Cafè de l'Òpera
$Across from the Liceu opera house, the building held a chocolate shop and then a restaurant from 1831 before becoming a café in 1929.
Order: café · xocolata desfeta
World cafés / Europe
Cafés to visit in Spain
17 cafés in 10 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
Historic
Els Quatre Gats
$Pere Romeu opened it in 1897 in the modernista Casa Martí, inspired by Le Chat Noir in Paris. A teenage Picasso held his first solo show here and designed its menu; it closed in 1903 and reopened in 1978.
Order: café amb llet · crema catalana
Café Iruña
$Severo Unzue opened it on 7 July 1903 by the Albia gardens. Its neo-Mudéjar rooms have painted ceilings and tiled walls, and the bar serves lamb pintxos morunos.
Order: café · pintxos morunos
Café Dindurra
$Gijón's oldest café, opened in 1901 by Manuel Sánchez Dindurra next to the theatre he also founded. Art Deco columns and ceilings were added in the 1930s and 40s.
Order: café con leche · pastries
Café Comercial
$Opened on 21 March 1887, it is one of Madrid's oldest cafés, with a chess club upstairs and a history of literary tertulias.
Order: chocolate con churros · café
Café Gijón
$Gumersindo Gómez opened it on 15 May 1888. Galdós, Cela, Buero Vallejo and Gloria Fuertes held tertulias here, and its literary prize has run since 1949.
Order: café con leche · café cortado
Café Iruña
$Open since 1888 on Plaza del Castillo. Hemingway wrote it into "The Sun Also Rises" and a statue of him leans on the bar in the side room.
Order: café con leche · pintxos
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Café Moderno
$Opened in 1903 and frequented by Galician intellectuals such as Castelao. After decades shut, it was restored by Álvaro Siza and reopened in 2000.
Order: café · tostada
Café Novelty
$Salamanca's oldest café opened in 1905 on the Plaza Mayor. Unamuno came daily, and a bronze statue of writer Torrente Ballester sits at his favourite table.
Order: café con leche · chocolate
Local tradition
Granja M. Viader
$A family granja (milk bar) in the Raval since 1870, linked to the chocolate milk Cacaolat. Locals come for thick hot chocolate and cream.
Order: suís (hot chocolate with cream) · Cacaolat · café amb llet
Café Fútbol
$Begun in 1903 as a milk business and a café by 1922, run by four generations of the Suárez family. It is Granada's classic stop for chocolate and churros.
Order: chocolate con churros · café con leche
Confitería La Campana
$A pastry shop and café at the top of Calle Sierpes since 1885, with a royal warrant on its sign.
Order: café con leche · yema · pastries
💡 Order at the counter and eat standing, as locals do.
Specialty
Nomad Coffee Lab & Shop
$Jordi Mestre's Nomad is one of the roasters behind Barcelona's specialty scene. Its Frutas Selectas shop ranked 3rd on the 2025 Top 100 Coffee Shops Europe list.
Order: filter · espresso · cold brew
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
SlowMov
$A small specialty café and roaster in Gràcia.
Order: filter · espresso
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Hola Coffee
$A Madrid roaster with shops in Lavapiés and Salamanca. It ranked 8th on the 2025 Top 100 Coffee Shops Europe list.
Order: filter · espresso · flat white
Toma Café
$An early Madrid specialty café in Malasaña that roasts its own beans.
Order: flat white · filter
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Kima Coffee
$A Málaga roaster-café that won the Spanish roasting and AeroPress championships in 2022 and ranks on the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list.
Order: filter · espresso
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
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