Paris has joined the third wave coffee movement with a vengeance. Discover more than a dozen Paris coffee shops where you can drink seriously good flat whites instead of overpriced muddy water. We include a bonus pick if you like to pair specialty coffee with pancakes.
Not a new trend, Paris cafe culture dates back to the 17th century when coffee first arrived from the new world. Historically, though, the Paris cafe experience was more about style than substance.
Paris Cafe Culture
Over the years, movies like Amelie and Midnight in Paris have romanticized Parisian cafes to the masses. These fictional cafes, ideal for intimate liaisons and people-watching, always seemed to have cozy wood-lined interiors and outdoor sidewalk spaces with street facing tables just millimeters apart.
But, to be frank, French coffee was a dark, bitter experience at real-life Paris cafes until recently. Clearly, Voltaire and Victor Hugo were more concerned about the quality of their spirited conversations than la qualité du café.
Fun Fact
Voltaire allegedly drank 40+ cups of coffee every day. If you think that’s insane, Balzac drank 50.
Specialty Coffee in Paris
More than a decade in the making, the Paris specialty coffee scene is percolating at full blast. While established roasters like La Brûlerie de Belleville and Lomi fuel the city, a new breed of baristas is breathing fresh life into Parisian coffee cups.
This obsessed French city doesn’t mess around when it comes to the art of cuisine and, finally, coffee is no exception to this rule. Flat whites and matcha lattes are now as accessible as the muddy water we used to drink at Paris cafes.
Even stalwarts like Shakespeare & Company Cafe are now serving specialty coffee. This doesn’t mean that the city still doesn’t have touristic, overpriced cafes. The trick is knowing where to go for the good stuff.
Our Favorite Paris Coffee Shops
After spending 5€ for a dreadful cup of coffee at a traditional cafe near our Paris apartment hotel in early 2019, we made it our personal mission to find great coffee in Paris. We started at Cullier (now closed) and quickly found a burgeoning specialty coffee scene hiding in plain sight.
Over a year and during four separate trips, we drank a lot of specialty coffee in arrondissements all over the city from the 1st to the 15th. Many cafes served us buttery croissants and classic French pastries.
A few were so good that we visited multiple times to satisfy our never-ending coffee craving. Then, after a pandemic-induced hiatus, we returned to Paris in 2022 and guzzled even more flat whites.
These are our favorite Paris coffee shops:
1. Substance Café
“Have you been to Substance Cafe yet?”
This question followed us as we crawled around Paris’ specialty coffee shops in early 2020. Though only open since the previous Bastille Day, this cafe earned an enviable reputation in a relatively short time due to owner Joachim Morceau’s intense coffee obsession.
It no understatement to call Morceau’s coffee love an obsession – he even refuses to serve his luxury-priced drinks with sugar or in takeaway cups. Drink options include double espressos, macchiatos, cappuccinos, flat whites and filtered coffee as well as rotating coffee specials.
Morceau, whose contagiously entertaining vocal passion matches his exquisitely poofy brown hair, justifies his higher prices with the quality of his coffee. Leave it to the French to appreciate coffee like fine wine. Coffee authorities like Morceau are in the vanguard of this movement.
During our visit, we tried two different drinks, both made with Ethiopian beans from Hong Kong‘s Urban Coffee Roaster. Morceau used washed beans to brew the complex, shareable filter coffee. However, he used natural beans to craft an extraordinary flat white with subtle flavors of blueberry and cheesecake.
Though we’ve imbibed hundreds, if not thousands, of flat whites around the world, this is the first time that a barista insisted we stir our coffee before drinking it. We learned an important lesson in flavor and coffee imbibing. This drink was worth an extra stir.
Pro Tip
Not sure what to drink? Order Substance Café’s omakase and let Morceau curate a coffee menu based on your preferences and budget. Omakase pricing started at 20€ at the time of our visit.
Substance Café is located at 30 Rue Dussoubs, 75002 Paris, France.
2. La Caféothèque
La Caféothèque gets credit for being the very first specialty coffee shop not just in Paris but in all of France. However, despite its pioneer status, this cafe is as relevant today as ever.
Gloria Montenegro opened Soluna Cafés (La Caféothèque’s original name) in 2005. Operating at its original location, the cafe has expanded over the years to include multiple rooms, space for roasting beans and its School of Coffeeology.
