Coffee Recommendations

I like coffee, especially cappuccinos, so that is mostly what I evaluate. However, what one gets when ordering a "cappuccino" varies wildly; the drink I refer to, ~30-40g espresso with ~150-180 ml steamed textured milk, is often variously called a "cortado", a "flat white", etc.

This page primarily has recommendations for small and independent coffeeshops; if instead you want inexpensive or mass-market coffee, it's not hard to find. For pedants, this page additionally contains recommendations for non-coffee items. There are many medium-to-large-ish chains, with varying levels of consistency and quality, for example La Colombe or Bluestone Lane. The line between "chain" and "small and independent but with multiple locations" is nebulous; I make no promises of semantic consistency. Cities/regions are in rough descending order of how confident I am in the recommendations. Maps on this page are OpenStreetMap data, with tiles served by Carto.

Also, thanks to the various members of my coffee committee (in alphabetical order), Albert, Deepti, Gavin, Panda, Paroma, Pratiksha, Rachee, Sagar, Shoumik, Shriram, Suresh, and Vipul sending in their suggestions! Please get in touch if you have a scouting report to share.

Providence ☕︎

Near Brown University, Bolt Coffee inside the RISD Museum is nice. Ceremony is also good, though it is primarily tea-focused.
Coffee Exchange on Wickenden St. is a great local roaster and has an extensive selection of beans. I recommend their light roast espresso. Nearby, Brown Bee Coffee is a promising newcomer with a strong pastry program.
Small Point Cafe is a good option downtown. There are also two other Bolt locations in downtown Providence.
Seven Stars Bakery has George Howell Coffee and also good pastries, bread, etc.

Boston ☕︎

Ogawa Coffee is the best Boston cappuccino I've had thus far (as an added bonus, the baristas make elaborate latte art designs). George Howell Coffee is also great: the flavor is well balanced, and the baristas pour excellently.
Bakey is a bakery + coffee shop. They have great pastries, especially babka ("Ovens Always On"), but their coffee is a first-class part of the shop (their roaster is Seattle's Caffe Umbria).
Barismo and Broadsheet are good options in Cambridge. Curio in East Cambridge has not just good coffee, but also excellent liege-style waffles. Elmendorf nearby is a good bakery and baking materials supply shop (but Curio's coffee is better).
Area Four and Vester are good options near the Stata Center.
Pavement is a good option if you're in Back Bay (there is now also a Pavement location (📍) in Harvard Square, in the student center). Flat Black (📍) is operated by Australians and thus has flat whites (the one near Downtown did not survive the pandemic; the remaining cafe is close to the Red Line's Mattapan Trolley extension near Ashmont).

Berkeley ☕︎

CoRo and Artis are good options if you've just had lunch at Vik's (or are otherwise near the Fourth Street area). The closest Highwire (📍) is now in Rockridge Market Hall - the San Pablo location has sadly closed.
Guerilla Cafe uses Artis beans (and a few pastries from Third Culture Bakery) in a more easily accessible near-downtown location.
The old favorite near Soda Hall, Nefeli Cafe, is now closed, as has Brewed Awakening. Instead, Mind is probably the best option.
Asha is, as far as I'm concerned, the One True Boba Place.
Scouting Report: Vipul recommends Timeless (📍) in Oakland and Ain't Normal (📍) in Rockridge.

SF ☕︎

Ritual Coffee Roasters is probably my favorite cappuccino in San Francisco.
Dandelion Chocolate may have chocolate in its name (and indeed, the chocolate is good), but they serve great coffee! Here, I recommend the Mission Hot Chocolate or Mission Mocha (they use Four Barrel beans).
At SFO airport, T1 has a Ritual (📍) just past security near gate B4, and T2 has Napa Farms Market (📍), also just past security near gate D1, which serves beans from Equator Coffee (but is otherwise unaffiliated).
Scouting Report: The SF coffee scene has seen a lot of evolution since the above two recs (which are still good). Rachee likes The Mill, which serves Four Barrel beans. Vipul likes Golden Goat Coffee in SoMa.

