Guide · Mexico City
Which coffee shops in Mexico City are worth crossing town for? These six, from a Frida Escobedo terrace to coffee on tap, every one of them drunk at and filmed on my own visit.
Updated October 10, 2026 · By Jane Novikova
The short answer · pick your night
Four of the six pour Mexican beans from Chiapas, Veracruz or Oaxaca. The best coffee in this city is grown in this country.
For the best all round
A stunning little café designed by Frida Escobedo, pouring Chiapas coffee on the prettiest terrace in Colonia Juárez. The building is the reason you notice it and the coffee is the reason you come back.
Open daily from 7:30. Come on a weekday morning, when the terrace is still quiet.
For the garden
Specialty coffee in the back garden of a heritage-listed Porfirian mansion at Nápoles 47, with Mexican beans from Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca, fresh pastries and light breakfasts. The calmest cup in the city, hidden from the street.
Walk through to the back. The garden is the café.
For the specialty
A roastery and coffee bar pouring six freshly roasted Mexican varieties on tap, hot or cold. Ask the barista for a small tasting before you choose. Donuts are around 49 pesos and the best flavours sell out early.
It is a tasting counter, not a place to sit: two small benches outside and lactose-free milk only.
For the creative
The Roma Norte branch of the house of 3D latte art, where your foam arrives as a coloured figure for about two dollars extra. Behind the novelty is a full café with a big terrace, all-day breakfast and a proper kids' menu.
The 3D figures only work with regular or soy milk. Sundays close at four.
For the Turkish
A café and boulangerie in Polanco built around Turkish coffee brewed in an ibrik over hot sand, with a long list of single-origin filter coffees and a Middle Eastern breakfast menu.
Order the Bucra turco with cardamom, cinnamon and honey. Breakfast runs 8:00 to 13:00.
For the neighbourhood café
Under the trees on Avenida Ámsterdam in Condesa, with gluten-free, sugar-free and keto-friendly treats and an early opening. The café the neighbourhood actually uses every day.
Weekdays from 7:00, weekends from 8:00. Arrive before ten for an outside table.
How I picked
Mexico City has more good coffee than any list can hold, so this one is built on what a cup is for: the best all-rounder, the calmest garden, the purest specialty pour, the most creative, the most unusual brew and the café a neighbourhood actually lives in.
Every one is a place I drank at and filmed. The design cafés and the work cafés have their own guides, so this one is about the coffee.
Questions
For the whole package, Niddo in Colonia Juárez: a Frida Escobedo interior, Chiapas coffee and the prettiest terrace in the neighbourhood. For the coffee alone, Cucurucho and Company, where six Mexican varieties pour on tap and you can taste before you choose.
Testarudo pours beans from Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca, Niddo serves Chiapas coffee, and Cucurucho runs six Mexican varieties on tap, hot or cold. Cucurucho also sells beans to take home, at premium prices.
Bucra in Polanco brews it in an ibrik over hot sand, and its Bucra turco with cardamom, cinnamon and honey is the order. Lunarena in Condesa and Roma Norte also brews on sand if you are on that side of town.
Café C in Roma Norte. The 3D latte art is a hit with children, there is a proper kids' menu, all-day breakfast and a big terrace. The figures cost about two dollars extra and need regular or soy milk.
Testarudo and Orquídea are both laptop friendly, with wifi and plugs that go early. Niddo is beautiful but not built for laptops, especially at the weekend, and Cucurucho has almost no seating. There is a separate guide to the cafés built for working.
Café C on Puebla 212 for the creative cup and the terrace. For specialty coffee nearby, Cucurucho on Río Tigris in Colonia Cuauhtémoc is a short ride away, and Testarudo in Juárez is walkable from the north of Roma.
Foodie map · Mexico City