Specialty Coffee in Warsaw: 12 Cafes Worth the Tram Ride
Warsaw has no single coffee street, so here are twelve specialty cafes across Wola, Praga, Mokotów, Powiśle and Wilanów, and how to reach them.
Warsaw's first cafe opened by the Ogród Saski in 1724 and closed again almost at once, because nobody wanted it. Coffee was held to be an overseas poison that took away your sleep and your fertility, and drinking it in front of other people was indecent. Two generations later, the reforms that produced the Constitution of 3 May were argued out at cafe tables.
The city kept the second half of that habit. Coffee here has always been a pretext for sitting down with someone. What was in the cup came much later.
The other thing working against you is the shape of the city. Most of the left bank was rubble in 1945, and what went up afterwards was blocks, boulevards and tram lines, not a compact old quarter with everything inside it. The Old Town is a reconstruction finished in the 1950s, and it belongs to coach parties.
So the coffee does not cluster. It follows where people live and work: the towers on Wola, the tenements on Praga the war left standing, the villa streets of Mokotów, a planned suburb nine kilometres south. Two very good bars can sit thirty minutes apart with nothing in between.
Specialty coffee in Warsaw is excellent and there is plenty of it. It is just spread across a city rebuilt at the scale of the tram network.
That gap is why we built Specialty Atlas, a free app for iOS and Android. Every cafe below has a profile in it, with the beans on the bar today, the brew methods, and how far it is from wherever you are standing. Download the app and open Warsaw before you read on. The Warsaw city page is the preview. The app is the part that rides the tram with you.
Śródmieście: Powiśle and the Arsenal
The centre is two places. Powiśle is the low strip between the escarpment and the river, industrial until fairly recently, now the part of the centre people actually want to walk in. North of Bankowy, Andersa runs towards Muranów, rebuilt on top of the ghetto rubble.
Cosmo Espresso Bar on Topiel 19 describes itself in two lines: espresso bar, coffee roastery. Espresso and milk drinks, roasted by the people serving them, on a Powiśle side street most people cross rather than walk down.
Fat White Coffee Bar on Generała Władysława Andersa 6 has a handful of seats inside, a few more on the pavement, and a bar covering espresso, V60 and cold brew, plus kombucha, retail bags and brewing kit to take away. Its own motto is "Everyday We Create". Our community rates it near the top of the city, and it is five minutes from the Ratusz Arsenał metro.
Wola: the new city, west of the centre
Wola was factories and rail yards. Now it is where Warsaw builds its towers, and where the people who work in them have to find lunch.
Batida Speciality on Giełdowa 5, in Czyste, is the slower version of a family confectionery business going since 1990. In its own words this is the bigger, calmer Batida: japandi interior, soft light, space that quietens you on the way in. Pour-over, Chemex and espresso all day, power outlets, wifi and a lot of seats, and it is woman owned, dog friendly and step free.
The Frame Coffee on Jana Kazimierza 32 is out in Odolany, the fastest-growing corner of Wola: new blocks, a rebuilt street with 250 trees on it, and no reason for a visitor to be there. It calls itself "your favorite neighborhood spot" and does espresso, milk drinks, matcha and cake. Our community rates it at the very top of the city, so the neighbourhood agrees.
Praga-Północ: the side the war left alone
Cross the Vistula and the brickwork changes colour. The Red Army stopped on this bank in 1944, which is why Praga still has its pre-war tenements, its courtyards and its shrines. Ząbkowska is the cobbled spine of it, running down from the old vodka distillery.
FamJam Sp. z o. o. on Ząbkowska 36 is a small, woman-owned specialty cafe in the middle of that. Classic espresso drinks and filter coffee brewed to order, decaf, plant milk, tables outside and, in their own words, animals very much welcome. Our community rates it at the top of the city.
Mała Kawiarnia on Mała 3 is the home of the Teso roastery: a cafe and a showroom for beans that were roasted a few days earlier, so you drink a cup and carry the bag home. Teso's own list runs to fifteen coffees from Colombia, Kenya, Brazil, Rwanda and elsewhere, mostly roasted for filter. The street kept nearly all its 1880s buildings and has stood in for pre-war Warsaw in "The Pianist" and "Korczak". More people in our app have rated this cafe than any other on this list, and they rate it high.
Old Mokotów: Puławska and the streets off it
South of the centre, Mokotów is the version of Warsaw that survived: interwar villas, low blocks, wide pavements, trams and a metro line down the middle. This is where the city drinks its coffee on a Tuesday.
Kawiarnia Relaks on Puławska 48 is the one with history. It started out combining coffee with a bicycle workshop, and the retro room, old posters and all, has been a fixture on the city's cafe map ever since. Come for filter and breakfast.
