Montreal cafés rank among North America’s best shops in 2026

The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops has released its top 100 spots in North America, and Montreal’s Café Pista, Café Saint-Henri, Micro Espresso and Café Éclair are among them.

Through both a panel of expert evaluations and public voting, the ranking system evaluates coffee shops based on a combination of product quality and experience. To ensure that voters adhere to a broad number of qualification aspects, The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops lists an established set of criteria:

Quality of coffee
Barista experience
Customer service
Innovation
Ambience and atmosphere
Sustainability practices
Food and pastry quality
Community

It is with all of these criteria in mind that these four Montreal shops made the cut.

Highest on the list is Café Pista, at #34. The third-wave cafe-roaster makes a conscious effort to build community beyond the cafe environment, directing its financial resources and attention to micro-producers and fostering relationships with its partners. Their cafes evoke the lands from which they source their coffee, projecting a minimalist style with hanging lightbulbs and open spaces, tending towards neutral greens, light woods, and the occasional white brick wall.

Café Saint-Henri, ranked #40, was the first micro-roaster in Quebec. They aim to provide as much purchase transparency as possible, and work to share their knowledge through workshops and brew guides. Though their headquarters leans a bit moodier and industrial, with concrete floors, exposed ceilings, and leather chairs, they preserve an organic kind of ambiance with greenery and wood fixtures.

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