10 cafés in 2 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
Opened in 1887; from 1908 the writers of the Nyugat journal, among them Ady, Babits and Kosztolányi, met here every Tuesday. It closed in 1949, became a student club, and reopened in 2000.
Order: Coffee · Hungarian cake
💡 Live piano or strings 10–2 and 6–10 daily.
Henrik Kugler founded the confectionery in 1858; Emil Gerbeaud later built it up and gave it his name. The salons on Vörösmarty Square still serve its cakes and cognac cherries.
Order: Gerbeaud slice · Coffee
💡 Seating is first come, first served.
The Buda café where writer Frigyes Karinthy worked and held court in the 1920s, with Kosztolányi and Móricz among the regulars. Closed in the war, it reopened in 2010 and hosts concerts and readings.
Order: Coffee
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Opened in 1898 near the Opera House, with its original chandeliers, mirrors and furniture preserved.
Order: Coffee · Cake
💡 Good before or after a performance at the Opera.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Opened on 23 October 1894 in the New York Life Insurance building and long a centre of Hungarian literature. Renamed Hungária under communism, it got its name back in 1989 and reopened restored in 2006.
Order: Coffee · Cake
💡 No daytime reservations; arrive around 7–8 am to avoid the queue.
Opened in 1874; the Virágh brothers bought it in 1922, gave it a rococo interior and won a gold medal at the 1928 Paris exhibition. Poet Attila József often had breakfast here; it reopened in 2016 after the city bought it.
Order: Cake of the day · Coffee
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A vaulted brick room near St Stephen's Basilica, ranked 17th in Europe's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026.
Order: Espresso · Pour-over
A courtyard coffee bar near Deák tér that brews V60, siphon and AeroPress with its own KTRL roasts. House rule: no sugar for filter coffee.
Order: Siphon or V60 · Espresso
💡 Closed Sundays.
A small counter in the Jewish Quarter that helped put specialty coffee on Budapest's map.
Order: Flat white · Brew bar filter
A roastery café opened in 2019 on a quiet street between Egyetem tér and Kálvin tér, ranked 79th in Europe's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026.
Order: House filter · Brunch