For some, coffee is a ritual and as the culture expands, cafes have to keep up with the main trends — and create ever more elaborate brewed concoctions. Alternatives – infusion brewing methods prepared of light roasted coffee beans, like Chemex and Kalita allows us to find new tastes and aromas. These are slow brewing methods, so a bit more time is needed to prepare them and in return, we can really discover the coffee beans taste depending on country of origin. Below is a list of our favorite alternative coffee houses. You are guaranteed the best coffee in the city at any one of them. Enjoy!
Cophi – Hoża 58/60
Cophi is really small but run by people with big hearts. It has to be in the TOP 5 of smallest coffee houses in Warsaw. At Cophi, you can always try five blends of and two single–origin espresso drinks, as well as numerous filter options. In addition to their house offer, eight single origins are rotated on a monthly basis. If that is not enough for you, you can always ask Uri Wollner, the owner of Cophi for something special such as bulletproof coffee or the drink popular in Portugal: espresso with lemonade.
We popped into Cophi and spoke to Uri in the video below ( first 20 seconds in Polish. rest in English)
What is amazing is that Uri has managed to create a space that is comfortable for hipsters, families with children as well as the older citizens.
Nancy Lee – Górskiego 9
Nancy Lee in our opinion has arguably the best coffee in Warsaw.
The owners love rock n’ roll and play great music from vinyl records.
Vegetarian food, incredible alternatively brewed coffee served in measuring vials and a simple but homely interior is the best way to describe Nancy Lee. Brilliant!
STOR – Tamka 33
The interior design is exquisite: huge windows, wooden and golden details. Every inch of the cafe is incredibly photogenic and Instagram–perfect. But don’t get fooled by the aesthetics, it’s also a fully qualified specialty coffee place with experienced and passionate staff.
It is a relatively small cafe, decorated with lots of greenery. The interior is taken straight out of Instagram and complements a large selection of alternative coffees and cakes.
STOR is recently getting more famous thanks to its cupping events and home–brewing workshops dedicated to people who are new to coffee and are eager to learn. They are led by an experienced and passionate barista Kuba Świątek.
Forum Coffee – Elektoralna 11
The beautiful, small shop called Forum can be a bit tricky to find, though the search will lead you on a rewarding visit through the brilliant Zbawiciela Square, not far from the entry to the Comedy Club. It’s a cozy cafe whose coffees include offerings by the Swedish roaster Koppi, Warsaw’s Coffeelab, and Denmark’s Coffee Collective, with several brewed options and espresso prepped on a Synesso.
Forum is a home of AeroPress and Brewers Cup champions Ilona Przewoźniczek and Sławek Saran and is more of a coffee atelier with a centered brew bar that eliminates the distance between the customers’ seating area and the barista’s workspace.
Relax Cafe Bar – Złota 8a, Pasaż Wiecha
Probably one of the oldest full-blooded spespecialtyfes in Warsaw and a perfect one—as the name suggests— for daily visits to rest during a hard day at the office. The owner Michał Matan is dedicated to coffee, sourcing the best beans from European—and beyond—roasteries and encouraging his staff to enhance their skills taking part in championships.
The recent success could be the winning of the local round of Pro-Infuzja latte art championship by Michał Petrykowski, one of the baristas.
Even when you are not a coffee expert you will enjoy this atmosphere, or perhaps you will visit during one of their famous dance street parties. Kizombada is one of the dances you can see during the parties that take place in front of the cafe.
Plakatówka Café – Hlonda 2
On the outskirts of Warsaw in the Wilanów area, there’s Plakatówka Café.
Bring the kids in the morning and enjoy an espresso from their La Marzocco machine or a brewed coffee from one of at least eight rotating roasters, and relax in the outdoor lounge chairs. At the end of the day, swing back through for a glass of wine with friends.
Paręosób
On the border of Ochota and Śródmieście Południowe.
In addition to the sensational-looking interior, attention is drawn to the info delivered along with the ordered drip. You can find information on grains, the date of smoking and weight.
Moko – Antoniego Malczewskiego 6
Moko is probably the tiniest specialty cafe in Warsaw, crammed into a space of only 15 square meters. Yet they manage to include all the essentials: An MCE espresso machine, various brewing methods, and cake. They even steep their own cold brew coffee that’s especially pleasurable on their patio on warm summer days.
Filtry – ul. Niemcewicza 3
Filtry is already a legendary place on Warsaw’s map since it has been on the scene for almost 10 years, located in the old part of Ochota district, it’s probably the oldest specialty coffee house in Warsaw. Filtry’s consistent blend is called Myk Myk, purchased from a local roaster. In the second grinder, various coffees come and go, which they call “Traveling with espresso.” The staff at Filtry is very passionate about coffee and tea. The Myk Myk and “traveling” espresso are prepared on a La Marzocco Linea, and for their various brewed options, choices of coffee include those from Polish roasters Kofi Brand, Java Coffee, Coffee Proficiency, Audun and Czarny Deszcz, and German roasters The Barn and Bonanza. It became a social hub for the locals and even nowadays, 70% of its customers are people from the neighborhood. Some of them even visit the cafe a few times a day.
Beans from the best European roasteries as well as the ones from Czarna Fala—a roastery co-owned by FIltry—are available to buy in the shop.
Secret Life Café – ul. Słowackiego 15/19
Czytelnia – Aleja Zjednoczenia 46
This place was originally supposed to be a place to read, check out newest book titles and enjoy a good cup of coffee, but when you enter you immediately notice that it evolved into a space all about coffee.
The first–handed evidence is the beautiful brew bar with copper V60s and milk jugs, a Mahlkönig coffee grinder and a few acacia scales. The well kept and cherished La Marzocco Linea Classic espresso machine sits in the background. Behind the brew bar, you can find the owners Agata Bakun and Michał Sitarek who are pure coffee geeks—always searching for new inspiration, quality coffee beans and a chance to get educated.
I would definitely recommend you to try a flat white in Czytelnia but if you are more into black coffees you can trust the crew to brew you something exceptional.
Wrzenie Świata – Gałczyńskiego 7
This combination bookstore/cafe is awash in hipster bookishness. Morrissey plays from the speakers, Mac laptops dot the tables, and the shelves are stocked with epically titled books like The History of Photography.
We love the combination of bookstore and cafe especially when they serve some of the best drips in the city. The perfect combination.
Ministerstwo Kawy – Marszałkowska 27/35
Ministerstwo Kawy is a well established and beautiful cafe and from the very beginning has cooperated with the Swedish Koppi roasters. One downside is that sometimes it can get too busy sometimes but the coffee is unquestionably excellent with various alternative options.
The cafe also hosted the Polish AeroPress Championships in 2012, 2013 and 2014! Besides its drinks menu, Ministerstwo Kawy is pretty famous for its homemade sweets and cakes that are prepared by one of the owners. It is also one of the cafes with the longest opening hours. You can enjoy your time here until 11:00 pm.
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What about Pożegnanie z Afryką (Out of Africa or Farewell to Africa). It’s got dozens of coffees from around the world including the world’s best and most expensive from Indonesia (the one where the beans are fed to some ferret-like animal and collected when it evacuates them). It’s on Freta 4/6 in the Old Town. It also has a shop annex where you can buy the coffee – beans or ground.