Good coffee, great service, and beautiful interiors – these are the elements that make an exceptional cafe. Thanks to a years-long boom in artisanal coffee, Hong Kong has no shortage of places to get a high-quality caffeine fix, with a side of beautifully presented food options and interiors begging for the Instagram treatment. We searched high and low to find the best cafes in Hong Kong for work, play, or just watching time slip away.
Between Coffee
Between Coffee is the latest player to enter the Hong Kong café scene, opening its doors in picturesque Tai Kwun. The shop’s wooden interiors create a rustic yet modern feel, and provide the ideal ambience for either work or play, while light spills into the space via floor-to-ceiling windows that open up onto a terrace. The space was designed to “ruminate over uncomplicated fare,” with culture and community in mind. Drinks range from espressos to iced chocolate, turmeric lattes, and espresso martinis, with an equally diverse selection of food, including strawberry cream sandos and Hokkaido uni pasta.
2/F, JC Contemporary, 10 Hollywood Road, Tai Kwun, Central; between.coffee
Halfway Coffee
Nestled between haphazard heaps of memorabilia on Cat Street, selling jade bracelets and vintage posters, is this contemporary Chinese coffee shop. Inside, it’s all brushed and exposed concrete, antique school tables and retro lamps, while a spacious area outside hums with the energy of the surrounding market stalls. Good, strong coffee is served in eclectic porcelain cups, while old-school glasses hold cold brews. There’s a short menu of delicious sweet and savoury food that’s presented exquisitely.
12 Tung St, Sheung Wan; facebook.com/halfwaycoffeehk
APT coffee
This bamboo-fronted coffee shop on Moon Street is a minimalist delight. The space is sleek and white-washed, and offers customised coffee tailoring — decide between a nutty or fruity blend, various milk options, the temperature and foam volume of your brew. The menu lists ‘toast tailoring’ too, with diners able to choose the number of toppings, type of bread (either sourdough or fig and walnut), and spread.
2-12 Moon Street, Wanchai; apt-coffee.com
Fineprint
This Australian-run coffee shop has two locations — the first is on Peel Street, while the second is in trendy Tai Hang. Both are unpretentious spots that offer a range of single origin coffees all roasted by Fineprint, including a signature Peel Street Espresso Blend, and make everything in house from sourdough to jams and ricotta. Find plenty of Aussie favourites including avo toast and smashed eggs. Fineprint also stir up cocktails in the evening, with a new cocktail experience designed by James Barker who won Hong Kong Bartender of the Year in 2016.
38 Peel St, Central; 1 Lily St, Tai Hang; fineprint.hk
Blue Bottle
California-import Blue Bottle Coffee recently opened on Lyndhurst Terrace, bringing Hong Kong fresh brews that promise to use beans that are less than 48 hours out of the roasters. They’re sold in a 3,000-square-foot space, designed in collaboration with Japan’s Schemata Architects, that has an industrial minimalist feel with two floors of brushed concrete, stainless steel and marble, sleek wooden tables and mid-century modern furnishings. Try the much-lauded New Orleans-style iced coffee flavoured with chicory, and order from a menu of pastries and open-top sandwiches.
Blue Bottle Coffee, 38-42 Lyndhurst Terrace, G/F & 1/F, Central, Hong Kong; bluebottlecoffee.com
Neighbourhood Coffee
From the team behind Halfway Coffee is another super-sleek coffee shop, this time for Aberdeen locals. Interiors are once again smart but eclectic featuring a mix of old and new, with earthy tones of wood and stone, purple acrylic chairs and plants, while books about Hong Kong history are displayed around the shop, local magazines adorn the walls and hawthorn flakes are stacked in glass jars. Neighbourhood’s food menu is short and sweet but what it does do is delicious, and it’s strong brews are served on stylish ceramic coasters.
Shop No.2, G/F Abba Center, 223-227 Aberdeen Main Road, Hong Kong; facebook.com
Tai Wo Tang
Built in the 1920s, this Guangzhou-style pre-war tenement building in Kowloon City was formerly the Dahetang Ginseng Medicine Shop. Since 1937, it’s been providing free medical consultations for everyone, including celebrities and politicians, until it officially closed in 2017. It’s since been turned into a coffee shop but many of the traditional features remain — most noticeably the 100-year-old Baizi cabinet and gold sign outside. Order one of Tai Wo Tang’s signature lattes flavoured with Earl grey and honey or perhaps, as this is a former-medicine shop after all, one of its vitality teas.
24號 Nga Tsin Long Rd, Kowloon City; taiwotang1932.com
Bone Studio
Part design store, part coffee studio, Bone Studio was established in 2018 by Boni Chow, who is an artist and the director of an independent design company, as well as a trained barista. The sleek Japanese-esque cafe is located on a quiet section of Bonham Strand and has a coffee bar that’s decked out in a distinct auburn wood. The rest of the shop showcases a selection of woven baskets, ceramics and jewellery, alongside it’s sweet treats — a crepe cake with tangerine and matcha caneles – but it’s the carefully crafted Japanese drip coffee that keeps regulars coming back.
