Kaffe O

“Inspired by Copenhagen. Made in Belfast.” Kaffe O (kaffe is Danish for coffee) began with its founder Orla, a corporate lawyer, on a secondment to Copenhagen, where she spent evenings and weekends cycling between the city’s coffee bars. She left law for coffee and design, and in 2014 the first Kaffe O opened in the Ormeau area. The ceramics came from Danish designers, the furniture and lighting from Hay and Frandsen.

A second café followed in the Queen’s Quarter in January 2016, then a coffee hatch in Donegall House opposite City Hall in 2017, a café in South Belfast in 2020 and one in Cregagh, its first in the east of the city, in 2021. A second city-centre hatch, near the High Court and Victoria Square, opened in 2024, and in January 2026 a sit-in café in the front corner of the menswear shop Remus Uomo.

Kaffe O is a pure espresso bar: every drink is made with a double shot, ground on a Victoria Arduino Mythos One and pulled on a La Marzocco Linea PB, then served in Danish-designed ceramics. There is no latte art. Food is made in its own kitchen and delivered to the shops each day: Brøds (hot rye flatbreads), soups and stews that are always vegan, weekly vegetarian salads, breakfasts and bakes. It also caters corporate and private events and runs bespoke brewing classes on clients’ premises.

The house blend of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Ethiopia, with notes of liquorice and chocolate and a smoky finish, is hand roasted in Copenhagen by Ricco Sørenson of Riccos and is never more than three weeks from roast.

Photograph: Kaffe O