Madal opened in 2013 as one of the first specialty coffee shops in Budapest, and Budapest Baristas, in 2015, was the ninth in Hungary. Four of the eight places here roast their own coffee: Madal every week since 2014, Goosebumps on a Loring, Vivina’s several times a week, and Mantra since 2014. Three more, fekete, espresso embassy and Budapest Baristas, pour coffee from Casino Mocca, a Budapest roaster founded in 2013 by former barista competitors. 4minutes, in the Castle District, serves La Cabra from Copenhagen. Most of these coffee shops in Budapest are in the Belváros and Lipótváros on the Pest side, with Goosebumps, the second Budapest Baristas and 4minutes across the river in Buda.
Madal Cafe, four cafés
Madal Cafe opened in Újlipótváros in May 2013, planned around the new-wave cafés its founders had seen in the United States and Western Europe rather than the Italian coffee tradition. It takes its name from the peace philosopher Sri Chinmoy, whose childhood nickname was Madal. In its first years it poured Square Mile from London; since 2014 it has roasted its own coffee every week at a micro-roastery in Csömör, just outside Budapest, in small batches on a German Probat. The house coffee is Beyond Within, which includes Ethiopian washing-station lots such as Chelchele and Halo Beriti, with the Beanlight and Bird of Light ranges beside it. Its espresso blends change components with the season, and the Bird of Light range includes two-origin blends. There are four cafés, in Újlipótváros, Lipótváros, the Belváros on Ferenciek tere and Erzsébetváros, on La Marzocco machines, with fresh roasts arriving every week in 200 g bags. Madal takes no table bookings. Its Barista Campus, opened in 2016 in the Újlipótváros building, runs home barista, intensive and latte art courses.
Goosebumps Coffee Lab, Margit Palace in Buda
Goosebumps Coffee Lab roasts its own coffee on a Loring S15 Falcon, sells and services professional coffee machines and runs a vegan café in the Margit Palace building in Buda. Its mission is to introduce as many people in Hungary as possible to specialty coffee without mystifying it. The roasting profiles are meant to bring out the growing region and the variety of each lot, with coffees from Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia split between espresso and filter, an everyday Classic Brew blend, decafs and a Honduran geisha. The bar runs espresso drinks, batch brew, hand brew and cold brew, every milk drink comes with plant milk, and the kitchen serves bowls, chia pudding and bagels. Next door, a showroom for the Eversys, Modbar, La Marzocco and Mazzer machines the company distributes hosts its barista courses and workshops.
Vivina’s Café & Roastery, by Egyetem tér
Vivina’s Café & Roastery started in 2019 with a moka pot and two people who loved coffee, and has grown from a small café into a brunch spot and roastery a minute from Egyetem tér. Winning The Barista League in 2022 took the team to Colombia to meet farmers, and it has bought from Yenifer Rojas in Huila for three years. It roasts several times a week in small batches on its own micro-roaster, and most of its single origins can be ordered as an espresso roast or a filter roast, from Colombian Pink Bourbons to Ethiopian, Kenyan and Ugandan lots; the Palermo blend of Brazilian coffee is its Italian-style espresso. In 2026 it placed 79th in Europe’s 100 Best Coffee Shops. The kitchen serves brunch, with eggs Benedict on the menu, and Vivina also runs home barista courses and takes a coffee bar to weddings under the name Cup of Love.
Mantra Specialty Coffee, the Belváros
Mantra Specialty Coffee has run a coffee bar in the Belváros and roasted its own coffee since 2014, under the line “A kávé nem keserű, mert egy gyümölcs!”, coffee is not bitter because it is a fruit. The roastery chooses green coffees whose acidity, sweetness and body are in balance and roasts each to show its own character, and the current coffees come from Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Brazil, Sumatra and Mexico. Milk drinks are made with milk from free-range cows, with plant milks too, alongside sandwiches, croissants, cakes and vegetarian and vegan dishes. Next door, Mantra’s training room runs four-hour courses in espresso, filter coffee and latte art, and cupping sessions.
fekete, Astoria
fekete opened next to Astoria in 2013 as an espresso bar of just 11 square metres, and two years later added a brew and food bar opening onto the courtyard. In the warmer months the tables spread into the courtyard next door. The team picks its green coffees at cuppings, so they are poured only at fekete and its sister places, and Casino Mocca has roasted them for many years. Breakfast and brunch follow a seasonal menu, the cakes come from fekete’s own dessert workshop, and the shelves carry filter gear from hand grinders and V60s to mizudashi cold brewers and syphons.
espresso embassy, Lipótváros
espresso embassy is an espresso bar in Lipótváros serving coffee from Casino Mocca. It placed 17th in Europe’s 100 Best Coffee Shops for 2026, and the 2024 European Coffee Trip awards named it the best specialty café in Hungary. Beside the coffee there are matcha drinks, soft-serve ice cream and free-from cakes. It takes no reservations, and at weekends and on holidays laptops stay on the communal tables.
Budapest Baristas, the Belváros and Víziváros
Budapest Baristas opened in the Belváros in April 2015 as the ninth specialty café in Hungary. A year later, after a coffee trip to Dublin, it added breakfast and brunch, and in October 2021 it opened a second café in Víziváros, on the Buda side. Casino Mocca has been its most important partner from the start, and its coffees are always on the menu. The drinks have been made on La Marzocco machines since opening. Other partners include The Coffee Collective. The menu runs from American pancakes, vegan ones included, to egg dishes. Both cafés take table bookings.
4minutes cafe, the Castle District
4minutes cafe is a vegan coffee and tea bar in Buda’s Castle District. The name stands for four minutes to stop and be present, and guests can fold paper cranes, a Japanese symbol of long life, at the café. The coffee comes from La Cabra in Copenhagen, and a hand-brew list carries rare filter lots, among them washed and natural geishas from Colombia and Peru, including the 2025 Peru Cup of Excellence winner. Beside them are wild teas from Zhao Zhou, cold-pressed juices and raw vegan cakes, and the café sells its own ceramics and brewing gear.
What you need to know about Budapest specialty coffee
Which Budapest cafés roast their own coffee? Madal Cafe roasts every week at its micro-roastery in Csömör, outside the city, Goosebumps roasts on a Loring S15 Falcon in its own facility. Vivina’s and Mantra also roast their own coffee.
Who roasts for the other cafés? Casino Mocca roasts for fekete, espresso embassy and Budapest Baristas, and 4minutes cafe serves La Cabra from Copenhagen.
Where can you eat vegan? Goosebumps and 4minutes are fully vegan. Mantra has vegetarian and vegan dishes and plant milks, and Budapest Baristas makes vegan pancakes.
Can you book a table? Budapest Baristas takes bookings at both cafés. Madal and espresso embassy take no reservations.
Where can you learn to make coffee? Madal’s Barista Campus, Mantra’s training room and Goosebumps’ showroom all run barista courses, and Vivina runs home barista courses.
Photo credits
Photographs belong to the businesses and are reproduced from their official websites with attribution.