Shop 2B, 38 Bonham Rd, Mid-Levels
Winstons Coffee
With alfresco bar seating and an eye-catching marquee board reminiscent of an old-fashioned cinema, the Sai Ying Pun branch of Australian-style cafe Winstons Coffee makes for the perfect neighbourhood gathering place; either for people-watching with an affogato and pistachio biscotti in hand, or munching on their signature matcha-infused egg tart.
213 Queen’s Road West, Sai Ying Pun; winstonscoffee.com
NOC Sai Ying Pun
Focusing on reinterpreted coffee drinks and health-oriented food offerings, the airy, industrial-chic surrounds of NOC (which stands for Not Only Coffee) make for a focused, minimalist coffee experience. Watch your pour-over being prepared at the open bar, before making your way over to admire the hulking Giesen coffee roaster. We recommend the Fizzpresso for its acidic kick, paired with a hearty shakshuka served in a cast-iron skillet.
321 Des Voeux Road West, Sai Ying Pun; noccoffeeco.com
Coffee & Laundry
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Undeniably one of the city’s most unconventional caffeine-oriented ventures, Coffee & Laundry combines (you guessed it) a cafe with a self-service laundromat, while serving as an unlikely platform for the local creative scene. The wood-panelled interior was designed by carpentry outfit Start From Zero, and the coffee cups feature artwork by much-loved illustrators Little Thunder and Don Mak. Grab a signature Shakerato and sit with the cool kids out front while you wait for your wash cycle to finish.
1 Queen Street, Sheung Wan
The Cupping Room Roastery
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Founded in 2011, The Cupping Room is responsible for winning a fair share of Hong Kong’s barista awards, including 2nd place at the 2014 World Barista Championship, and today is spread across several locations throughout the city. We’re partial to the Roastery which, nestled in sleepy Po Hing Fong, roasts its single-origin beans on location. The food menu also boasts a strong offering of pastas.
62-72 Po Hing Fong, Sheung Wan; cuppingroom.hk
% Arabica Monster Mansion
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Founded in Kyoto, global artisanal coffee company %Arabica recently opened its fourth Hong Kong location at Quarry Bay’s Yick Fat Building, known colloquially as ‘Monster Mansion’ for its dystopian density which has made it the darling of Instagram and Hollywood alike. The interior of the cafe pairs %Arabica’s penchant for white-washed, minimalist decor with a mirrored ceiling that reflects the vertical display of burlap coffee bags, creating a vertigo-inducing effect. This, however, is nothing that their iced latte, using beans sourced from their farm in Kona, Hawaii, won’t fix.
Shop 3, G/F, Yick Fat Building, 1048-1056 King’s Road, Quarry Bay; arabica.hk
Roastery Lab by The Coffee Academics
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As the widely-recognised progenitors of third-wave coffee in Hong Kong, nobody doubts that The Coffee Academics takes coffee seriously. Accordingly, their Roastery Lab is the most utilitarian of their outlets, with much of the floor space in this aggregate concrete-covered Peel Street location devoted to the Roasting Room and its custom 15kg Ciesen W15A roasting machine. The drinks selection is hyper-focused, with the three options of Black, White or Filter, utilising house bean blends that rotate every two weeks.
35 Johnston Rd, Wanchai; the-coffeeacademics.com
Omotesando Koffee
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The second Hong Kong branch of the cult Tokyo cafe Omotesando Koffee is situated in one of the calmer parts of Wan Chai, removed from the tourist bustle of its first location on Lee Tung Avenue and making for an altogether more chill atmosphere. Their 12-hour cold drip makes for a smooth, balanced drink, while a recently-launched food menu offers Japanese dishes, such as perfectly cuboid egg sandwiches.
33 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai
NINETYs
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Staffed by painfully cool baristas working within a high-ceilinged, concrete-washed space in Wan Chai, NINETYs serves some of the most inspired Australian-style all-day dishes alongside a solid selection of coffee. The lobster benedict is an extravagant take on a classic, while the octopus barley salad elevates cafe dining to new levels.
222 Queen’s Road East
Elixir
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Tucked away at the end of Causeway Bay’s Haven Street, Elixir combines a boutique concept with a coffee counter for a zen, boundary-crossing spatial experience. Lactose-intolerants can rejoice – the cafe offers almond, soy and macadamia milk substitutes from MILKLAB free of charge – while the osmanthus-infused cold brew tonic makes for a refreshing change.
9 Mee Lun Street, Sheung Wan
UNAR Coffee Company
You’ll know you’ve found UNAR Coffee Company thanks to an expansive swivel door that denotes the entrance to this narrow yet delightfully plant-filled space. Its lack of seating, however, necessitates customers to enjoy their Italian coffee out on the street in a convivial crowd, all the better to appreciate Tai Hang’s quirky neighbourhood character.
15 Sun Chun Street, Causeway Bay
