Where to Find the Best Specialty Coffee in San Francisco

I’m not a coffee expert by any means. I’m a full on amateur home brewer who gets made fun of for being a little snobby when it comes to coffee (I like fruity, juicy coffee rather than the stuff that’s been roasted within an inch of its life, sue me) and has a morning ritual that involves about ten minutes of meticulously brewing a cup of coffee with a V60. 

So, as you read my long monologues on why such and such coffee shop stood out to me, just remember that this list is not the end-all, be-all, but is just one nerd’s opinion on where to find some fun and interesting coffee in San Francisco. 

It is worth noting that, if you expand your purview to “best coffee in the Bay Area,” there are four shops outside of the city that you could argue would take up the top three slots in this guide. 

They are: 

Moonwake (San Jose): A relatively new entrant to the coffee scene, they started out roasting coffee and selling it at local farmers markets out of a Cybertruck (ew) that they had made into a mobile cafe.

They have since opened up a beautiful cafe in the South Bay where you’ll find well-trained baristas that execute as well as any barista in the Bay Area (including on pour over).

They have a good balance of specialty drinks (like their pineapple cake latte) and single origin espresso and pour over options (there are a bunch to try!).

Kaizen & Coffee (San Mateo): My older brother has been here, but I haven’t made it here just yet. They are a multi-roaster and they use Black & White most recently.

They have a couple of pour over options, a bunch of fun signature drinks (the miso caramel latte looks amazing), and a couple of espresso options (one house blend from Black & White, one rotating single origin).

One note here: The single origin coffees they choose tend to be co-ferments or heavily processed coffees. If that’s your thing, great! If not, good to be aware of that going in. 

Ain’t Normal (Oakland): I love this place! It’s on a sunny corner a block away from Rockridge Station, and they are a multi-roaster that brings in a bunch of coffees from different roasters all over the world, like DAK, Luminous, and Friedhats.

They have several pour over options, several espresso options, and a nice outdoor patio that is a perfect place to enjoy a cup of coffee in the ever-present Bay Area sun. 

CoRo Coffee Room (Berkeley): The only reason I haven’t been here is the fact that it is nearly impossible to reach with public transportation.

It’s a co-roasting (co-working, but for roasting coffee) facility over in Berkeley, and they have one roaster in particular that I have come to love: Hydrangea. They are my favorite coffee roaster in the Bay Area at the moment, and they usually have a good selection of their coffees (in bags) to buy here.

They also have a bunch of other roasters, and their cafe serves their coffees on drip and espresso alongside some nice signature concoctions (the cafe lopilato is like a rootbeer float, but with espresso). 

HI-NRG

When I visit a city, I spend a lot of time researching coffee shops and then visiting as many as I can (often multiple times) over the course of my trip.

When I’m getting ready to leave, I try to make sure I make it back to my favorite shop of the trip for one last cup of excellent coffee. 

Sure enough, this was the place I chose to return to as we were heading out of the city.

Of the first two places on this list, which were my two favorite coffee discoveries of my latest trip to San Francisco, HI-NRG was clearly my #1, evidenced by the fact that I made sure it was my last stop on the way out of town. 

Generally speaking, one of my favorite things in the world is an owner-operated business where the people are clearly very passionate about the product or service they’re working with and could spend hours waxing poetic about it. 

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the two barista/owner/operators here, Luis and Nathan, who are the two people you will find behind the bar on almost every single day of the year (days when they’re open, at least).

They’re a pop up, and I caught them in their semi-permanent space inside of High Treason, a wine bar on Clement St in the Inner Richmond (a short walk from where I lived when I moved to SF more than a decade ago). 

They’re a multi-roaster who were using Hydrangea and PushxPull (from close to home here in Portland) when I was there, though their offerings rotate fairly often. 

As a result of the fact that it’s just the two of them, the menu is simple and straightforward (but, crucially, not boring), with one coffee on espresso, one coffee on batch brew, and one coffee on pour over. 

Plus a couple of special drinks to round it out, like the cafe de olla, a syrup made with a delightful blend of spices that is added to a milk drink. 

I left this place so incredibly over-caffeinated because I originally ordered an espresso – a bright and juicy Ethiopian coffee from PushxPull that I had actually had before closer to home – and then I saw them brewing their pour over coffee with a Gabi Dripper, which I had only ever seen on video (on H&S Coffee’s Youtube).

It makes it so that the barista basically just has to pour water in once, and then it slowly and evenly distributes that water over the coffee grounds, which is about as easy a pour over method for a busy cafe as you’ll find. 

I had to try the coffee that came out of the Gabi, so I went back and ordered a pour over of an expressive Ethiopian natural roasted by Hydrangea (who are also in the Bay Area and are probably my favorite roaster in the Bay).  

They do public cuppings every so often (check their Instagram), which feels like a relic of a previous era that I really enjoy and miss from pre-2020 times. 

Because it’s pretty far west if you’re only in town for a few days, it’s a good stop to add to your San Francisco itinerary either on your way out to the Golden Gate Bridge or to Golden Gate Park. 

