Cafés in City Centre & Kiyovu

KN 4 Ave and the car-free zone

On 24 August 2015 the city closed KN 4 Ave, from Centenary House to the École Belge junction, to cars; delivery trucks may enter only between 22:00 and 05:00.⁵ The Makuza Peace Plaza, a 15-storey building owned by businessman Bertin Makuza, opened on 10 August 2015, and Tea House Café is inside it.⁶

Downtown opens early. Warehouse Cafeteria at 15 KN 118 St serves from 06:00 to 17:00 daily, and K. Cafe is at 1 KN 3 Avenue.

Norrsken House and Kivu Noir

Norrsken House, at the École Belge end of the car-free street, occupies the site of the old school: three renovated classroom blocks and one new main building on a 4,400 m² campus.⁷ Kivu Noir runs a café inside the coworking hub, and its menu includes a rosemary latte and an iced cascara (coffee-cherry) spritz.³

Its doors open daily from 07:00 to 19:00 at 3 KN 78 St.

Mille Collines, pastry and a treehouse

On KN 6 Ave, Hôtel des Mille Collines, built by the Belgian airline Sabena in 1973, sheltered 1,268 people during the 1994 genocide; its manager then, Paul Rusesabagina, inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, which was shot mostly in South Africa and does not show the hotel. It is now a four-star hotel with 112 rooms.⁸

In Kiyovu, Baso Pâtissier at 16 KN 47 Street is the work of Bruno Basomingera, a Belgian-trained pastry chef who opened it in January 2017 and makes Belgian and French pastry; Matadi is its signature chocolate cake.⁹ At Café Indabo on KN 54 Street, seating is mostly outdoors, with a treehouse and swings, an art gallery and a craft boutique in the same compound, and coffee from the Kula Fellowship.³

Rooftop Ikawa and the KN 40s

Rooftop Ikawa Cafe and TechLab, on the roof of The Office building at 34 KN 41 St, is part of the Rwanda Build Program's Venture Tech Lab.⁴ Woo-Hah Coffee Shop is a few streets away on KN 43 St, and Café Royal is at 36 KN 14 Av.

When to go

Baso keeps bakery hours: Tuesday to Thursday 07:00–16:00, Friday 07:00–17:00 and weekends 08:00–17:00. It closes on Mondays and on umuganda, the community work morning on the last Saturday of each month.⁹ Warehouse Cafeteria, open daily from 06:00, is the earlier start downtown.