La Caféothèque roasts beans from around the world onsite. Guests can sneak a preview by gazing at drawers filled with beans from countries like Brazil, Guyana, Kenya and Thailand.
It’s an impressive display but no more impressive than the coffees crafted by the cafe’s friendly crew.
Since La Caféothèque doesn’t allow laptops, we were more than content to sip our flat whites while chatting and checking emails on our phones. Our only stress was selecting a table in La Caféothèque’s simultaneously cosy and sprawling space.
Though tempted by a room filled with comfy furniture and a piano, we ultimately chose the tropical room (pictured above). The sun streaming through the windows was impossible for us to resist as was the room’s colorful mural and hanging plants.
Pro Tip
Spend a morning learning the basics of ‘Coffeeology’ during a 2-hour coffee tasting workshop. You can get more details and book a workshop.
La Caféothèque is located at 52 Rue de l’Hôtel de ville, 75004 Paris, France.
3. fringe
At fringe, vintage camera gear peacefully coexists next to a shiny La Marzocco espresso machine while Danish textiles share shelves with books like Lindsey Tramuta’s informative The New Paris. Located in the northern side of the Marais since 2016, this Paris coffee shop has an American owner, Scandinavian vibes and sweet aromas drifting through its air.
Fringe quickly became a happy place for us in Paris. Not only is owner Jeff Hargrove a professional photographer and third wave coffee aficionado, but he also bakes delightfully addictive cookies – thick robust, earthy, chocolatey cylinders of yum.
During our first visit, we drank a flat white brewed with Kenyan beans from Copenhagen’s Coffee Collective and filtered coffee brewed with Ethiopian beans sourced from Frukt in Turku. Both coffees were text book but the cookie stole the show.
Fun Fact
Cookies are having a moment in Paris. Beyond this cookie at fringe, we’ve also eaten great cookies at Echo, Jean Hwang Carrant and Mokonuts.
We later returned to fringe with our sister and niece in tow for an afternoon fika break and again the next day for energy-boosting cappuccinos. Proving that quality isn’t cheap, coffee prices skew a bit high at fringe compared to other Paris cafes.
Specialty coffee is relatively pricey all over Paris. In our experience, many of the better Paris coffee shops charge a little bit more.
Pro Tip
Not in the mood for a cookie? Order a chocolate espresso brownie or cardamom bun instead. Fringe bakes these decadent desserts and more on-site.
fringe is located at 106 Rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris, France.
4. Télescope Café
Nicolas Clerc opened Télescope Café in the 1st arrondissement with former partner David Flynn (see above) in 2012. All these years later, Clerc is a specialty coffee veteran in Paris and his intimate Paris cafe is as popular as ever.
Small and simple, Télescope Café was tourist-free at the time of our visit. Clerc greeted us with a quiet warmth before getting to the serious business of crafting our cappuccino and matcha latte.
Using beans sourced from Hasbean in Dublin, Clerc quickly prepared our cappuccino. The matcha latte was a more complicated endeavor that involved him grinding green leaves into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle.
The end result was a liquid garden in a glass. Daryl exclaimed that he wanted to write a novel after just one sip. Alas, that didn’t happen. We proceeded to eat a mont-blanc at nearby Angelina instead.
Update: When we returned to Télescope Cafe in 2022, Clerc crafted our flat whites with Brazilian beans sourced from Belgium’s Caffènation Specialty Coffee Roasters.
Pro Tip
Take a coffee break at Télescope Café when you need a rest while touring top Paris attractions. This cafe is conveniently located near the Louvre and Pompidou.
Télescope Café is located at 5 Rue Villédo, 75001 Paris, France.
5. Café Loustic
Café Loustic is a specialty coffee shop that doesn’t have flat whites on its menu. Instead, the cafe crafts ‘café crèmes’ for those who want two shots in their milky espresso drinks. We realized this omission after ordering a flat white during our visit and getting a friendly smackdown and a cappuccino instead.
But make no mistake. Loustic is a real-deal specialty coffee shop that’s both cosy and friendly. Shelves in the front of the stylish space are lined with scones, viennoiseries, banana bread, cookies and sandwiches. In the back, customers hunker down while juggling coffee in one hand and keyboards in the other.
