It seems like there’s always enough space for another café in Budapest. The past few months have been buzzing with news about freshly opened coffeehouses in diverse Budapest locations, so we visited them all and picked our favorites.

New cafés pop up in Budapest one after the other, which makes keeping up with the current selection rather difficult. To make the task easier, we collected the best cafés that have opened around the city in recent months. Regardless of new-wave or classic Italian-style roasting, we chose the places with the best overall impression. Our list features both cafés that are all about coffee, and ones that also offer full breakfasts.

1/8

Cube Coffee Bar

1067 Budapest, Hunyadi tér 8.

This tiny café, located at Hunyadi Square, used to be a butcher shop back in the day, but since this April, only coffee has been measured between the stylishly bare brick walls. The fair-trade organic coffee from the Koptan Gayo Megah Berseri cooperative is brewed with an Elektra coffee machine refurbished by one of the founders, László Dorgai, and then the citrus-, hazel-, and chocolate-flavored drink is topped with pretty milk foam. They roast the beans themselves: light for filter (and iced) brews, and dark for espresso-based versions. Whichever we choose, it’s worth pairing with a wrap, a slice of homemade cake, or a pastry, the latter coming from Pékműhely. Cube has a miniature terrace of its own, as well, with only two tables, a bench, and a great view of Hunyadi Square.

Prices: espresso - 380 HUF, flat white - 690 HUF, cortado - 500 HUF

2/8

Ébresztő

1137 Budapest, Jászai Mari tér 4/B
Több infó

The newest spot on our list has only been open since late May, but that doesn’t mean it’s a novice business. Ébresztő has been operating in Tata, a town just an hour’s drive away from Budapest, since 2015, and now found its new home on Pozsonyi Street. The café is small but rich in content: in addition to serving coffee, it also operates as a design shop and showroom. The café offers specialty coffees (and loose-leaf teas) from their own roastery, Awaken Coffee Roastery, and the shop features bags, watches, and other accessories from Uptostyle. All of this is complemented by the bakery products of The Mill, the pressed juices of Fű Juice Bar, and the dips of Mártogatós. Everything is here that we need to kick-start our day, especially since the café opens as early as 7:30 in the morning. We just have to decide which of the five types of coffee – changing seasonally – that we want our espresso made out of.

Prices: espresso - 450 HUF, cappuccino - 650 HUF, flat white - 800 HUF, cocoa roll - 350 HUF

3/8

Magvető Café

1074 Budapest, Dohány utca 13.
Több infó

For a change, let’s wander from the specialty genre – after all, new-wave cafés aren’t almighty. In April, a Hungarian book publisher, Magvető Kiadó, unexpectedly opened a café on Dohány Street, with the management of Krisztián Nyáry. Visitors can expect a rich selection of cultural events here, from theatrical performances and book presentations to unconventional literature lessons and slam-poetry evenings. Every detail reminds us that we’re in a cultural environment: the shelves are lined with the books of Magvető Kiadó, which we can either read while sipping on a cup of coffee or purchase. We recommend pairing the coffee, which is 100% Arabica from Caribou Coffee, with some kind of snack: cocoa rolls, mini pies, coconut meringues, or savory biscuits.

Prices: espresso - 350 HUF, everything-free coconut meringue - 200 HUF, cocoa roll - 250 HUF, savory biscuit - 100 HUF

4/8

Piknik Coffee & More

In April, Piknik opened on Pozsonyi Street just like Ébresztő, but a bit closer to Szent István Park. As the name suggests, this café has every ingredient required for a leisurely picnic, even for those who follow a vegan diet. The snack selection, tailored for outdoor consumption, includes raw vegan cakes, energy balls, meat-free sandwiches, bakery goods made by Jacques Liszt, and grissini, as well as seeds and dried fruit, not to forget the most important thing – coffee. The café offers premium specialty coffee from the three-time Italian roasting champion Rubens Gardelli, brewed in a La Marzocco coffee machine. After filling our picnic basket (Piknik provides the basket itself) and grabbing a cup of joe, we can head outside, or we can just drink a caffeinated brew at the one table in the café.