South Bay ☕︎

Cafe Venetia is my favorite (coffee is dark-roast Italian style) in Palo Alto, and Verve is also good, but by now has many locations. Manresa Bread is primarily a bakery, but serves coffee with Verve beans (the Palo Alto Verve cafe similarly has Manresa pastries). On the Cal. Ave. side, Backyard Brew is good, especially during a visit to the Cal Ave Farmers Market. Boichik, originally from Berkeley, has great bagels which rival New York's. Within Stanford, Coupa Cafe, is close to Gates Hall (among other locations both within Stanford and in the broader Bay Area) and decent.
Coffeebar and Saint Frank, in nearby Menlo Park, are also great options. Saint Frank has locations in SF as well.
Backhaus (📍), in San Mateo has good bread and bakery items in addition to coffee.
Red Rock Coffee is my favorite in Mountain View. Midwife and Baker, a bakery that supplies many Bay Area cafes with great pastries, used to have coffee before the city shut it down, and now (I think) hosts a rotating set of coffee pop-ups (contact me if you know more). Voyager (📍) is a good (though often crowded) option in Cupertino, with a few other South Bay locations as well.
Devout (📍) is a decent option in Fremont.

New York ☕︎

In Greenwich Village there is La Cabra, a cafe with Danish origins. There is also Third Rail, and Unregular Bakery.
Near Madison Square Park, Stumptown is a good option. There is also a Black Seed Bagels around the corner.
There are a few good cafes with multiple locations throughout the city. Of these, Devoción (specializing in Colombia-origin coffee), 787 Coffee (in Puerto Rico-origin), Felix Roasting Co. (cafes with interesting art and interior design), and Black Fox Coffee (the ones near Penn Station and Grand Central are likely the best coffee near those stations) are notable.
On the Upper West Side, there is Black Press Coffee.
In Brooklyn (Dumbo), Butler is good, serving Intelligentsia beans. In Williamsburg, Lion's Milk is good.

Seattle ☕︎

Espresso Vivace has a founder who apparently invented latte art. This has been my first stop after multiple red eye flights.
Floret, in SeaTac Airport near the A gates, which has Stumptown beans and surprisingly good coffee for an airport. It's also a great option for vegetarian food at the airport.
In Bellevue, Third Culture Coffee is a good option, also with has Indian-inspired options like filter coffee and chai.
In Renton, Boon Boona Coffee, focusing on Ethiopian and Rwandan coffee, is the best option. The cappuccino is not great; I recommend a cortado instead.
Five Stones in Redmond will make you a cappuccino freddo, which is not something you usually see.
Scouting Report: Panda reports that Ada's Technical Books & Cafe (also in Capitol Hill) and Santo (a bit north of the U-District) are good. Rachee recommends Victrola.

Australia/New Zealand ☕︎

Much like in Italy, Australia's base level of coffee quality is generally higher than what one is used to. In Melbourne and Sydney especially, any arbitrary cafe will generally have good espresso. The local drink is the flat white, which is like a slightly less foamy cappuccino. I really do mean arbitrary; places with (perhaps unexpectedly) good flat whites have been a laundromat, a fast food Mexican restaurant in a strip mall, and a mall food court.

Meanwhile, while the base level is generally good, the peak is not much higher; don't expect fancy third-wave coffee with tasting notes.

New Zealand coffeeshops are not as universally good; I liked Common Ground in Johnsonville, Wellington (in the community center/public library), as well as Storehouse in Taupo.

NorCal (and Southern Oregon) ☕︎

SoCal ☕︎

In UCLA/Westwood, Espresso Profeta is a good option. Saffron and Rose is a good ice cream place nearby.
In Irvine, Cassel Earth Coffee is in the atrium of an office building that is itself called "The Atrium". There's also the other location of Saffron and Rose.
In Fullerton, Fullerton is good, but expensive.
In the San Diego area, Lofty and Bird Rock are good options with various area locations. Also in the area is Prager Brothers bakery.

New Haven ☕︎

Hawai'i ☕︎

Hawai'i (the state) has a coffee growing industry, thanks to the volcanoes. Most of the growing happens on Hawai'i (the island), in particular Kona coffee. It's certainly possible to get mass-market coffee (Starbucks, Lavazza, etc) here, but it's worth sampling the local product.

O'ahu

The best coffee I had in Honolulu was at Honolulu Coffee, with locations including the lobbies of the Prince Waikiki and Moana Surfrider hotels. They roast Kona coffee.
Other places near Waikiki, including Island Vintage Coffee and Kona Coffee Purveyors, though promising, were too crowded to evaluate properly.

Hawai'i ("Big Island")

HiCO serves Hawai'i (state)-grown coffee from a rotating series of local roasters. This was my favorite cappuccino on the island (but not by much).
Kona Coffee and Tea roasts and sells Kona coffee. They also sell Hawaii-grown natural wine.
Scouting Report: Close to South Point, across from the famous Punalu'u Bake Shop, is Ka Lae Coffee, which is a promising place for Ka'u coffee, another big coffee growing region on the island.