Owner Channa Galhenage wouldn’t have it be any other way. After starting his coffee career at La Caféothèque (see above), Galhenage opened Café Loustic in February of 2013, selected Belgium’s Caffènation as his primary roaster and hasn’t looked back yet.
Located in the western side of the Marais, Café Loustic has a unique aesthetic that combines funky wallpaper, exposed brick and Spanish tiles. Somehow, the disparate elements come together in a way that works. The same can be said about the cafe’s menus.
Despite a coffee menu which features no fewer than seven latte options, non-coffee drinkers can choose from teas, juices, beer and wine. Food options are equally ample.
Pro Tip
Buy a t-shirt if you dig the ‘Mouthfeel Baby’ design on Café Loustic’s takeaway cups.
Café Loustic is located at 40 Rue Chapon, 75003 Paris, France.
6. Hexagone Café
Keeping to theme, hexagon-shaped mirrors decorate the walls of Hexagone Café. Though this decoration is fun, you’ll want to head to this left bank cafe foremost for the cafe’s excellent coffee.
Fun Fact
Hexagon is a popular nickname for France due to the European country’s six-sided shape.
Hexagone Café co-owner Stéphane Cataldi roasts the cafe’s beans in Brittany. Parisian baristas brew the award-winning beans in all of the typical varieties including espressos, noisettes, cappuccinos, lattes, frappés and filtered coffee.
Non-coffee drinkers (who are these people?) can drink tea, hot chocolate, orange juice or ginger ale at Hexagone Café. A range of sweet treats is also available for those (like us) with a sweet tooth or two.
Whether you choose a tart, cookie, scone or brownie is up to you. As for us, we’re all about the caramels.
Pro Tip
Don’t plan to work at Hexagone Café. Not only is this Paris café a wifi-free zone, but it also prohibits laptop usage on weekends. Note: Paris is a crowded city. You may have to work in your hotel room or apartment. Another option is to find a co-working space.
Hexagone Café is located at 121 Rue du Château, 75014 Paris, France.
7. Boot Café
With just eight colorful stools, Boot Café is probably the tiniest cafe in the Marais if not all of Paris. It’s also cosmopolitan with an American owner, Australian barista and beans from Norway.
Fun Fact
Boot Café is smaller than our Lisbon bathroom. Granted, our bathroom is freakishly large.
Don’t let this cute cafe’s miniature size deter you from entering the former shoe repair shop. Instead, grab a shoe horn to squeeze yourself in and belly up to the bar. Your reward will be a selection of seriously good specialty coffee drinks served with sweet treats and pleasant conversation
We felt surprisingly comfortable perched on top of yellow and green plastic stools while sipping cappuccinos crafted with Colombian beans from Oslo’s Fuglen Coffee Roasters. When it comes to Paris specialty coffee shops, apparently taste trumps size.
Pro Tip
Join the queue even if all of Boots Café’s colorful stools are occupied. The coffee tastes just as good in takeaway cups.
Boot Café is located at 19 Rue du Pont aux Choux, 75003 Paris, France.
8. Ten Belles
Open in Canal Saint-Martin since 2012, Ten Belles immediately achieved coffee credibility thanks to co-owner Thomas Lehoux’s award-winning barista skills. Two more locations have followed including a large bakery near the Bastille.
Using beans from Belleville Brûlerie, also co-owned by Lehoux, baristas prepare espressos, cappuccinos, noisettes, cortados and filtered coffee. Non-coffee drinkers can choose from a variety of caffeine-free drinks including hot chocolate and cold lemonade.
Expect a varied breakfast and lunch menu plus tasty treats like lemon cake and donuts at Ten Belles. Just don’t expect wifi. You can get that at your Paris hotel or apartment.
Pro Tip
Buy a Ten Belles ‘KeepCup’ if you plan to be a repeat visitor. You’ll save 20 cents on each future drink purchase.
The original Ten Belles is located at 10 Rue de la Grange aux Belles, 75010 Paris, France.
9. Coutume Café
We’d been wanting to visit Coutume since we enjoyed excellent coffee and cake at the Coutume cafe in Osaka. Sadly, that Japanese location has closed. However, Coutume is going strong in France with multiple Paris cafes and a roastery.
