Antwerp's station quarter and Chinatown on foot

Inside Antwerpen-Centraal

Antwerpen-Centraal Railway Station went up to Delacenserie's design between 1895 and 1905, with a glass-and-iron train shed below it under a canopy by Van Bogaert. The marble-clad hall climbs to gilded balconies and clocks in an eclectic neo-Baroque, and the platforms stack on four levels of arched trusses beneath the stone. People who come to this quarter mostly come for this building first.

Nobody checks a ticket at the door and the station barely closes, so an early or late hour gets you the hall with no one in the frame. Guided station-architecture tours leave from the main hall.

Le Royal Café has held the station's old royal waiting rooms, off the marble staircase, since they became a café in 2013. The painted coffered ceilings and chandeliers came through the conversion; the panelling is mirrored, the chairs are bentwood, and the great dome stands over the stairs outside. It opens 08:00 to 20:00 daily, and mains run €18 to €28. Sit here for the room, because it is the only place to have a beer inside the monument. Book online.

Van Wesenbekestraat and the Chinatown gate

Pagodepoort was raised in 2010 at the mouth of Van Wesenbekestraat, a stone guardian lion to each side and brick 19th-century townhouses behind it. Antwerp's Chinatown has been officially recognised since 2001, the only quarter in Belgium with that status, and at Lunar New Year the street goes loud with lion dances and firecrackers. The gate stands on open street, free to anyone walking under it, and it is the easiest place in the quarter to fall into conversation.

Up the street, Bai Wei at Van Wesenbekestraat 21 has a cook slapping and stretching wheat dough into noodles in the open kitchen. Laminate tables sit shoulder to shoulder in a plain bright canteen with red paper menus in the window, and bowls are €12 to €18. The till takes banknotes and nothing else. The room is always busy, so a large party should come early.

De Coninckplein

A-bib Permeke, Antwerp's main public library, fills a converted Ford motor showroom at Chinatown's back door on De Coninckplein. The 1930s garage kept its cream Streamline-Moderne curves and ribbon windows; behind them is a double-height reading hall of pale timber shelving and a glass-fronted reading café that opens onto the hard-paved square. Entry is free and there is no ticket, there are toilets and wifi, and the building also holds an auditorium and meeting rooms. It is the obvious place to go when the weather turns.

Beerlovers Bar at Rotterdamstraat 105, on the same square, is the serious-beer stop of the station quarter. Twelve chrome taps run under a chalked tap list, and the floor-to-ceiling shelving holds 300 craft and lambic beers, dusty lambic and vintage bottles among them. Four draught beers cost €10 on the deal and bottles start at €4. It opens mid-afternoon and closes Tuesdays. The place is small enough that a dozen people fill a corner, and Friday rewards arriving early.

Hoveniersstraat and Schupstraat

The Antwerp Diamond District sits immediately behind the station on four short barriered streets, Hoveniersstraat and Schupstraat among them, where trade in 80% of the world's rough diamonds is packed into a few guarded blocks that overlap Antwerp's Orthodox Jewish quarter. The buildings are plain 1960s offices with armoured glass shopfronts, bollards and police cameras, and the station viaduct closes one end. Hasidic traders in black hats talk deals on the pavement.

Walking through costs nothing. The trading floors are private, and licensed Diamond and Jewish Quarter guides run tours that meet at Central Station. Photograph the buildings and leave the people alone.

Tables south of the station

Kleinblatt has baked at Provinciestraat 206 since 1931, behind a narrow 1930s shopfront. Sesame-crusted loaves, bagels and poppyseed cakes sit behind curved glass with the glossy pralines, old brass scales stand on the counter, and the queue reaches the pavement. Pastries are €3 to €6. It opens 07:00 to 18:30 Monday to Thursday, closes at 15:00 on Friday and shuts Saturday and Sunday, and festival cakes are made to order. It makes the best breakfast in the station quarter.

Hoffy's on Lange Kievitstraat is run by the Hoffman brothers under Machsike Hadas supervision, with the Hebrew certification notice by the door. The tables are simple and white-clothed, and the takeaway counter carries trays of cholent with kugel and kishke, gefilte fish and kasha. Mains run €18 to €30. It closes Saturdays and shuts mid-afternoon on Fridays for Shabbat. Reservations are taken, and the kitchen does takeaway and delivery.

Ni Shifu at Breydelstraat 8 holds a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 Michelin Guide for numbing Sichuan cooking. In a compact grey room, a copper pot of chilli-and-peppercorn broth bubbles at the centre of every table and dried chillies heap on white plates under red oil. Expect €30 to €45 a head. Lunch takes no reservations and the queue forms before noon, and the kitchen closes Thursdays. The walk down from the station takes 10 minutes, past the Diamond District.

Stadspark

Stadspark is triangular because the Spanish bastion of Fort Herentals was demolished beneath it and the outline follows the old fortification. Keilig laid out the English-landscape planting in 1867. A slender 19th-century iron suspension footbridge crosses the ornamental pond, mature plane trees fill the slopes, a WWI monument stands among them and a concrete WWII bunker sits in the grass.

The park is unfenced and free, with a playground, a skatepark and a small brasserie, and nobody minds a picnic.

Astrid Square, the zoo and Chocolate Nation

ZOO Antwerpen opened in 1843 and runs along the station platforms, close enough that the stone dome shows over its wall. The temple house of 1856 is Egyptian Revival, painted with hieroglyphs and carrying lotus columns, and it stands beside a cast-iron domed winter garden. Both are listed, so this is an animal park and a monument at once. A long moated savanna enclosure takes up one side. Adults pay €30.50 in winter and €38.50 at peak, and booking online a day ahead saves €2.

Chocolate Nation faces the dome from a modern glass block directly opposite the station, the largest Belgian-chocolate experience in the world. Fourteen dark theatrical rooms hold a giant rotating cocoa-pod sculpture and a wall of conching drums, and every ticket ends at the tasting stations of glossy pralines. Adults pay €19.90 and children aged four to 11 pay €14.50. The building is fully accessible and booking is recommended. It will fill a half-day of bad weather.

A concert at Koningin Elisabethzaal

Koningin Elisabethzaal was rebuilt in 2016 inside the zoo complex, entered through a glass foyer grafted onto the zoo's 19th-century brick frontage. The auditorium is an oval shoebox lined with warm vertical oak slats and sail-like acoustic reflectors, rated one of Europe's best-sounding halls, and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra plays here. Seats cost €20 to €90 depending on the programme. The film-score nights work for families.

Where to stay beside the platforms

Radisson Blu Hotel, Antwerp City Centre shares its Koningin Astridplein 7 building with Chocolate Nation. It was the Astrid Park Plaza until the 2018 renovation, a glass-and-steel atrium block of 253 pale contemporary rooms around a planted internal courtyard, and the upper windows look straight onto the station dome and the zoo enclosures. Rates run €110 to €190 a night. It suits arriving by train with luggage and children in tow.

Hotel Indigo Antwerp – City Centre is 250m from the platforms at Koningin Astridplein 43, inside the Diamond District. The rooms carry bold diamond-themed patterns and jewel colours, and QA's Kitchen opens onto a sheltered courtyard terrace with Belgian beers and cocktails. Rates run €90 to €160 a night. It is smaller than the Radisson, so block-book early.

Planning notes

Ni Shifu closes Thursdays, Beerlovers Bar closes Tuesdays, Hoffy's closes Saturdays, and Kleinblatt shuts Saturday and Sunday. Book Chocolate Nation ahead, and carry banknotes for Bai Wei.

See the Antwerp guide and the Antwerp hotel search.