Paper Son

If you find yourself in San Francisco’s downtown core and you’re looking for great coffee, Paper Son is my top pick. 

They’re a multi-roaster with a couple of locations in SF – one outside of the city center in Dogpatch, and one right in the heart of the action on the border of SoMa and FiDi – and they bring in a variety of (mostly American) roasters like Hydrangea and Moonwake (two local roasters). 

I showed up at their downtown location on a weekday morning around 9am, and was there for around 30 minutes. It was a nonstop rush with a line out the door and to the corner of the block for the entire time I was there. 

There’s not much seating inside, and clearly it’s a popular spot for people to grab coffee either on their way to work, or as a place to have “walk and talk” meetings outside the office. 

In terms of their coffee menu, I think they do two things extremely well: coffee-forward drinks and seasonal specialty drinks. 

On the pure coffee side, they have a bunch of different offerings that will please a variety of palates. They have a couple of batch brew options – one more classic profile, one more adventurous – along with a similar espresso menu (one classic coffee, one more adventurous). 

I should note that when I say “classic” profile, I’m not talking about a dark roast coffee roasted within an inch of its life.

We’re still talking about light-medium (ish) specialty coffee, it’s just a profile that leans more chocolate-y and full body and less fruits and florals.

On my first trip here, I had a nice Kenyan coffee roasted by Moonwake, and sat in the corner watching in awe as the baristas did their thing and handled the rush with ease (including balancing drinks ordered ahead online with people ordering in the shop). 

On the seasonal rotating specials side, they had a bunch of different options that intrigued me. So many, in fact, that it was the first place I brought Alysha to when she joined me a few days into my trip because there were multiple drinks that I thought she would like. 

We showed up 30 minutes before closing and the atmosphere was completely different than my first visit. It was nearly empty! 

Their seasonal drinks are magical, and there were truly too many to choose from. Alysha got their Thai Tea Cloud (iced Thai tea topped with cardamom sweet cream that is made in house) and I got the Pandan Aerocano (espresso, pandan syrup, and coconut milk frothed like a nitro cold brew). 

I had my eye on the guava pillow – coffee soda topped with guava puree foam – but they can’t make it decaf and it was too late in the day for caffeine for me. Next time!

If you’re looking for a higher end pour over experience, they do rotating pour overs on Sundays at their Dogpatch location (and on request when they aren’t busy at FiDi). 

Worth noting that their downtown location is closed on the weekends (because FiDi is dead on the weekend). 

The Coffee Movement

The Coffee Movement is the O.G. specialty coffee shop in San Francisco, and their start basically coincided with my leaving the city, so I had only really been to their shop once despite living a few blocks away from their original location on Washington St. in Nob Hill (just above Chinatown). 

Many of the owners of newer shops have cut their teeth as baristas at the Coffee Movement before moving on to start their own thing. 

They now have multiple locations around the city, and their approach hasn’t really changed. 

They are a multi-roaster, which means they’re bringing in coffees from all over the world (for example, they had Black & White from North Carolina and DAK from Amsterdam when I was there last). 

Their menu is fairly straightforward. They have your usual coffee drinks – cappuccinos, lattes, etc etc – and they have a variety of coffee options to choose from. 

On drip, they tend to have three options – one more base option, and two more adventurous options that come with a price premium. They had Milky Cake, a famous thermal shock DAK coffee that is sort of like drinking a pastry, which is what I got (and it was the best version of Milky Cake I’ve ever experienced, I think). 

Worth noting that their Washington St. location does not offer pour over – those three drip coffees are prepared as batch brew. 

I tend to find that the batch brew at high quality cafes tends to be more dialed in than pour over anyway, and now I rarely order pour over unless it’s a special coffee (another thing in my approach to coffee that has changed). 

HOWEVER. My last stop in San Francisco was their Inner Richmond location, where we visited with friends before heading home. 

That location does do pour over, and they had a funky Black & White “Jurassic” gesha that I wanted to try. So I did. 

They use a NextLevel Pulsar for their pour over, which is a no bypass brewer that looks like a big plastic tube (kind of like an aeropress).

The coffee was, as promised, super tropical, and I noticed that the barista who made it was floating and dedicated to pour over (rather than trying to do pour over and make espresso drinks at the same time), which is a good sign for consistency. 

They also have some signature drinks, some rotating seasonal drinks, and a tasting flight where you can try the same coffee prepared three ways (drip, espresso, with milk), or each of three different drip coffees. 

A unique aspect of their approach is the fact that they have three different baristas taking and making your order (as opposed to one doing all three steps).

One takes your order and pulls your espresso (or pours your drip coffee), one steams the milk, and one pours the milk and facilitates you paying. 

One thing to know here is that they are trained to ask questions like “how’s your day going so far?” and “what are you up to today?” at each step in the process of ordering/receiving your drink.  

Usually, I’m all about chatting with baristas, but I was thoroughly unprepared for that level of conversation pre-caffeine on my first visit, which led to a funny interaction where the barista must have thought I was on drugs or something because I think I just kind of stared blankly. 