Antoine Nétien and Tom Clark opened the original Coutume cafe on Rue de Babylone in the 7th arrondissement in 2011. Today, dedicated staff members provide table service while preparing specialty coffee using V60, Chemex and Aeropress extractors as well as a Synesso Syncra espresso machine.
Coutume offers a coffee menu with a range of drinks including espressos, double espressos, cappuccinos, batch brew coffee, filter coffee, lattes, cortados, flat whites, cold brew and a coffee flight. Priced at 9.50€ at the time of our visit, the flight features a single origin coffee prepared three different ways – espresso, cappuccino and filter.
Food options include desserts like Japanese cheesecake and financiers as well as a selection of savory items. We opted for two of the latter – Blanquette de Veau and Salted Pancakes. Next time we’ll try to save room for dessert.
Pro Tip
Splurge on a bag of freshly roastd Pink Bourbon – El Chaferote beans from Colombia if your budget can handle a 30€ hit. Otherwise, buy a less expensive bag of Coutume beans sourced from farmers in Burundi, Colombia, Congo, Indonesia or Mexico instead.
Coutume Café has multiple locations. We visited the original cafe located at 47 Rue de Babylone, 75007 Paris, France.
10. i/o Cafe
For computer techies, i/o is the input/output communication between a computer and another party. In Paris, i/o has a second connotation – specialty coffee.
Open in the 3rd arrondissement since January of 2020, i/o cafe serves flat whites in artisan mugs and tea in carafes. The mugs were so pretty that we almost bought two but abstained due to each mug’s 30€ price tag. Don’t judge – we spent a lot of money on food and drinks in Paris instead.
We drank flat whites brewed with Denmark’s La Cabra beans from i/o’s one-page menu during our pre-pandemic visit. The menu also featured espressos, double espressos, black coffee, cortados, cappuccinos and filtered coffee as well as Kodama teas, hot chocolate, chai lattes, matcha lattes, orange juice and lemonade.
Pro Tip
This cafe doesn’t have a bathroom. Consider yourself warned.
i/o café is located at 16 Rue Dupetit-Thouars, 75003 Paris, France.
11. Lomi
Despite Lomi’s senior roasting status dating back to 2010, owners Paul Arnephy and Aleaume Paturle continue to source beans from around the world. They roast many of them at their Paris cafe in the rarely touristed 18th arrondissement.
Fun Fact
Owner Paul Arnephy achieved Meilleur Ouvrier de France – Torréfacteur (MOF – Roaster) status in 2018.
Open since 2012, Lomi’s cafe serves as a neighborhood hub and tasting room. Its signature espresso blend, J’a Deux Amours blends two of their “best loved” beans.
Located away from the tourist trail, the cafe is a worthy destination for the truly coffee obsessed who want to chill with a local crowd. Some in the crowd arrive with laptops in tow and other with strollers, but they all have one thing in mind – drinking freshly roasted specialty coffee.
During our visit, we tried Lomi’s espresso blend in a flat white as well as a filtered coffee brewed with Ethiopian beans. While they weren’t our favorite Paris coffees, we’re still glad we made the short walk to Lomi. We’re also glad we have European phone service since the cafe doesn’t offer complimentary WiFi.
Pro Tip
Lomi is just a 17-minute walk from Gare du Nord in case you want to grab a coffee or buy a bag of beans before you hit the road.
Lomi is located at 3 ter Rue Marcadet, 75018 Paris, France.
12. KB Coffee Roasters
Originally called Kooka Boora (named after an Australian bird) when it opened in 2010, this Parisian coffee operation has since shortened its name to KB, opened a second cafe called Back in Black and started roasting its own beans.
The original KB Coffee Cafeshop is still located in a Pigalle corner building with floor-to-ceiling windows and a sprawling terrace. More importantly, the cafe’s baristas continue to serve serious coffee in a friendly environment.
Drink choices included cappuccinos and lattes as well as hot chocolate and tea during our late spring visit. A young crowd filled the tony cafe and spilled onto the sidewalk terrace, many looking at laptops and smart phones as they gulped down their cups of liquid elixir.
We were happy to join the crowd. After finding two seats at the cafe’s long indoor table, we savored every sip of our creamy cappuccinos as we planned the rest of our day in Paris.
