Ahuntsic’s very own micro-roaster perks up the Fleury strip with single-origin and blended coffees. Part bistro, Le Brûloir also serves pastries, sandwiches, and light meals.

This 2020 addition to Villeray brought fair trade coffee from Celsius 94, Rabbit Hole Roasters, and others to the neighbourhood, as well as an excellent list of sandwich options and cookies filled with Oreos, Fruit Loops, and other goodies. It’s even got a vegan gelato shop behind the café.

Vito Azzue has coffee in his blood. His father and brother both have café backgrounds, and Azzue himself was a fixture at Mile End landmark Olimpico for 15 years. His namesake café in Villeray is the culmination of a wealth of hands-on experience. Expect a large sidewalk crowd on weekends.

This eccentric little café, housed in what used to be a lower duplex apartment on de Castelnau, serves excellent local Italian beans, sugar-dusted cookies, affogato, and plenty more. The rack of VHS tapes above the cash adds a layer of nostalgia to the friendly environment.

Dispatch, which began as a mobile vendor, is a fearless player on Montreal’s coffee scene. The café’s  Mile-Ex outpost doubles as its roaster, while additional locations are on the McGill campus, the Main, and most recently, Toronto. It also has its own national coffee delivery service.

Perhaps the closest thing Montreal has to a small espresso bar in Italy, this St-Laurent hotspot opened in 1956 and is as classic as they come. Caffè Italia’s get-in-and-get-out vibe isn’t pretentious; it’s just the way it goes. Its panini are some of the best around (especially if you add some hot peppers), and there are plenty of pastries that go nicely with your latte. Try the apricot or cherry tart.

This new environmentally conscious, vegetarian café is minimalist in design and dedicated to slow living. Café des Habitudes spans two large rooms — one with space to relax, read, or climb into a cozy second-floor corner, and the other having a few tables, a bar, and a place for kids to play.

Known as one of the top micro-roasters in Montreal, Zab’s café-boutique on St-Denis is a great place to fuel up on caffeine or grab a bag of beans while riding the REV. While its indoor space is quite limited, this small shop is a solid destination for some good old-fashioned retail therapy — coffee equipment, tote bags, apparel, and other assorted merch.

Founded by the late Rocco Furfaro in 1970, this Italian coffee shop promises to stay “open da night” — a clever branding move after some of the original window decals stating “open day and night” peeled off. While its original location continues to operate as a landmark on the bustling Mile End scene, recent expansions include smaller shops in Old Montreal and Downtown.

Gamba sources quality beans from the likes of Café Saint-Henri, Intelligentsia, Detour, 49th Parallel, and others. The interior is meant to make you feel at home in your friend’s Mile End apartment — think minimalist art prints, lots of pothos plants, and big, comfy couches — and it works. Their newest location on St-Viateur opened in late 2019.

A café-buvette-boutique, this expertly decorated space offers its clientele more than just a coffee experience. With a full menu, locally made artisanal goods, and a curated wine list, Le Elsdale is steps away from Parc Molson and the wonderful gazebo that graces its logo. Montreal roaster Kittel provides the beans of choice here.

Partners in business and life Tony Campanelli and Sophie Hébert run this popular new-school Italian café and sandwich counter in St-Henri — and it is well worth the visit. Campanelli serves its own branded beans from roaster Barista and offers a few seats at the back of the shop.

Located in Ville-Émard, Yo & Co is a great option for anyone looking to explore areas south of the Lachine Canal. Parc St-Paul, just down the street, is an excellent place for patrons to sit with their coffee, but before they do, they can also grab a bottle of wine for later.

One of the better cafés on the western edge of Downtown Montreal, this café owes its name to Shaughnessy Village, a small but historic neighbourhood located just steps away. Coffee beans, accessories, and a curated selection of merch are available in-store and online.

This micro-roasting pioneer is a utopia for coffee nerds, having made its mark on the Montreal micro-roasting scene long ago. Above and beyond your standard neighbourhood café, there are outlets in St-Henri, Verdun, Square-Victoria-OACI metro, the Latin Quarter, and Jean-Talon Market, as well as a stunning HQ near Jarry Park.

Open since 2009, several Canadian roasters figure prominently at this popular café situated across from Portuguese chicken restaurant Romados. Please do not pass on its mouth-watering chocolate chip cookie.

Specializing in manouche, round flatbreads topped variously, this Rachel Street shop also highlights Lebanese coffee (with or without cardamom), plus all the typical caffeinated beverages you’d expect at your local café.

When Anthony Benda opened this café in 2008, he helped jumpstart Montreal’s indie café scene. The coffee connoisseur has since sold the business, but not before adding an outlet in Club Monaco’s flagship downtown Montreal store and one more on the Plateau.

This decades-plus Little Burgundy favourite has kept up with the times and didn’t lose any steam when it moved some years back. A second outpost can be found on Wellington Street in Verdun.