Kaua'i

Java Kai, in Kapa'a, is the best cappuccino on the island (but I prefer their cafe latte). You might also be interested in the Kaua'i Coffee Plantation, but they serve only drip coffee.

London ☕︎

Prufrock Coffee in Farringdon has (somewhat shockingly) table service at very reasonable prices. The coffee is excellent; they have a rotating selection of single-origin filter brews also.
Ideal Espresso in Greenwich Market has an old-school lever machine, and brews good Italian-style dark-roasted espresso. Note that their stall can move around within the market.

Amsterdam ☕︎

Germany Rhein-Main Area (incl. Frankfurt) ☕︎

Atlanta ☕︎

Italy ☕︎

Note: Italian coffee culture is somewhat different than the other places on this page. For example, Italians don't drink heated-milk drinks such as cappucinos after 11:00. Also, the standard price one should expect for an espresso is €1, and a cappuccino should be €1.50 (this is when standing at the bar; table service is more expensive). If the place is charging more than this, you either have no other option or are rich (airports, fancy hotels, etc).

As a result, my recommendation is a cappuccino in the morning and a cafe macchiato (espresso with a bit of foamy milk) in the afternoon. Italian espresso is much more drinkable than most other places on this list, so this plan wasn't an issue for me. You can still request milk drinks in the afternoon, but be prepared for some eye-rolling.

Also, I have only listed the places that especially stood out to me in some way. It is in almost all cases perfectly fine to walk into an arbitrary "caffetteria" for coffee.

Now, my actual recommendations:

In Milan, I enjoyed "La Caffetteria" ("coffee shop") at Mercato Centrale which is attached to Milano Centrale railway station. They also have good "Maritozzi".
In Florence, I liked Cafe Gilli which is an existence proof that even fancy cafes ("since 1733") adhere to standard Italian espresso pricing.

Spain ☕︎

Barcelona

Nomad Roasters seem to dominate the coffee scene. I unfortunately could not visit one of their own cafes, but have heard a positive report (thanks, Shiori!). I did get to visit CafeCosmo (which uses Nomad beans) which is also an art gallery, and I saw people working there as well.
Also, Forno Suca'l in the Eixample is a nice little pastry shop.
Scouting Report: Pratiksha reports Fresh Roasted Coffee is good.

Madrid

In Madrid, Martin Tostador near Atocha Station and also near Embajadores, is good.

Andalusia

In Sevilla, Virgen Coffee a tiny cafe near the "Setas de Sevilla" sculpture, and Ofelia Bakery are both good. Pratiksha recommends Ringo Banana.
In Córdoba, Martina Cakes is good. As the name suggests, they have a selection of cakes in addition to coffee.
Scouting Report: In Cadiz (Puerto de Santa Maria), Pratiksha recommends Factoria 77 Coffee Roasters.

Chicago ☕︎

Portland ☕︎

Austin ☕︎

Philadelphia ☕︎

India ☕︎

Note: Indians mostly drink filter coffee. You can get this basically anywhere, so this list focuses on fancier and more westernized (i.e., cappuccino) places.

Chennai

Backyard in Gandhi Nagar is a co-working space which includes unlimited filter coffee and chai.
Scouting Report: Shriram recommends Beachville Coffee in Alwarpet.

Mumbai

KC Roasters in Bandra is the best cappuccino I have had in Mumbai.
Blue Tokai is a good default option, with cafes in a few cities around India. There are six Mumbai locations.
In Kala Ghoda, Kala Ghoda Cafe has good lunch options as well as coffee.

Montreal ☕︎

Toronto ☕︎

Vancouver ☕︎

Budapest ☕︎

Fekete has a great interior courtyard to sit in, and they serve brunch. There's also Langos Bistro (Langos is a Hungarian street food) right around the corner.
Arioso is colocated with an interior decorations store and flower shop.
Scouting Report: Shriram recommends Cafe Gerbaud and Central Cafe. Both are classic Budapest landmarks.

Salt Lake City ☕︎

Zurich ☕︎

Scouting Report: from our Zürich coffee correspondents, Gavin and Albert:

Collective Bakery and Mame which are both affiliated with former world barista champions.
Miró a roaster with a cafe, including two in Zurich HbF, and roving coffee carts.
Near ETH, Cafe Leonhardstreppe Near Google (and Zürich HBF), Bean Bank gets an honorable mention from Gavin, but a demerit for being too snobby.

Bonus scouting report from Gavin for other European cities:

Bern: Drip Roasters (📍)
Salzburg (Austria): Ratio Coffee (📍), Kaffee Alchemie (📍), and Ma Makers (📍).
Paris (France): La Caféothèque (📍).