Kultura Kawy kawiarnia specialty on Kazimierzowska 51 is run by two people, Ania and Irek, who between them cover the coffee and the baking. Specialty espresso and filter, AeroPress and cold brew, homemade cakes, and artisan ice cream from MeLody. Breakfast, outdoor tables, retail bags, and a second address in the X20 lobby on Czerniakowska.
Lewandi on Aleja Niepodległości 142A is a fully vegan cafe, and its own note says it opens every day from 8 until 20. Breakfast and lunch, cakes and pastries, kombucha, matcha, decaf, a few seats and enough power outlets to justify the laptop.
Wierzbno and Marina Mokotów: further south again
Keep going and Mokotów loosens up. Wierzbno kept its pre-war street grid and its villas, which is rare here. Marina Mokotów, west of it, is a 2000s estate built around water, and nobody ends up there by accident.
Moko on Antoniego Malczewskiego 6 is a small espresso bar with, as it puts it, a neighbourly feel. Espresso and milk drinks, cakes and sandwiches, vegan and vegetarian. The kind of place a street keeps to itself.
STILL Speciality Coffee on Białej Floty 6 sums itself up as slow mornings and clean energy: coffee, matcha, no-sugar food and protein. Espresso tonic and V60 on the bar, plenty of seats, outdoor tables, step-free access, a kids corner and bags to take home. Its own note lists a second address in Ochota.
Wilanów: the end of the line
Nine kilometres south of the centre, Wilanów is the royal palace, the Poster Museum in its old riding school, and Miasteczko Wilanów: a district built from nothing in the 2000s, with its own square and a tram line it is still waiting for.
Cafe Plakatówka on Prymasa Augusta Hlonda 2 is the coffee half of it. Three words on the sign, coffee speciality, breakfast, cake, plus matcha and pastries made properly. Our community rates it at the very top of the city, which you do not often say about a new-build suburb.
A day on the tram, if you want one
If you have one day and a 24 hour transit ticket:
- Breakfast and a filter at Kawiarnia Relaks on Puławska
- Walk east through the villa streets to Kultura Kawy on Kazimierzowska
- Tram north to Powiśle for an espresso at Cosmo Espresso Bar
- Up the escarpment to Fat White Coffee Bar by the Arsenal
- Cross the river to Praga for FamJam on Ząbkowska
- Finish at Mała Kawiarnia, and buy beans before they close
Six cafes, three districts, one river crossing, and a fair picture of the city.
Put the map in your pocket
An article goes stale a week after publishing. A live map does not. Everything in this guide is in Specialty Atlas, free on iOS and Android, and the app does what this article cannot:
- What is on the bar today. Current beans, with roaster, origin and process, updated by the cafes themselves.
- Sorted by where you are standing. Every specialty cafe near you, by distance, with hours that are correct.
- Filtered for what you need. Pour-over, plant milk, laptop friendly, dog friendly, outdoor seating, vegan.
- 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 Warsaw.
- Beans matched to your palate. Answer a few questions once and every bean gets scored against your taste.
Download Specialty Atlas and open Warsaw before you leave the flat. The Warsaw city page is a good place to browse from a laptop, but the map, the passport and the live menus only live in the app.
FAQ
Is specialty coffee expensive in Warsaw? Not by western European standards. A filter or a flat white in a Warsaw specialty bar costs a fraction of the same cup in Berlin, Stockholm or London, and the brewing is frequently better.
Do I need to speak Polish? No. English is close to universal behind specialty bars here. "What do you have on filter today?" starts a real conversation almost everywhere on this list.
What is the best area for coffee in Warsaw? Mokotów has the most, spread over a large area. Praga-Północ has the best short walk between two of them, and trams get you there. Wola has the newest. The historic centre has fewer than its size suggests, which is why Powiśle matters.
Is there an app for finding specialty coffee in Warsaw? Yes. Specialty Atlas is free on iOS and Android and maps specialty cafes in Warsaw and across Europe, with the beans currently on the bar, brew methods, opening hours, a coffee passport with city stamps and bean recommendations matched to your taste.
Next in the series
Warsaw is one stop on a longer list. The series carries on through the places where specialty coffee has taken hold well away from the streets the guidebooks send you down.
If you run a cafe in Warsaw and you are not on the map, claim your profile and put your bar in front of the people already looking for it.
Twelve cafes. One city. One app. Download Specialty Atlas free on iOS and Android, open Warsaw, and find your cup.
Written by
SpecialtyAtlas Team
The Specialty Atlas team writes about specialty coffee, the people brewing it, and the cities worth visiting for it.
