Specialty Coffee in Brno: Five Choices, Two Cafes Each, One Left Over

Decide this first: do you want a double espresso at a bar, or a table for an hour? Five minutes' walk from Brno's main station there is an answer to each, about a hundred metres apart.

The rest of this guide is built from the same kind of choice: eleven cafes, five pairs that pull in opposite directions and one left over. Read the heading, pick a side and skip the other.

A quick double or a long lunch

Krok Espresso Bar is on Průchodní, next to the Japanese restaurant Manya. It has few seats, and it belongs to a Brno roaster that comes up again further down. Go for Espresso Finest, a line of three exclusive coffees served as a single-dose double espresso, such as a natural Geisha from Peru. On weekdays it runs from 8:00 to 18:00.

Café Placzek at Minoritská 470/4 is a family-run cafe in rooms from the First Republic, the interwar years, with a view of the church of St John. It has home-made bread, Israeli specialities, lunch and wine, and it pours V60, Chemex and Kalita. It opens every day from 8:00 to 20:00, and Bed & Breakfast Placzek lets rooms directly above it.

If your train leaves within the hour, or espresso is the point, take the bar. If you have not eaten or you want filter, take the room.

Most of the choices below turn on something a printed list cannot settle: what is on the bar this morning, and which side of the pair is closer to you. Specialty Atlas settles both. It is a free app for iOS and Android, and all eleven cafes have a profile in it, so you can check both sides of a pair before you walk. Download the app before you pick, or browse from a laptop on the Brno city page.

A plate or a pause

Fetch coffee at Pekařská 9 is the one for brunch, served until 13:00 on weekdays and 14:00 at weekends, with vegan options and wifi if you stay on to work. It closes at 18:00. It also runs a second bar on Náplavka, the promenade on the Svratka that opened in 2025, with coffee, drinks and snacks from 8:00 to 22:00 every day. That second bar is the address to keep for a coffee at nine in the evening.

FIKA Coffee Bar at Dominikánské náměstí 3 makes one promise: everyone deserves a break, and it will make you one, with specialty coffee and something sweet. It has cakes and pastries, cold brew, decaf and matcha. There is outdoor seating, on a pedestrian square beside the New Town Hall.

They are about 300 metres apart, so this comes down to appetite. Hungry before 13:00, or carrying a laptop: Pekařská. Already fed and after a slice of cake in the open air: the square.

Roasted in town or roasted in the hills

Poppy Beans Coffee at Staňkova 360/8b is the coffee shop of the Brno roaster behind the bar on Průchodní, in a residential area near Lužánky park. It runs two espresso grinders and hand-brewed V60 with several exclusive coffees. There is breakfast, a weekend brunch, natural wine from winemakers in Prušánky and craft beer from Sibeeria. It opens from 8:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and 9:00 to 18:00 at weekends.

Pikola espresso bar Brno at Jakubská 5 pours coffee roasted in Šumperk, at the foot of the Jeseníky mountains, and promises coffees that break from the usual standards. It has few seats, some outdoor seating, cold brew and bags to take home. It opens at 7:30 on weekdays and 9:00 at weekends, and closes at 18:00.

Pick the first for filter, for a long menu or for a glass of wine at the end of the day, and allow about 1.5 km on foot from the centre. Pick the second if you want an early espresso without leaving the centre. Do not start there if V60 is what you came for.

Roasted in the room or bought in

qb coffee roasters at Veslařská 507/179 in Jundrov keeps bar and roastery in one space, so you can watch the coffee being roasted and then drink it. It sits on the bank of the Svratka, on grounds shared with rowers and next to old boatyards, with two large gardens of loungers, seats and grass from spring to autumn. It pours V60, Chemex and Kalita as well as espresso, sells its own bags and runs courses and cuppings on its upper floor. It opens from 7:30 to 20:00 on weekdays and 8:00 to 20:00 at weekends.

Cafe Garden at Sportovní 559/2A is inside the Bobycentrum, a hotel and fitness complex, and shares its business with a tanning studio. The coffee comes from a Brno roastery, the focaccia from an Italian bakery, the cakes from a confectioner and the lemonades from Olomouc. It has plenty of seats, wifi, a kids' corner and two hours of free parking. It opens until 20:00 on weekdays and 19:00 on Saturdays, and it is closed on Sundays.

If you leave the centre once in Brno, go to the river. It is about 3.5 km from the main station, so give it a morning, and go between spring and autumn if you want the gardens. Pick the Bobycentrum if you are driving, have children with you or need a desk, and note that it is about 400 metres from the roaster's coffee shop in the section above.

A long sit in Líšeň or a bag of groceries in Židenice

Kafé Mlýnek at Kotlanova 2162/5 describes itself simply as a cafe in Brno's Líšeň, about 5.5 km east of the main station, and tram 8 runs out that way. It has breakfast, V60, plenty of seats, power outlets and a kids' corner.

Take 5 Espresso bar & Gourmet shop at Bubeníčkova 112/44 in Židenice sums itself up in one line: sweet and savoury signature goodies, coffee, a farmers' grocery and foreign books about food. It has few seats, and it serves breakfast and espresso tonic. It is about 2.4 km from the main station, roughly on the way out to Líšeň.

Go to Líšeň if you are sleeping on that side of the city, or if you have children or a day's work to get through. Go to Židenice on purpose, for something to carry home. If your hotel is in the centre and all you want is one cup, stay in the centre.

The one left over

Punkt.espresso.bar at Štefánikova 131/61 is the Královo Pole branch of Punkt. It has few seats, free water, decaf, vegan options, bags to take home and wheelchair access. It is about 800 metres from the Bobycentrum and a kilometre from the roaster's coffee shop near Lužánky, so add it to a trip north rather than making a trip for it.

Put the map in your pocket

The pairs above tell you which way to lean. What is on each bar changes through the week, and the app keeps up with it:

• What is on the bar today. Current beans, with roaster, origin and process, updated by the cafes themselves.
• Sorted by distance. Every specialty cafe around you, nearest first.
• Filtered for what you need. Pour-over, plant milk, laptop friendly, dog friendly, outdoor seating, breakfast.
• A passport that fills up. Scan the QR code at the counter and the visit lands in your coffee passport, with a stamp drawn for Brno.
• Beans matched to your palate. Answer a few questions once and every bean gets scored against your taste.

Download the app and open Brno before you choose a side. The Brno city page is there to browse from a laptop, but the map, the passport, the bean matching and the live menus are in the app.

Next in the series

The series moves on to another city next, with another set of cafes from the map.

If you run a cafe in Brno and you are not on the map, claim your profile and put what is on your bar in front of people already looking for it.

Five choices to make and one app to check them in: download Specialty Atlas.