10 Best Coffee Shops Around Metro Manila

Metro Manila’s coffee scene is not one thing. It is a roastery in Quezon City, a glasshouse in Taguig, a pottery studio in the middle of a caffeine run. Here are ten spots that show the range, from a world-ranked roaster to a garden café worth the drive.

Yardstick Coffee

Andre Chanco started Yardstick in 2013 with co-founders Jessica Lee and Kevin Tang, at a time when Manila had only a handful of places doing coffee seriously. The flagship still sits on Esteban Street in Legazpi Village, Makati, and the brand has since grown to branches at MOA Square in Pasay, Aguirre Street in Makati, Opus Mall, Rockwell, SM Aura, and more. Each branch gets its own exclusive drinks. MOA Square has the Manila Latte, a playful, alcohol-free riff on a piña colada with a shot of espresso stirred in. The Aguirre Street branch, its most experimental yet, pours drinks found nowhere else, including the Kape’t Tinapay, built around the local habit of pairing coffee with bread.

Yardstick also roasts its own beans and serves as the Philippine distributor for equipment brands like La Marzocco and Rocket Espresso. In February 2026, it became the only Philippine café named to The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops list, landing at No. 34 after placing 18th the year before.

Candid Coffee

Candid started in 2016 as a Quezon City coffee supplier to cafés, restaurants, and hotels, then opened its own flagship café at SM Air Mall in Makati in October 2022. It has expanded fast since, with branches now open in BGC, Mandaluyong, Robinsons Place Manila, Robinsons Magnolia, Greenhills, and a few more spots around the metro. The brand keeps its tone as casual as its coffee, summed up in its own Facebook bio: “walang pake, basta may kape” (loosely, nothing else matters as long as there’s coffee).

Commune

Commune has been serving 100% Philippine coffee out of Poblacion, Makati since 2013. It was built by Rosario Juan, who has worked in the local coffee industry since 2003 and previously managed a café in Shanghai. The single-origin lineup draws from Benguet, Matutum, and Kapatagan, and the café doubles as a hub for coffee workshops through the Philippine Coffee Board. Its signature drink, the Sampiro, is a cinnamon oat milk latte named after Poblacion’s old title, San Pedro de Macati, which locals eventually shortened into Sampiro.

The Curator Coffee & Cocktails

The Curator sits in Legazpi Village, Makati, at 134 Legazpi corner C. Palanca Street, tucked behind a flower shop with barely any signage out front. David Ong opened it in 2013 inside a wine shop, and it has grown into a rare dual concept: a third-wave coffee bar by day, pouring drinks like the Bukoccino and Rose Latte, and a cocktail bar by night under bartender Yoma Rivera, the 2014 World Class Bartender of the Year. That night side has earned The Curator a spot on Asia’s 50 Best Bars every year since 2016, plus seven straight years as Best Bar in the Philippines.

H Proper Coffee Roasters

H Proper’s roots are actually in Cagayan de Oro, where its flagship roastery still runs on Masterson Avenue. Its Metro Manila branches, at Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati, SM Podium, and TriNoma, source specialty-grade green beans directly from origin countries like Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. The two-floor Ayala Triangle branch has a small in-house roasting setup on the ground level and a moodier, dimly lit seating area upstairs. The Banana Turon Latte, built around the flavor of the Filipino street snack, is one of its better-known signature drinks.

Hatch + Hoolman Studio

Artist Andie Lasco opened Hatch + Hoolman in December 2021, combining an art and design studio with a café and shop inside a loft-style glasshouse. The name is intentional: Hatch, as in hatchery, a place where ideas form, and Hoolman, from the Tagalog hulma, to mold or shape by hand. It sits inside AFPOVAI, a residential village in Taguig, which keeps it quiet and a little hidden despite being well within the city. Beyond coffee, the studio sells locally made furniture, tableware, and home decor, and is a permanent stockist for the clothing label Someasian.

Exchange Alley Coffee House

Jonathan Choi and Kristine Ongsiyping, both formerly of the Makati coffee shop Magnum Opus, opened Exchange Alley in Molito, Alabang in December 2016. The café runs its own roastery, pulling espresso from Brazil alongside local beans like Bennu from Bukidnon and Liberica from Batangas. The name nods to Exchange Alley, a street of coffee houses in 17th-century London, and that English influence shows up again in details like a bathroom styled after 221B Baker Street. The menu leans all-day brunch, and the Nitro Black cold brew remains one of its most requested orders.

Wabi Cafe

Sisters Pau, Gabbie, and Dannie Javier opened Wabi Cafe in early 2023 as an extension of their pottery studio, Wabi Sabi, in Kapitolyo, Pasig. Every drink is served in one of the studio’s handcrafted mugs, several shaped with playful faces, since the sisters wanted the café and the pottery to feel like one experience instead of two. The menu stays simple: espresso-based drinks like Cortado and Flat White, a rotating matcha lineup, and light pastries. It is not a restaurant, so there is no full meal menu, but visitors can book separate pottery classes through the studio next door.

Allo Coffee Roasters

Jaime, Milo, and Alto founded Allo with a specific goal: make specialty coffee approachable for more Filipinos without cutting corners on quality. The small café sits on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, seating around a dozen people at a time, and doubles as a roastery selling Philippine single-origin beans like Sultan Kudarat Arabica. Staff are known for walking customers through brewing questions rather than rushing the order, in keeping with the shop’s approachable-but-serious take on coffee.

Buglas Isla Cafe

Buglas Isla started in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, under owner Carmen Lhuillier and Riesa Management. When the brand opened its first Metro Manila branch at ArcoVia City, Pasig in May 2024, the team shipped over old wood pillars and curved balusters from the original Dumaguete space to keep its hacienda feel intact. A second Manila branch followed at Westgate Center in Alabang. Alongside its coffee and all-day brunch menu, Buglas Isla carries Dumaguete specialties like tocino grilled over binchotan charcoal in the local sinugba style, budbud kabug, and desserts like sans rival and silvanas.