It doesn’t matter if you’re a four-centimetre tall minifigure or a human being – everybody eats. Here’s where you should eat in the world of LEGO bricks, whether you’re looking for Italian or French cuisine, baked goods, or bacon.
Enjoy this top five list of the best places to eat in the LEGO world from Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine. You’ll find locations from Town, Friends, Winter Village and the Modular Buildings Collection on the list. These could be the perfect additions to your town display or inspire a new original build to add to it.
5. 10037 Breezeway Café
Courtesy of Brickset
This list starts with a tried-and-true classic. 10037 Breezeway Café is the perfect place to sit by the ocean and enjoy … well, a martini glass and a flat, red 1×1 tile. This gorgeous ristorante is airy enough to let the wind in, with plants and a massive palm tree for a natural touch. You’ll be charmed by the restaurant’s luxe staff, too, while the patrons are friendly enough to say ‘Hello! How’s your day in LEGO City?’
The model itself may be dated compared to the other entries on this list, but it’s a true piece of LEGO Town heritage. Its curved windows and signature graphics are instantly recognizable, as are the fence pieces for barriers and the aforementioned palm tree. What really stands out about the 183-piece Breezeway Café set are its appealing colours and simplicity. It won over fans not once but twice – its original 1990 release and its 2002 Legends rerelease are just that – legendary.
4. 10216 Winter Village Bakery
Even when the warm weather goes away, your hunger doesn’t. In the quiet village just outside of LEGO City, you’ll find 10216 Winter Village Bakery – the best place to top up on your favourite sweets. Croissants and confectionaries are baked in an open oven for that ideal crispy texture. Best of all, the holiday season is always on in the winter village, so you can expect wreathes, lights and all your holiday favourites.
As the first Creator Expert model on the list, what earns this bakery its fourth-place ranking is, despite its relative simplicity to the modular buildings, few other sets capture that warm and fuzzy feel. The Winter Village Bakery features a light brick for its massive oven, a triple chimney and a sloped roof covered in a blanket of snow. Visitors may have nowhere to sit, but that’s part of the charm. You can eat baked goods on your way to buy a Christmas tree or sitting on the bench overlooking the frozen lake. There’s a lot to explore in the Winter Village, but this should be your first stop.
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3. 41379 Heartlake City Restaurant
If we’re looking at stylish places to eat, 41379 Heartlake City Restaurant deserves a mention and then some. You’ll love the signature pasta and lasagna, bread, salads and baked goods made by Chef Lillie. The dining area is open to a canopy of stars – the perfect date location for every resident. It all starts with seeing the sign from the highway.
Despite having 624 pieces and not being a Creator Expert or Icons set, this restaurant slips by the Winter Village Bakery with its impressive use of colour. You’ll see cool yellow, medium nougat, bright red, and medium lilac, all in one building, yet it never feels unbalanced or overwhelming. That’s a tricky tightrope to balance on.
2. 10260 Downtown Diner
The second-best restaurant in LEGO city takes on 1950s America in style. It features the signature, rounded diner shaping, which will be a nostalgia rush for older residents. You can’t go wrong with pancakes and nothing beats bacon on the grill. If Heartlake City Restaurant laid under a canopy of stars, 10260 Downtown Diner keeps them inside. Numerous famous minifigures have visited this diner, as you might be able to tell from the stars on the wall.
The first (but not last) Modular Building on our list, the Downtown Diner is a wonderful display set that easily captures what made the 1950s so iconic. It’s a fantastic build, too, thanks to its block lettering sign and detailed interior. There’s a jukebox to play yesterday’s hits made with exhaust tubing, and even a cowl for the stove that’s built expertly into the wall. Being built from 2,480 pieces means there’s a lot of room for detail but one set manages to rise above the diner thanks to one hidden word.
1. 10243 Parisian Restaurant
Ah, Paris. Welcome to 10243 Parisian Restaurant, your destination for fine dining and delicious French cuisine. Fan opinions on sets tend to wane and change with every new year of LEGO sets, but it’s easy to say this is the best LEGO restaurant released to date. It’s one of the first Modular Buildings to tell a clear story, too, featuring a golden ‘engagement ring’ originally introduced in LEGO The Lord of the Rings.
At 2,469 pieces, the Parisian Restaurant never misses a step of detail. The olive green walls are grand and unique among modular buildings, as are the reliefs above made from croissants, clamshells and feathers. A printed placard reads ‘Chez Albert Restaurant’, but it’s not the only place you’ll see his imprint. Beneath the seating area baseplate are plates in the pattern of ‘Chez’. That level of detail, sense of fun and consciousness of the LEGO fan community is impressive. If you haven’t built this beauty, you need to check out the instructions. Maintenant.