Golden Goat Coffee

Golden Goat Coffee, which is tucked away in a back alley in SoMa (about 10 minutes south of Market St on foot), was an unexpected gem of a discovery for me, and they made my favorite seasonal coffee drink of the trip, a peach espresso tonic. 

The space itself is tiny, and your first indication that there’s a coffee shop in the alley is likely to be the group of people spilling out into the alley waiting for their drinks.

As you might imagine, the small interior (with literally three or four seats) means that most people are getting their drinks to go. 

They are a multi-roaster cafe, and they had coffees from all over the world when I was there last, representing the U.K. (Scenery), Canada (Monogram), and the U.S (Flower Child), among others.

They have a couple of batch brew options to choose from, along with a single origin espresso on tap if black coffee is what you’re looking for. 

However, I think where they really shine is their rotation of seasonal drinks that is among the most unique that I’ve ever seen. 

They had a special drink – their pandan banana matcha – that looked excellent, and I later learned that it’s only on the menu for a limited time (July – October). It’s so popular that they actually have a specific FAQ on their website dedicated to it. 

Aside from that drink, they have a couple of more straightforward options (a honey lavender latte and an orange cinnamon cappuccino when I was there) along with their “Golden Goat”, which is made with goat milk, honey, espresso, and turmeric. 

I had their honey peach espresso tonic, and it was magical. Like I said, it was the best drink I had on the trip (that wasn’t just straight up black coffee of some kind). 

They also have some fun bakery pop ups (definitely not gluten free) that rotate throughout the year – you can find the current schedule either on their Instagram or on their website. 

The Legacy Roasters (I like Verve and Andytown)

While the four places above are the best places to find more forward-thinking specialty coffee, with roasters that have become famous in the dark corners of the coffee internet spaces and discord servers, there are a bunch of other roasters in San Francisco that have been around for a decade or two and were very much the catalysts for the “third wave” of coffee. 

Five years ago, when I still lived in SF, some of these places were among my favorites in the city, and I would semi-regularly hop on the bus and ride for 30 minutes to get their coffee. 

For the purposes of this guide, I’d call the “legacy roasters” Ritual, Four Barrel, Verve, Andytown, and Sightglass. 

Fast forward to today and two things are true. 

First, my preferences have changed, and I much prefer lighter roasts than any of what I’m dubbing the “legacy roasters” in San Francisco offer. 

Second, most of these roasters haven’t really evolved in a meaningful way (or pushed the envelope in their roasting or sourcing) and are still offering the same blends they did five years ago.

Which is completely fine, it just means that they’ve largely fallen out of my “best of” list. 

That being said, I did go to a bunch of them to see if I’d find anything worth noting. 

My two favorites – and it’s not particularly close – are Verve and Andytown.

Verve because I think they’ve done the best job evolving their coffee sourcing and roasting, and I really like their cafe on Market St. in the Castro.

The shot of espresso I had was made with an Ethiopian coffee that could easily have come from any of the previous shops mentioned above.

Andytown because their signature drink, the “Snowy Plover” (espresso, sparkling water, ice, topped with whipped cream), is an absolute delight. 

All that being said, if you’re looking for a well executed latte or something like that and you don’t really care what the coffee is that went into the drink, then you’ll find that at all of these places. 

Honorable Mentions: Other Great Spots

Think of this as a section of places that showed up in my research, but I didn’t personally make it to while I’ve been in San Francisco for whatever reason. 

Because San Francisco is a big city, there are way too many coffee shops to make it to (especially because I like to revisit my favorites on every trip). 

So I’m going to use this section as a place to house other recommendations I’ve gotten (or found myself) for coffee shops in and around San Francisco that I haven’t personally made it to yet, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t!

Plus, that will make it easy for me next time I’m in SF, because I’ll have my “must-do” list in one place.

Komakase: If you know me IRL, you know that this kind of thing is my jam, but their reservations were sold out for the time I was there last. 

It’s an omakase experience – meaning you’re at the whims of the person serving you in terms of what you’re getting – but with coffee. It’s (mostly) a reservations only experience, though they do sometimes allow walk ups (only for coffee to go, though). 

It’s, as you might expect, expensive, but you’ll sit down and try some truly exceptional coffees. Information on reservations and their next seating is best found on their Instagram. 

Spro Coffee Lab: Spro was one of the places I was excited about, and I actually went twice.

The first time to their newer Civic Center location, which was a cool space. But the coffee didn’t live up to the hype the cashier was giving it (I asked for a recommendation and they pointed me to the two most expensive things on the menu immediately). 

I settled on a Wush Wush on espresso, and the extraction was just not good, and the barista told me he had been there for a couple of months, so it’s not really that surprising I guess.

What I do think they do really well is their specialty drinks, which are basically cocktails that incorporate coffee or tea in some form. 

I went to their Mission location to try one of those, and it was great. 

It’s more about setting expectations than anything else – despite the fact that they have “competition cappuccinos” with freeze-distilled milk on the menu and a bunch of fancy coffees, the execution wasn’t quite up to what I’ve experienced elsewhere. 

The Best San Francisco Coffee Shops, Mapped

Here are all the coffee shops mentioned in this guide plotted on a map so that you can see how they might fit into your itinerary. 

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