Pro Tip
Stop by KB Coffee Cafeshop before you visit Montmartre. You’ll appreciate the caffeine jolt as you climb the steep hill toward Sacre Coeur.
KB Coffee Roasters is located at 53 Avenue Trudaine, 75009 Paris, France.
13. Café Méricourt
We often choose apartments based on their proximity to specialty coffee cafes, which is how we ended up spending a week in Paris’ Oberkampf neighborhood. We rightfully suspected that we’d love the neighborhood based on nearby cafes like Café Méricourt.
More than a simple coffee shop, Cafe Méricourt’s menu features a variety of dishes including shakshuka and green eggs with feta. More importantly (at least to us), this spacious Paris cafe serves coffee from a rotating array of guest roasters plus tea from Kodama.
Pro Tip
Ramp up your brunch with wine, cider or craft beer. Better yet, ramp it all the way up with a bloody méricourt or sunny spritz.
Café Méricourt is located at 22 Rue de la Folie Méricourt, 75011 Paris, France.
14. République of Coffee
We visited République of Coffee for two reasons – the cafe’s central location and its fun coffee menu. Remembering the charcoal latte we had enjoyed in Lyon, we couldn’t resist ordering the same drink upon entering the striking Paris cafe.
Made with vegetal charcoal, vanilla syrup and milk, this charcoal latte was sweet. Very sweet. Too sweet. Sadly, the drink didn’t live up to our memories.
However, we recommend République of Coffee for its prime location just steps from Place de la République. You’ll eventually need a break when you’re touring Paris and this is a convenient spot to rest your weary feet.
Pro Tip
Don’t pull out your laptop during the weekend or during lunchtime during the week. That being said, there’s no rule against surfing on your phone.
République of Coffee is located at 2 Boulevard Saint-Martin, 75010 Paris, France.
Additional Paris Coffee Shops
But wait, there’s more! Consider the following Paris cafes when you crave a flat white or cappuccino in the City of Light:
Bonus – Holybelly
With two locations on the same street, Holybelly serves some of the best pancakes we’ve eaten outside of America. Daryl is convinced they stole the recipe from his former (now closed) favorite brunch spot in Philadelphia. But that’s not the only thing worth waiting in line for at Holybelly…
While Holybelly doesn’t roast its own beans, it sources coffee from quality roasters like Brulerie Belleville (see above) and Germany’s The Barn. During our visit, we drank excellent flat whites crafted with Ethiopian beans sourced from the iconic Berlin coffee roaster.
Pro Tip
Don’t miss Holybelly’s hot sauce if you order a savory dish. However, to be clear, we don’t recommend adding the spicy condiment to your coffee.
Holybelly has two locations on the same street. We enjoyed brunch and flat whites at the cafe located at 5 Rue Lucien Sampaix, 75010 Paris, France.
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About the Authors
Daryl & Mindi Hirsch
Saveur Magazine’s BEST TRAVEL BLOG award winners Daryl and Mindi Hirsch share their culinary travel experiences and recipes on the 2foodtrippers website and YouTube. The married Food and Travel content creators live in Lisbon, Portugal.
Original Publication Date: July 29, 2020
Denise
Monday 22nd of August 2022
Love your blogs and looking forward to trying many of your recommendations. One question: do any coffee shops serve Almond milk or lactose free milk?? Many thanks.
Daryl and Mindi Hirsch
Monday 22nd of August 2022
Yes. While we don't normally order oat milk, we see it commonly at cafes all over Europe. Have a great trip!!
TS
Friday 21st of January 2022
I'm an American who lives in Le Marais (4éme). Thank you for detailing many excellent local cafés. Oddly, you missed what I would say is the local expat favourite--Le Peloton Café at 17 Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe. Not only do their baristas prepare excellent coffee, but the café owners create community in ways you don't often find in Paris. I only searched for Paris coffee shops today and found your article because LPC just closed for two months for a complete remodel, so we Peloton orphans are required to find other places to congregate to sip our flat whites and similar until March when the remodelled café opens!
David
Tuesday 27th of July 2021
Thank you for sharing your coffee discoveries. I love coffee and I love Paris so finding new cafes to sample is always an adventure I want to embark on when I visit the city of lights. Thank you again for sharing.