The 15 Best New Cafés in Montreal [August 2026]

The Plateau has no shortage of cafés, but few of them will make you a cafecito. Jama House works from a Cuban and Latin American playbook: espresso whipped with brown sugar, cortaditos, and a counter of house-made empanadas and sandwiches that includes a proper Cubano with pulled pork and gruyère. Beans come from Café Union, the juices are pressed to order, and a mural by Harmony Le Reste and Pierre Akkaoui gives the room its colour. Five minutes from Mont-Royal metro, and worth the detour off the main drag.

La Cenetta means "the little supper," which undersells how much this small Villeray room covers: café, Italian grocery, and sandwich counter at once. The espresso is properly pulled and the iced lattes hold up, but the reason to linger is what's under the glass: focaccia, arancini, and sandwiches layered with rosette, porchetta, or breaded chicken. Order a coffee, eat standing up, then leave with charcuterie and a prepared dish for later. It reads less like a new opening than like something the block has always had.

A bank vault door is not the usual fixture in a gelateria, but Angelini Café inherited one along with its Yorkshire Building address on Saint-Jacques. Named for the family's grandmother, it runs on the Italian bar gelateria model: espresso and a pastry in the morning, focaccia at lunch, gelato or sorbet at any hour. The gelato, sorbet, and focaccia are all made in house, and the coffee comes from Barista Montreal. Order the affogato if you can't decide, then take the pistachio to go past Notre-Dame.

Kuya’s Saint-Henri outpost brings the Brossard café’s Filipino-inspired coffee program to Montreal with a menu that puts ingredients like ube and pandan front and centre. Espresso drinks, matcha, and teas can all be paired with the café’s house-made syrups, while a lineup of savoury bites reflects the same influences. The longganisa breakfast sandwich, layered with omelette soufflé, atchara, and spicy mayo on focaccia, has quickly become a signature, offering a local take on classic Filipino flavours.

Roussette Café, from the team behind Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, puts a Quebec classic at the centre of its menu. Its namesake pastry—a traditional roussette doughnut—is made fresh every morning alongside pastries, viennoiseries, and sandwiches built on bread baked in-house. The Ontario Street East café rounds out the offering with soups, focaccia sandwiches, and espresso drinks, while also functioning as a small neighbourhood épicerie stocked with everyday provisions.

Cadence Café brings a Japanese-inspired coffee program to Chinatown, joining sibling spots Fleurs & Cadeaux and Sans Soleil on Saint-Urbain Street. The menu pairs specialty coffee and carefully sourced teas with house-made pastries that draw on Japanese baking traditions, from anpan filled with sweet azuki bean paste to fluffy strawberry roll cake and savoury shiopan. Matcha and hojicha take centre stage alongside espresso, with ceremonial-grade tea, Okinawan black sugar syrup, and other Japanese ingredients woven throughout the drinks menu.

Café Civil brings an all-day café concept to Chinatown where coffee, food, and music are given equal billing. The independent space pairs espresso drinks with pastries from Candeur and a menu that extends beyond the morning rush, evolving into cocktails and small plates as the day unfolds. Located at the corner of Clark and Viger, its pared-back interior keeps the focus on conversation, vinyl, and the neighbourhood around it rather than elaborate design flourishes.

Tucked inside Espaces des Arts, Café 5-6-7 was designed around the rhythm of the dance studio it calls home. Named for the familiar count that signals the start of a routine, the compact café serves espresso drinks, matcha, and light bites to dancers, performers, and anyone passing through downtown. Its coffee program keeps things fresh with a rotating selection of specialty roasters, giving regulars a chance to discover different coffees throughout the year. While the setting naturally attracts the performing arts community, the café is equally suited to anyone looking for a quieter stop just off Sainte-Catherine Street.

On Saint-Laurent in the Plateau, Fine Fine Fine Café is the first café venture from the team behind the Mile End gallery-shop of the same name. The draw is St. Ali, a Melbourne specialty roaster whose beans head baristas Océane and Karolane brought back after two years in Australia, and which aren't served at any other café in Canada. The matcha program uses Yuno Matcha, with variations like the Matcha Cloud (Earl Grey and vanilla) and Bondi Strawberry (house-made strawberry purée). Pastries come from Boulangerie Guillaume and Les Co'Pains d'abord. Weekends bring DJ sets; evenings shift to live performances from local and international acts.

The team behind El Pacífico opened Aurora Café on rue Ontario Est, and the brunch menu makes the Latino-Mexican angle count: sweet corn pancakes with passionfruit jam, a brioche avocado toast layered with mole and grilled halloumi, a chorizo wrap with feta. Pastries are sourced from Carlota Boulangerie, Montreal's go-to for Mexican baked goods. A strong debut for Hochelaga.

In a covered commercial corridor on Murray Street in Griffintown, Café BRUT is Zoé Duval and Joshua Monroe-Blanchet's answer to the neighbourhood's need for a proper local café. The room makes an impression: raw concrete, a 16-foot marble counter, custom steel tables, and a mid-century seating area, with a dog-friendly terrace adding another dozen seats or so. The coffee program runs exclusively on Café TorQué, a Quebec roaster whose banana peel-macerated beans produce BRUT's signature banana bread latte without syrups or artificial flavouring. Matcha is anchored by a house-made whipped coconut cream base. Pastries at opening are locally made, with a brunch and lunch ghost kitchen program to follow.

Club Pays is an unconventional café that doubles as a cultural and community hub dedicated to conversations around Quebec sovereignty. Operated by OUI Québec, the space pairs an espresso bar with a small stage, meeting rooms, and flexible seating for talks, performances, workshops, and public discussions. Political posters, historical imagery, and Quebec-themed artwork make the café’s mission immediately apparent, but the venue is designed to function as both an everyday gathering place and an event space.

Inside a restored 1865 building on Notre-Dame Est in Old Montreal, Svetlana's matcha café and tea house splits the difference between Japanese tea ritual and New York café culture. Neo-soul plays in the background; the interior layers warm wood, soft light, and greenery for a deliberately unhurried atmosphere. The drinks program runs from ceremonial pours and lattes, including a black sesame matcha, to functional non-alcoholic blends and a single matcha martini.

Mile End's newest Argentine-inflected bodegón understands something most cafés don't: the neighbourhood doesn't need another place to get coffee, it needs a living room. By day, Pampa pulls from a rotating cast of specialty roasters — Zaklo, Funk, Mosa, Yamabiko — and turns out empanadas and pampitas, Argentina's beloved demi-lune croissant stuffed with ham and melting cheese. Come evening, the wine list shifts toward natural and biodynamic bottles and the canned craft beers arrive cold. The maximalist-adjacent décor rewards lingering, whether you're solo with a laptop or deep into a conversation that has no intention of ending anytime soon.

LaSalle doesn’t get many independent café openings, which makes Maison Café’s arrival stand out. The new neighbourhood spot builds its menu around espresso drinks, matcha, and a lineup of flavoured lattes that lean dessert-adjacent—banana bread, maple sea salt, Biscoff, strawberry shortcake, and French toast among them. Alongside the drinks are simple café staples: bagels, toast, and sandwiches like smoked salmon, tuna, and egg. With hours stretching into the night, Maison Café fills a small but noticeable gap in the area: a place where coffee isn’t just a quick stop or grab and go.