Le Café Gourmand

OK, this is probably the best French bakery and pâtisserie in town. Upstairs, there’s a lovely terrace with a great view over the hills of Bujumbura, where they serve international dishes. The food is fairly standard, but still one of the best options in town if you’re craving Western European cuisine. The bakery itself has some great choices – I especially love the small baguettes.

- Oliver Heldt -

2024: Still one our top go to places in Bujumbura! Staff is usually wonderful and the coffee and food consistently very good. Ice-cream is usually fantastic, though texture can vary is the power turned off. You can’t beat the desserts and quality and options of the bread!! I love the look on the faces of friends when they get their food for the first time here. Always impressed. Read the below section for more info as it is still all accurate. 2022 Update: We have been coming since 2012. Once again, the service here continues to be AMAZING. We love the staff! Reliable and you get food made the same (same style/recipe/taste) almost every time. Very rare in Africa. My compliments to the management and chef for their consistency and maintaining quality all these years. We still love the Lemonade Maison, all the coffees, Mokaccino (Frappuccino). Ice cream is much improved. Glacé Gourmand flavor is amazing with the Moka or Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla . Highly recommend getting it STRAIGHT from the ice cream counter. Otherwise it melts before it makes it to you. Would be nice if it was served in frozen bowls. Tasty waffle cones. Chicken Caesar Salad is very nice, though a little boring. We ask for avocados or tomatoes on the side. Hawaiian Chicken Salad is beautiful. Smash Burger is possibly the best burger in town. And the chips (French fries) are Amazing! The Southern Chicken Fried Burger is great. All their food tends to be outstanding. Service: We asked for the burger for the children without vegetables and cheese on the side. That’s exactly how it came. So simple, but this is the first place in town that has listened and gave us what we asked for. Also, the sweet staff brought our girls a complimentary plate of the side cakes. They are always so nice to our kids. Loved the chocolate messages in my cappuccino. Old 2021 review: The brie and jambon sandwich (basically a really nice roast beef sandwich), and the Chicken Burger is amazing. Our girls love the Quiche Lorraine. Sadly, We also feel the ice cream has become less reliable in quality and flavor. Very sad as it used to be our favorite anywhere in the works. Please fix!!! Five star for being consistently and reliably great in quality and service. We absolutely love this place. Have been coming since 2012-2013. Have met so many wonderful people here. Awesome atmosphere. And the view! Stunning terrace view of both the Burundian Mountains and the Congolese Mountains. Also worth the breeze. Really refreshing, but downstairs is air conditioned and great for hot days. The food has never failed to be 4-5 star and the bakery and pastries could rival any anywhere in Europe. One of the fastest meals in Buja, which is saying something. Great if you need a quick bite. It’s nice to eat and not worry about the cleanliness factor and have never had anyone get sick, a huge deal here. Highly recommend the Iced Mokaccino, iced Moka, Lemonade Maison, and just about everything in between. If you get a iced blended or milkshake and it melted before it got to you, send it back and they’ll fix it no problem. Great service!!!

- M&E -

Great food. Amazing desserts. Awesome service. Good coffee. Love the sandwiches, quiche, and juices. Can’t go wrong with this place. It is a little pricey, but it’s good.

- Tonja Rice -

On my recent (first) visit to Bujumbura, we visited Le Cafe Gourmand twice - once for lunch and once for a late dinner. Both times we had exceptionally friendly and efficient service, and delicious food (chicken pie, French bread sandwiches, spinach quiche, salads, sparkling water with lemon, iced coffees). The cafe has an impressive selection of pastries, sweet treats, bakes... all beautifully decorated and presented. Don't miss it!

- Kim Bell -

This boulangerie has my favorite bread. Muffins were great too. The terrace is great and offers a view over Bujumbura. Coffee/Capuchino is decent (a bit on the bitter side), their pastry/cake is very good. Relative to local prices a bit expensive, but as a visitor from Europe, to find a boulangerie with these type of quality of products, is truly amazing.

- Muddassir Malik -

The Pastries are amazing and the drinks are good too. They have good wifi. The have a wide food variety. Overall I'm impressed

- James Azrael -

Nice place, cakes were good, coffee was great, bad wifi

- Meghyem -