If you enjoy exploring a city by wandering around different neighbourhoods and visiting coffee shops, then you’ll love exploring Vancouver. Below, we have curated a list of our favourite cafes, with details of what makes each of these places unique and why we enjoy visiting them (besides the great-tasting coffee, of course).
We’re sucking down coffees as we write this 🙂
Vancouver coffee shops that are worth your time
Nemesis
If you want to be able to say that you visited the best coffee shop in Vancouver, check out Nemesis. It’s consistently named as the best or one of the best. Although it’s renowned for its coffee, this place also serves delectable cookies and pastries. It’s that combination of coffee and pastries that makes Nemesis our go to coffee shop and why it sits at the top of our list. If you visit, don’t miss a cornflake cookie or a cronut while you’re at it.
Nemesis has three locations in Gastown, North Vancouver and Great Northern Way (housed in a super cool flower shaped building!).
Café Portrait
We love this cozy little café mainly for its relaxing atmosphere. It’s full of character with lovely art all over the walls, nice music and a unique Turkish inspired menu. Don’t miss visiting Cafe Portrait when you find yourself in English Bay.
Revolver
This contemporary coffee shop is yet another Gastown gem. Regardless of what you think about Gastown, this neighborhood has more fantastic coffee shops and bakeries than any other part of Vancouver! What we like about Revolver is the unique experience that comes with the coffee. The brewing bar looks a bit like a small laboratory and it’s really fun to watch the barista weave their magic right in front of you. The only downside is that the selection of pastries is quite limited. But if you don’t care for pastries, then definitely come here for a pour-over coffee.
You will find Revolver at 325 Cambie St.
Mink
Although Mink specializes in chocolate, they make an amazing mocha that changed our opinion about the drink altogether. Their mocha with half-milk chocolate half-dark chocolate is to die for!
Mink has three locations with the downtown location at 863 Hastings St.
Aperture Coffee Bar
Aperture Coffee Bar on Main Street is interesting in that it is a motorcycle-theme coffee shop and a jazz bar. It has a cool contemporary vibe that is super relaxing, making it easy to get carried away by the jazz music and spend hours lost in conversation. There’s not much room to hang out in the front, but there’s another room with a long bar and extra seating in the back, so even when it’s busy, you can usually find a spot.
Our go-to drinks? Definitely the espresso affogato and the mocha. The dessert selection is small but tempting and they have a few savoury options too, although we haven’t tried those yet.
Bonus: walk in on a Saturday evening and you’re likely to find a jazz band performing live in the backroom.
49th Parallel
We love to grab some delicious donuts from 49th Parallel whenever we go there for a coffee. They have several locations across the city and they all serve Lucky Donuts (we especially recommend the old-fashioned). If you’re looking for a cozy atmosphere, we suggest visiting their Main Street location.
Just a quick note: do not get confused between 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters and Parallel 49 Brewing Company. We made this mistake ourselves in our early days in Vancouver, though it was a good excuse to try some excellent beers.
Kafka
When we lived in Yaletown, Kafka was our go-to coffee shop for breakfast and lunch. Out of its three downtown locations, we think the Yaletown spot stands out the most, with its trendy design and lively atmosphere. When the weather is right, one of the walls completely opens to the patio outside, creating a perfect spot to people watch and enjoy the sunshine whilst sipping on an iced latte.
Isetta Café Bistro
This cool cafe is a bit further out in West Vancouver, and it’s a great pit stop if you’re coming to explore the Horseshoe Bay area. It’s very popular with cyclists and locals so it’s always bustling and certainly feels like a place where you can be noisy with your friends. Their coffee is great, and they have a large selection of tasty pastries and more substantial savory options.
Isetta is located at 4360 Marine Drive in West Vancouver.
Other places to try in Vancouver
The next two places didn’t make the list strictly because of the coffee, but we found them when we were looking for a coffee and they deserve to be mentioned here.
Grounds for Coffee
The coffee is very nice but this spot is famous for its cinnamon buns, often considered the best in Vancouver! If you love cinnamon buns (and we do!) then you absolutely MUST visit this place.
Grounds for Coffee has two locations, one in Kitsilano/Point Grey and the other one in East Vancouver.
O-Cha Tea Bar
Just as the name implies, O-Cha Tea Bar specializes in tea, but their coffee is also great. We stumbled upon this place by accident, but we’re so happy we did. Here we discovered the Cold Blaster tea, which is essentially black tea with citrus, honey and cayenne pepper. It has quickly become our go-to drink for the cold winter days, even for Andy, who usually chooses coffee over tea. With a small space and limited seating, this is more of a “grab and go” type of shop, but it’s definitely worth a stop if you’re in Yaletown.
You’ll find O-Cha Tea Bar at 1116 Homer St.
There are a few places we have yet to visit but have heard great things about:
- Prado
- Propaganda
- Prototype
And a few places that didn’t make it to the main list, but we enjoyed visiting them and think they deserve an honorable mention:
- Pallet Coffee Roasters
- Bean Around the World
- Café Kitsune
- Analog
Of course, this list will likely evolve over time. We love discovering new coffee shops in Vancouver, and Andy will use every possible excuse to get another cup of coffee.
Do you have a favourite coffee shop in Vancouver that is not in this guide? Comment below to let us know about it!
See our other articles here, including where to find the best doughnuts in Vancouver.
