The 15 Best Coffee Shops in Boston
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The best coffee shops in Boston, according to the experts: Eater, James Beard Awards, and Boston Magazine have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Cicada Coffee Bar comes out on top, and the good stuff runs deepest in Cambridge and Boston.
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Tilde and Broadsheet Coffee Roasters hold the next two places. Eater shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Boston Magazine next.
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Rank 1. Cicada Coffee Bar
Vietnamese Coffee Shop
Masking tape covers the electrical outlets and laptops are not welcome, which tells you everything about the mood at this tiny Cambridge coffee shop. People line up outside the galley-sized space for foamy, salty Vietnamese iced coffee and brioche guava pastries, then settle into the gravel garden out back at rickety little tables. No wifi, no parking, no apologies.
The awards
- Eater Eater: The Best Coffee Shops Around Boston
- Eater Eater: The 38 Essential Restaurants in Boston
- James Beard Awards James Beard Awards: 2023 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Vinh Le
- Eater The Best Coffee Shops Around Boston
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Boston
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Vinh Le
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The awards
- Eater The Best Coffee Shops Around Boston
- Boston Magazine 2025 · Best Day-to-Night Spot · Best of Boston
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A former Darwin's location reborn as a worker-owned cooperative coffee shop, where the staff collectively run the place and share in the profits. The menu carries over some old favorites alongside new ones, and the coffee comes from Equal Exchange, another worker-owned co-op, because apparently the solidarity doesn't stop at the door. A neighborhood spot in Cambridge where your latte is, in a small way, a political act.
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Rank 3. Jadu
Vietnamese
A rosemary-honey cortado tells you everything about what kind of coffee shop this is. Jadu is a Jamaica Plain cafe pulling Counter Culture espresso alongside masala chai sourced from Boston's own Madhrasi Chai, with seasonal drinks that lean into unexpected flavor combinations. Pastries come from a nearby nut-free bakery, and there's a breakfast and lunch menu to keep you longer than you planned.
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Rank 3. Madhouse Cafe
Coffee
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Rank 3. Ogawa Coffee
Japanese Coffee Shop
A Kyoto-born coffee roaster with a downtown Boston outpost, Ogawa treats the morning latte as a quiet art project, right down to the foam. It's a coffee shop in the composed, Japanese sense: calm, precise, and a little more interesting than you expected. The house blend skews rich and fruity, the hojicha latte earthy and caramel-edged, and seasonal drinks like a smoked maple latte suggest the menu takes itself just seriously enough.
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Rank 3. Yego Coffee
Rwandan African Coffee Shop
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