Café C

What Café C is

Café C is an all-day breakfast cafe in Roma Norte, Mexico City, at Calle Puebla 212. It calls itself the House of 3D Latte Art, and that is the correct way to understand it: the coffee arrives with a small animal or character sculpted out of stiff milk foam sitting on top of it, and the rest of the menu is a full cafe restaurant built around that.

The Roma Norte branch is the newest of the group’s locations and the first in the central, more expensive part of the city. The earlier ones are in Napoles, at Plaza Dakota 95, and in Del Valle, with addresses reported at Agustin Gonzalez de Cossio 231 and Eugenia 420. The Roma Norte site is inside a new building rather than a converted Porfirian house, which gives it a large terrace and a genuine indoor dining room rather than the handful of pavement chairs that most cafes in the neighbourhood work with.

The format is broad on purpose. Mexican and international breakfast is served all day, lunch runs to bowls, tacos and sandwiches, there is an in-house bakery, and there is a real kids menu. Portions are generous rather than composed.

Who makes the 3D latte art

The technique at Café C is credited to Manolo Huerta, the group’s principal barista, who developed the 3D latte style the house is known for. It is not a machine or a stencil: the foam is whipped to hold a shape, then built and detailed by hand into cats, pigs, dogs, chicks and whatever the barista is working on that week.

The group trains more than one person for it, and press coverage of the earlier branches counted four latte art baristas on the floor. That matters practically, because the sculpting is the slow part of the service and the number of people who can do it sets the pace of the room.

How the menu works

Café C is a cafe with a restaurant menu attached, not a coffee bar. Nothing is fixed to a time of day.

• The coffee: espresso-based drinks made with Mexican beans, with blends reported from Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, plus juices, smoothies, teas and chocolate.
• The 3D figure: an add-on of about 2 USD on a latte or cappuccino. It only works with regular milk or soy milk, because the foam has to set.
• Breakfast, all day: Mexican plates like chilaquiles and molletes alongside international ones, including shakshuka, avocado toast, French toast, pancakes and grilled cheese.
• Lunch: bowls, tacos, sandwiches, salads and a few larger plates such as arrachera or grilled chicken.
• The bakery: scones, banana bread and pastries made in house.
• Kids: a separate children’s menu, not a single option added to the end of the adult one.

What I ate

I filmed here in August 2026 and ordered the 3D coffee, which is the thing to try even if you would not normally pay extra for a drink. On the food side the portions were the surprise: the shakshuka comes with three eggs, and the breakfast croissant arrives with a salad and roasted potatoes rather than on its own. It was the most unusual coffee I had in Mexico, and I have not seen the technique done anywhere else in the city.

What it costs

Reported average spend at Café C is around 200 MXN per person, roughly 11 USD, for a drink and a plate. That is a Del Valle figure and the Roma Norte branch is the group’s most central, so budget a little above it.

Item	Price
Average spend, per person	About 200 MXN, roughly 11 USD
3D latte art, on top of the drink	About 2 USD extra
Coffee without a figure	Standard specialty cafe pricing
Breakfast or lunch plate	Generous portions, shareable

By Roma Norte standards this is a cheap way to eat well, particularly compared with the neighbourhood’s brunch restaurants. The 3D surcharge is the only unusual line on the bill, and it is per drink, so a table of four asking for four animals adds up. Prices in Mexico City move, so check the menu on the day.

Do you need a reservation

You can walk in, and on a weekday morning you will sit straight down. At weekends it is worth booking. Café C is listed on OpenTable, and the group’s branches recommend reserving ahead.

The reason is the coffee rather than the tables. Each figure is sculpted by hand, so on a full Saturday the drinks are the queue, not the kitchen. If you are in a hurry, order a coffee without a figure and the wait disappears.

• Instagram: @cafec.mx.
• Booking: OpenTable lists the Roma branch.
• Best time to walk in: weekday mornings and early afternoons.

Getting there

• Address: Calle Puebla 212, Roma Norte, Cuauhtemoc, Mexico City.
• Neighbourhood: Roma Norte, on the stretch of Puebla east of Avenida Insurgentes, in the middle of the neighbourhood’s cafe belt.
• Metrobus: Line 1 on Insurgentes, at the Alvaro Obregon or Durango stops, is a few minutes away on foot.
• Metro: Insurgentes on Line 1 is about a ten minute walk.
• Driving: street parking in Roma Norte is metered and busy. A taxi or ride app is simpler.
• Access: the cafe is set inside a newer building with the terrace at the front, so look for the terrace rather than a shopfront window.

Before you go

• Decide on the milk before you order. The 3D figure needs regular or soy milk. Oat and almond will not hold the shape.
• Go early at weekends. Hand-sculpted foam does not scale, and Saturday is when the wait appears.
• Come hungry. Portions are large for a cafe, and breakfast plates arrive with sides.
• Breakfast has no cut-off. If you want chilaquiles at 18:00, this is one of the places in Roma Norte that will serve them.
• Bring the kids. The separate children’s menu and the indoor space make it easier than most cafes in the area.
• Pair it with another Roma Norte cafe. If you want the opposite experience, a quiet historic house instead of a busy terrace, see my Casa Margarita review.
• Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from the venue’s public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps or the venue’s own channels before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The reel above shows the foam animals being built and set on the cups, which is the part worth seeing before you order. For everywhere else I have filmed in the city, open my map or browse the Mexico City recommendations.