New York City has hundreds of coffee and dessert cafés, where small businesses have big personalities and serve both looks and deliciousness. At these cafés, you’ll find pistachio knafeh chocolate bars to coconut-flavored coffee to keep you awake in the city that never sleeps.
Manhattan has hundreds of places to visit, but stopping for a coffee break should be added to your list. These cafés are sure to delight both New York City locals and tourists.
Fall is here, and coffee cups and croissants will have your Instagram feed racking up hearts. From the aesthetics and cozy, foodie content, here are five must-try cafés in NYC that you’ll love.
Charlotte Cafe
📍Kips Bay, 605 2nd Avenue
Described as a place where customers “can find a familiar smile, exceptional service, and a moment of tranquility,” Charlotte Cafe is a European-style cafe serving coffee, espresso drinks, breakfast sandwiches and pastries.
At their Kips Bay location, with their second in the Upper West Side, the cafes are spotted with their bright green mini trees. It’s an ideal atmosphere for summer outdoor lovers.
Charlotte Cafe’s cabin-feel interior decor lives up to its “symbol of warmth and sense of belonging.” The handwritten chalkboard menu, classic cookie jars, and comfy black velvet bucket swivel chairs reflect the homestyle atmosphere.
Charlotte is a calm yet city-style cafe. There’s no shortage of snacks, treats and sweets, and you’re guaranteed to find something to indulge in.
There are dozens of croissants, earthy desserts, packaged coffee beans, cookies and brioche-bun sandwiches. For a coffee break or a place to work remotely, it’s a top pick for its endless options of quick bites and coffee.
If you’re going for a simple coffee (hot or iced), there are so many flavored syrups to pick from— including lavender! Additionally, all of their menu items are priced under $10.
For a positive start to your day, I recommend getting Charlotte’s sweet iced hazelnut latte, handmade by their friendly baristas.
Menu highlights: Iced lattes, lemonades, cheesecakes, Nutella muffins, Torta della Nonna (Grandmother’s cake)
MOD Dessert
📍SoHo, 199 Prince Street
Short for “multilayered original dessert,” MOD Dessert began in the artsy-trending SoHo in December 2023 with fancy bites and espressos.
“Creating original, multilayered masterpieces that tantalize your senses,” French pastry chef Gregory Doyen, founder of MOD Desserts, highlights innovation, aesthetics and taste.
MODs are Chef Doyen and Chef Edward Geyman’s French and American fusion treats. Their menu features eight creative flavors, each individually priced at $7.
More than a cookie and best served warm, MOD is like a brookie with the wow-factor of a molten lava cake.
Their Original MOD has walnuts, dark & milk chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt. It’s a flavor explosion on top of its gooey chocolate center.
If you’re craving a skillet cookie with ice cream, I recommend trying a MOD with their vanilla gelato—it’s a perfect hot and cold combination!
“An experience of culinary excellence,” each MOD stands out with its round shape, natural colors and fresh ingredients. Made with less sugar, you won’t even realize you’re enjoying a healthier treat.
Chef Doyen’s sweet spot for MOD Dessert
While other chefs focus on perfecting their products in the kitchen, Chef Doyen focuses on customer feedback.
He spends at least five hours at the shop gifting customers samples to try. He says understanding the customers’ flavor profile— what they like and dislike— is “very important” and “the best way to grow.”
At the end of the day, I don’t cook for myself. I cook for you guys. Of course, I should like it, but sometimes, for example, the matcha, I don’t like it, but some people like it— so you need to play.
Chef Gregory Doyen
In addition to experimenting with flavors with customers, MOD’s Instagram feed is eye candy. Chef Doyen does fun skits with his peers and shares his artistic crafting.
The eight MODs are available to order individually, in “quads” (mix-and-match packs of four), with gelato, or in mini mods. They have top-selling nut-free, gluten free and limited edition flavors, too.
MOD Dessert’s shop brings a delicate, minimalist aesthetic to your Instagram feed. Their shop displays pastel pink gift boxes, large close-ups of MODs, and museum-like cookie jars layered with baking ingredients.
If you’re looking for that classy feeling when trying new foods in NYC, MOD Dessert is it. While shopping in SoHo, a MOD will be the cherry on top.
Currently, MOD Dessert’s featured flavor is s’mores. Transitioning from summer to the holidays, the s’mores MOD is chocolatey, smoky, crunchy and creamy— yum!
Menu Highlights: Original MOD, pralinello (my favorite!), matcha (with 24k gold), pistachio & rose, PB&J, berries, black & white, MOD gelato, blueberry, red velvet, s’mores
MOKAFÉ Coffee House
📍Astoria, 25-73 Steinway Street
Astoria, Queens is home to some of the best international cuisines— and MOKAFÉ Coffee House rightfully earned its spot among these diverse restaurants.
MOKAFÉ, celebrating rich coffee blends from Yemen and Palestine, is a “specialty coffee experience rooted in the values of sustainable farming, traceability of coffee beans, single-origin freshly roasted coffee and sourced from smaller farms to create the perfect coffee moment.”
With six locations across NYC and New Jersey, MOKAFÉ is Instagram’s #explorepage in real life.
Their interior decor truly complements their popular pistachio and Biscoff treats. And their mocha-colored beverages and desserts stand out even more.
Like Charlotte Cafe, MOKAFÉ has a unique variety of flavored syrups for coffee and refreshing beverages. Some of their menu latte flavors include Adeni (a spiced tea from Yemen), French toast, cardamom, honey cinnamon, and maple oats.
Alongside these inviting autumn drinks are their summery refreshers featuring dragonfruit, mango, and strawberry cucumber mint.
Dubai-inspired chocolate bars
The iconic “Dubai chocolate bar,” which went TikTok viral with over 75 million views in December 2023, is still a trending topic on social media.
