10 of the Best Coffee Shops in Athens (2022 Edition)

we spent a month drinking specialty coffee in the best cafes in athens and we came back to do it again. Learn about the city’s coffee renaissance and discover the best cafes in Athens for flat whites and cappuccinos.

True confession: We love traditional Greek food, but we don’t like traditional Greek coffee: it’s strong, muddy, and full of low-quality grinds. Fortunately for us, Greece is experiencing a coffee renaissance.

Reading: Athens greece coffee shops

before our initial visit to greece in 2018, we had serious doubts about the coffee situation in athens. after all, the city is famous for the acropolis and souvlaki, not flat whites and cappuccinos. after discovering a handful of cafes serving specialty coffee, we suspect the cafe scene might be percolating, but it could have gone either way.

For a decade or two, but seemingly overnight, the younger generation has revolutionized the way established companies like mokka specialty coffee and samba coffee roasters (see both below) do business. As a result, more and more Athenians are choosing to drink coffee made from single-source beans and modern extraction methods.

Athens’s new coffee culture is a reflection of the kind of youthful vibrancy that intrepid travelers can discover in the ancient city’s bold street art and emerging restaurant scene. This is a city where baristas don’t hesitate to add a local twist to coffee’s global reach with ingredients like honey and variations on Greece’s popular freddo iced coffee brew.

It’s also a city where everything old, including coffee, is new again. It’s a fun element that makes Athens one of the most underrated coffee cities in all of Europe.

our favorite cafes in athens

Gone are the days when traditional Greek coffee was the only coffee available in Athens. No longer a black hole for lightly roasted single-origin beans, the city has joined the third wave of coffee and isn’t looking back.

It’s true. While Greece’s original style of coffee is still available with its strong and rich brew, many coffee shops choose to brew with a Chemex or Aeropress instead of a Briki. These coffee shops are starting new traditions that complement the centuries-old rituals that surround the act of drinking coffee in Greece. and, in many cases, they roast their own beans or source beans from local roasters.

we know you may not know what kind of coffee to drink when you visit athens. we tell you to try a traditional cup of coffee and see if you can drink it without choking on the grounds at the bottom of the cup.

taff

No news, TAF has been open since 2009. This leader in the Athens coffee scene offers a variety of beans from Africa and Central America that customers enjoy in a variety of coffee drinks, including flat whites and cappuccinos.

if you love taf beans, you can buy some to enjoy later in athens or you can buy bags in global cities like london, singapore and milan. you can also have coffee taf in santorini while exploring the greek islands.

samba coffee roasters

The fact that Samba Coffee Roasters has been roasting coffee since 1979 is no secret: the Athens roastery proudly displays its year of birth on its cups. But thanks to the company’s younger generation, Samba Coffee Roasters is one of the most innovative coffee companies in Athens.

In recent years, samba has traded in old-school techniques for a more modern way of roasting coffee. the company also opened a state-of-the-art cafeteria in 2020.

Samba’s innovative approach to coffee is evident to anyone who walks into the coffee shop and encounters a gleaming Aremde Nexus One espresso machine imported from Australia. without a doubt, the elegant hollow squirrel-shaped machine is a spectacle that produces a product to match. however, the main reason to visit samba is for its coffee.

the café separates its beers into four categories: black, white, cold and competition coffee. You might be tempted to skip the samba competitor cafes based on prices that double or triple the other options. don’t after trying both options, we wholeheartedly recommend the splurge based on flavors that include tropical fruit, blueberries, cherries, and rum.

manual coffee roasters

The handpickers team of coffee roasters sources and roasts the beans they sell in the coffee shop and online. however, they do not actually collect beans. The name of the collectors is a tribute to the workers who carry out this thankless work in the field.

Alexandros Founis opened Handpickers in 2017. His brother Stefanos works at the barista station making lattes and pour overs. the cafeteria has tables outside, which is where we enjoy our coffee drinks. takeout prices are a bit lower for those in a hurry or don’t want to stick around.

duo goulies & mpoukie duo

duo goulies & duo mpoukies literally translates to two sips and two bites. we went beyond that concept by finishing every sip and bite in the quirky cafe.

operated by nikos and tânia anemos since 2016, duo goulies & the mpoukies duo brew artisanal coffee with roasted beans (subject to change) and serve a food menu that includes greek yogurt and a variety of sandwiches and desserts. Prices at this Athens cafe are reasonable, and the atmosphere is laid-back.

Tânia, an award-winning barista, brews the coffee and Nikos handles the food. During our visit we enjoyed flat whites made with Ecuadorian beans and a special filtered coffee with Honduran beans and excellent honey. after all, we were in greece.

While the café’s espresso shots impressed us most with their tropical lemon flavor, we also enjoyed the café’s pulled pork burger topped with egg and sheep’s milk feta. in fact, we enjoyed the sandwich so much that we later ate at the po’ boys barbecue where the meat was prepared.

mokka specialty coffee

mokka specialty coffee was not always specialized in specialty coffee. how could This Athens coffee company was founded in 1923, decades before third wave coffee (or second wave coffee) existed.

The company renovated its original building near Athens’ impressive Central Market in 1999. More recently, the traditional coffee company has embraced single-source, artisanal Arabica beans that it sources from partner growers in countries such as Brazil, Costa Rico, Ethiopia and Guatemala. the company has also started serving pour overs and craft coffee at the cafe next door.

mokka’s cafe not only serves flat, filtered white coffees made from arabica beans from countries like kenya and ethiopia, but also serves mud-thick traditional greek coffee made from those same beans. it’s an interesting twist and one we dig. We also like that the cafeteria serves cookies with your coffee.

the underdog

the underdog started roasting coffee in 2011, before specialty coffee was popular in athens. Those days are over and so is the status of the underdog as…wait…an underdog.

No longer a new roaster, the underdog opened his multi-story cafe in 2015 and now employs champion baristas and mixologists. the cafeteria is a great place to have a coffee or a cocktail. It’s also a great place to eat.

During our visit, we got a spot on the café’s spacious terrace and promptly ordered two drinks: a flat white and a freddo cappuccino. while our flat white was textbook, the freddo cappuccino ice cream, topped with frothed milk, was the standout. We don’t know why this frozen drink isn’t more popular outside of Greece, but we’re happy to drink it when we’re in Greek cities like Athens and Thesoliniki.

We also ordered two dishes: Greek yogurt with granola, honey and cinnamon and pancakes with lemon curd, dried cranberries and almond crisp. Considering we cleaned both plates, it’s fair to say this underdog is a high achiever.

espresso bar in the lobby

beauty killed the beast

At first glance, it seems that beauty killed the beast could be a case of style over substance. the keramikos cafe has modern decor, a large outdoor dining area and a long indoor bar. it’s a modern café that attracts an equally modern clientele.

However, unlike the way that video killed the radio star, this coffee beauty didn’t kill the cooks or the waiters. We know this because our artisanal coffee drinks paired well with the decadent monte christo stuffed french toast brioche from the café with prosciutto, gruyere and honey syrup that we shared.

look at a flower

This cafe also has a food menu that compares favorably to the menus of many restaurants in Athens. the menu includes breakfast and lunch favorites like quinoa salad, eggs benedict and a unique pastrami sandwich flavored with jalapeño mayonnaise.

kudu coffee roasters

we came across the kudu coffee roasters while walking through the gazi neighborhood. Before long, we were sitting in the shi-shi coffee shop and enjoying iced lattes.

The completely modern coffee shop brews coffee using the latest extraction methods and offers cupping and brewing classes for its patrons. Serious coffee drinkers can take an 18-hour barista workshop at Kudu.