a un buen precio

Hay dos chocolaterias de esta cadena cerquita de la Grand Place. Tienen sobre todo pralinés, bombones de todo tipo, tabletas de chocolate, figuras y a muy buen precio.
Son muy profesionales y te recomiendan estupendamente.

Belgische Schokolade ist mehr als nur die bei uns bekannten Meeresfrüchte. Und wenn man schon mal die Gelegenheit hat, belgische Pralinen in Brüssel zu kaufen, sollte man sich gleich mit mehreren Ballotins (=hübsch verpackte Pralinenschachteln) eindecken. Es gibt viele Marken, einige große Namen sind Godiva, Corne und Neuhaus, die jedoch ziemlich teuer sind. Eine preiswerte und überaus delikate Marke ist Leonidas. Der Laden in der Altstadt, in der Straße aus Butter, der früher nur aus einem Verkaufsfenster bestand wurde nun zu einem richtigen Touristenshop mit einer großen Theke ausgebaut. Als ich meine Ballotins (250g-​Schachtel für sagenhafte 4,70 Euro) war es 22.30 Uhr und der Laden brummte. Es gab vier Verkäufer_​innen, die wie die Bienchen umherschwirrten und die gewünschte Mischung zusammentrugen. Es gibt eine große Auswahl an Schokoladentafeln, Pralinen, Marzipan, Geschenkartikeln, natürlich gefüllt mit bester Schokolade und was sonst noch aus Schokolade hergestellt werden kann.
Fazit: Wunderbare, belgische Schokolade zu einen sehr guten Preis mitten im Zentrum — nur ein paar Schritte vom schönen Grand Place entfernt. Habe mich im Nachhinein sehr geärgert, dass ich nur 2 Schachteln gekauft habe.