Prices: espresso - 450 HUF, flat white - 700 HUF, chai latte - 850 HUF, grissini - 500 HUF

Address: Budapest 1039, Pozsonyi Street 43
Opening hours: Monday - Friday, 7:30am - 7pm; Saturday - Sunday, 9am - 6pm
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5/8

Bruberi Coffee & Bakery

Egyetem Square’s popular Café Alibi closed in 2016, but its owner revitalized the café’s concept in the form of Bruberi, at a brand-new location. László Vági’s new café opened in March, and although the terrain leading to its Rózsadomb location is a bit daunting, our reward for perseverance is provided in the form of sweet French toast or hand-roasted coffee. The old La Marzocco coffee machine, which was a necessary instrument of Café Alibi, is painted turquoise blue to match the walls, plates, and cups, and brews coffee from two of 10-15 types of coffee beans: a light-roasted fruity version, and a dark-roasted one, made into single or double espresso. But Bruberi offers more than coffee, as implied by the word “bakery” in its name. In addition to bread from Marmorstein and cocoa rolls and French bakery goods from Pékműhely, the café also serves filling breakfasts (ranging from scrambled organic eggs to sweet and savory French toast), and even lunch menus.

Prices: espresso - 400 HUF, cappuccino - 550 HUF, flat white - 700 HUF, scrambled eggs with salad - 800 HUF

Address: Budapest 1026, Pentelei Molnár Street 17
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday, 7am - 5pm; Saturday - Sunday, 8am - 6pm
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6/8

Flat White Kitchen

1037 Budapest, Szépvölgyi út 15.

Kolosy Square might be far from the city center, but we’re still glad Flat White opened here at the end of March. The neighborhood of Óbuda became richer with a cool little café that provides peaceful space, new-wave coffee, and delicious breakfast dishes. The café opens early in the morning and begins brewing its light-roasted coffees while preparing its pressed-fruit juices, breakfast burgers, omelets, French toast, and homemade cakes. Fortunately, we can order these treats in the afternoon as well, knowing that what we get won’t be just tasty, but healthy, as well.

Prices: espresso - 490-520 HUF, cappuccino - 590-620 HUF, flat white - 890-950 HUF (black-white), French toast - 1,190 HUF

7/8

major

2040 Budaörs, Clementis László utca 22.

Fekete was the first place that the new-wave coffee scene brought to the shores of Budapest, more specifically, to Astoria. With time, the mini-café expanded with an inner courtyard and a larger unit opening from there, and since April, their perfectly composed coffees are available a bit further away from the city center, as well. Major opened in an old manor house and the terrace of a rope factory in Budaörs, with the same high-quality coffee but a new kitchen, cultural momentum, and rural idyll. The suburban setting comes with extras like live concerts, fine-art exhibitions, and children’s programs, and the terrain is remarkably suitable for an outdoor cinema. The kitchen is also more serious than in the downtown café: for breakfast, we can eat an oven-baked omelet, or some Middle Eastern ratatouille with fresh bread from Marmorstein; in addition, major also offers seasonally changing lunch specials, as well. The – sometimes extravagant – homemade cakes are part of the selection here, too, and in the later hours, we can even crack open a bottle of beer from Horizont Brewery.

Prices: espresso - 450 HUF, cappuccino - 600 HUF, flat white - 750 HUF, croissant - 400 HUF

8/8

Soleil Bistro Újbuda

1119 Budapest, Bikás park

Soleil Bistro is located in a contemporary building near the metro station of the recently renovated Bikás Park. Its sleek design, pleasant terrace, new-wave coffee and delicious treats make this café a niche catering unit in the area. As for the coffee, they offer both light-roasted and classic dark-roasted versions, but caffeinated beverages aren’t the only thing worth trying here: if we get hungry, we can eat bagels for breakfast, bistro lunches at noon, and pizza for dinner. Those jogging or walking dogs on hot afternoons are in luck, as the café also has iced teas and lemonades, and even has a nice selection of beers and wines.

Prices: espresso - 450 HUF, lemonade - 590 HUF, iced tea - 490 HUF, pizza - 1,190-1,590 HUF