Is it worth the hype? MOKAFÉ says so.
This is a milk chocolate bar filled with knafeh (a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made from kataifi) combined with pistachio cream. Subtly sweet, crunchy and smooth— no surprise this chocolate bar sells out!
MOKAFÉ offers two versions of the Dubai chocolate bar: the original, and white chocolate with Biscoff. In Astoria, both are about $10 each.
They also have “MoBears,” smaller versions of both chocolates shaped into two cute tiny bears.
MOKAFÉ Coffee House recently opened its sixth location in Jersey City and plans to open three more soon, adding one in Brooklyn and two in New Jersey. MOKAFÉ is becoming a popular tourist spot and a must visit if you’re in NYC.
Menu highlights: Pistachio knafeh chocolate bar, chocolate cracking lattes, baklava (and more!) croissants, halal brunch sandwiches, mango strawberry refreshers, Oreo shooter (dessert cups), pistachio tres leches
Sahola Flowers Café
📍Midtown East, 108 E 31st Street
An introvert’s paradise, a nature lover, or a place to study and catch up on work, Sahola Flowers Café is a hidden gem in Midtown.
The café entrance is between Sahola’s Flowers’ two shops. Inside is a serene spot decorated in forest green, rose pink and gold accents (plus a floral pink backdrop for Instagram photos!).
Sahola Flowers “combines the ambiance of a traditional coffee shop with the beautiful aesthetic of a florist’s,” with Olga Sahraoui as the creative director. Sahraoui is a florist who manages the coffee shop and her flower boutique shop next door.
If you decide to dine in, coffee, smoothies and lemonades are served in elegant glassware to elevate Sahola’s cozy experience. This is an on-brand, environmentally friendly way to cut down on plastic.
What makes Sahola’s Flower Café unique is that it’s on a lower level, too. As you walk downstairs, the honking traffic and jack-hammering construction noises fade away.
With all the floral-inspired decor and colorful tables, you’ll capture an Insta-worthy photo of your coffee on the table with green and pink moss decorated underneath.
Olga Sahraoui’s appreciation for nature
Sahraoui opened Sahola Flowers five years ago, inspired by fashion and art. She visited the Yves Saint Laurent garden on her honeymoon trip to Marrakesh.
“I think the most important part is to try to bring the beauty of nature,” Sahraoui said. “Try to show people that some beautiful things connected to nature, they still matter.”
Sahraoui hopes Sahola is a place for her younger customers to bring joy and happiness within nature.
Nowadays, we are among cell phones, computers, and all these I.T. things, and people forget about nature. This is sort of our energy, where you can fulfill yourself while you’re, you know, in the place like ours.
Olga Sahraoui
Sahola offers a variety of croissant fillings, such as chocolate, custard cream, apple, apricot and almond. For dessert and savory options, they have tiramisu, quiches and more.
Sahola also has an outdoor patio where you can enjoy your coffee break, a unique feature that is hard to come by in Manhattan.
Their café and outdoor patio are also available for rental for events. But as a café on its own, I love the comfort level and their smooth iced coconut latte.
Menu Highlights: iced coconut latte (popular!), cappuccinos, Raf coffee, bumble coffee, fresh smoothies, basil lemonades, mojitos, croissants, blueberry coffee cake
Nana’s Green Tea
📍Nomad Tower, 1250 Broadway
Nana’s Green Tea brings the best ingredients from Japan to New York City for all things matcha and tea.
A café that radiates charm during both calm and rush hours, it’s the biggest café of the five mentioned— an ideal fit to handle Koreatown’s tourists.
Originating from Tokyo in 2001, Nana’s Green Tea is a global matcha brand. It’s a “modern Japanese cafe specializing in green teas and Japanese foods and desserts delivered in a modern fashion.”
Since its grand opening in March, this is their first and only location in NYC.
Their “modern teahouse” design concept has a liberating vibe when visiting during opening hours. You can get the full essence of Nana’s Green Tea’s “spirit of hospitality” while escaping K-Town’s busy evening crowds.
From matcha lattes and frappés to soft serves and cheesecakes, all of the above is available to order at the counter or via their self-ordering kiosks.
With a genuine smooth matcha taste, their iced matcha chocolate latte, with its green base and brown drizzle, is a Foodstagram’s dream. For $6.50, the latte ends with a delicious final sip of rich chocolate.
Nana’s Green Tea’s second-most featured menu item is hojicha, a brown Japanese roasted green tea— available in lattes, frappés and parfaits. They also offer iced ujicha and hot genmaicha, two more types of Japanese green tea. Menu prices range from $6 to $14.
Menu Highlights: Matcha chocolate latte, matcha warabimochi frappe, hojicha caramel latte, matcha nama chocolate parfait (and 7 more parfaits!), black sesame lattes, matcha soft serves, matcha gateau chocolate cake
The best of local NYC cafés
If you’re in New York City, my advice is to not limit yourself to chain restaurants or the big tourist attractions— there’s so much more to explore!
Cafés are a great start to trying new places. They’re usually small and personable, meaning you’ll likely receive great hospitality from local businesses. You also learn more about yourself when you discover new flavors, places, and people.
Whether you’re visiting your usual café or a new one, I’d recommend being adventurous and trying a new menu item!
I’ve visited a bunch of cafés in NYC and, over time, learned which ones are worth the hype or have a simpler vibe.
But the best part is always trying something new. You’re creating new memories and gaining more life experience.
Charlotte Cafe, Sahola Flowers, MOKAFÉ, MOD Dessert and Nana’s Green Tea are cafés I’ve tried for the first time. I really admire how different they are and bringing their unique personality into New York City.
As customers, we always eat with our eyes before digging in. Social media, like Foodstagram or TikTok, has a great influence when it comes to reviewing foods too.