This Italian-inspired, retro-themed espresso bar in the heart of Montreal’s downtown is proving to be one of the better options for a quick coffee and pastry, particularly as many of the chains and franchises like Starbucks and others have recently shuttered in the area. Caffettiera’s stunning decor — featuring a Vans-inspired checkered floor, wavy lines, bright colours, curved mirrors, and lighting from Lambert et Fils — is the handiwork of local architecture and design firm Ménard Dworkind.

This café-surf shop offers a hefty food menu featuring halloumi toast, breakfast sausage biscuits, energy balls, buttermilk pancakes, fruit bowls, and one hell of a cheeseburger. It has a second location inside the Nordelec Building in Pointe-Saint-Charles.

With a sprawling hidden terrasse out back, this Duluth café is well-located and plenty charming. Steps from Parc La Fontaine, coffee-goers can grab a cup to go or choose to kick back in a comforting, slow-paced environment. For a caffeine alternative, try one of its homemade lemonades.

However you prefer your caffeine fix, Pikolo is at the vanguard. Pikolo is at the forefront of Montreal’s coffee scene, and whether you prefer cold brews, lattes, espressos, or pour-over, it’s sure to have you covered. It’s stood on the fringe of the McGill Ghetto for the last decade but recently announced that it’s poised to move into the Quartier des Spectacles. Stay tuned for more.

Head to this charming Pointe-St-Charles café for comforting lunch fare — think eggy breakfast sandwiches and freshly made baguettes — and coffee from local micro-roaster Kittel. Open since 2012, Bloom is an airy, welcoming space that often puts out calls for neighbourhood-based artists to hang their artwork on the walls of the café. A small market is available at the back of the shop.

This airy downtown shop is boosted by a tidy menu of light meals, from grilled cheeses to tartines. Since the start of the pandemic, it expanded its offering by curating a local marketplace towards the back of the shop.

Big and bright Café Sfouf gets its beans from local roaster Café Saint-Henri and serves its coffee alongside Middle Eastern-inspired snacks. Its spacious, welcoming interior is inviting – you’ll likely want to stick around for a while, so bring your laptop or a book and settle in.

Located on a busy stretch of Wellington Street, this industrial-looking Pointe-St-Charles café-gelateria offers coffee from Montreal-based Zab and a wide selection of drinks, snacks, ice cream, and local merch. Mollo also opened a bakery just a few doors down in 2021.

A specialty coffee shop with a flexible, multidisciplinary space that can respond to its clients’ needs, this Quartier Latin addition opened in the summer of 2021 and has been flooded with UQAM students eager for another place to study ever since. A fun, outgoing staff slings coffee all day, seven days a week. Their latte créatif — seasonally-inspired fruit lattes — makes for a fun twist on an old classic.

Fun, festive, and environmentally conscious, it’s all love and good vibes at this café in the heart of the Village. Offering plenty of options — from coffee and tea to a rotating list of sandwiches — this is a must-visit if you’re in the neighbourhood.

This Hochelaga newcomer is swinging big out of the gate, with its own branded beans (roasted by Zab) and a delectable assortment of small sandwiches that are great for sharing. Bonus: a decent selection of wines, ciders, and beers are available on draft all day long.

Having made quite the splash in its first year in business, this Sherbrooke West café-buvette has a killer list of breakfast sandwiches to complement its coffee and natural wine list. Though out in NDG, Entre-Deux is not to be missed on a Montreal café crawl.

Calling all La Petite-Patrie creatives: This should be your go-to spot. Owned by Tux marketing agency, this café-buvette opened on the rapidly transforming Plaza Saint-Hubert, focusing on coffee during the day (with beans from Escape Coffee Roaster) and natural wines at night.

Nestled up against the train tracks splitting the Plateau and Rosemont, this coffee shop bakes all of its bread and pastries in-house, making it a necessary pitstop for those venturing east of Papineau. Its salads, sandwiches, and small plates are also worth a try.

The name says it all — acting as both a café and a cocktail bar, this mid-century modern-inspired location in the heart of Villeray is run by some of the nicest people you’ve ever met. Whether you stop in for coffee or a cocktail (non-alcoholic versions also available), patrons will surely be met with a smile.

This modern space on the south side of the Lachine Canal uses a ton of wood accents in its otherwise industrial decor. Lattes, avo toast, and more are available for dine-in or takeout.

An extension to the ever-popular Italian eatery Mano Cornuto, this small espresso bar in Griffintown is all about good vibes. Open seven days a week, it’s a great option whenever you find yourself in the area, and you’ll also likely want to hang around to chat with the staff or pick up some merch to take home with you.

This St-Henri staple remains everyone’s favourite back-alley hangout — with coffee, pizza, and desserts available by the day and pasta added after 5 p.m. It’s hard to beat the vibes at this casual neighbourhood spot.

Plenty come to Crew just for the spectacle — it’s a stunning space in a historic, repurposed bank building. But with coffee from local Montreal roaster Traffic, there’s no shortage of worthwhile beverages to complement the view.