Café Restaurants
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JoMa Bakery Café
JoMa is the first-choice lunch stop for many expatriate workers in Vientiane, partly because the large and stylish café is a good place for meetings but mainly because it does a brisk trade in delicious pastries, sandwiches, quiche, muesli, fruit, shakes and coffee. Wi-fi is available for US$2.50 an hour.
reviewed
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Big Chill
Khan Market has two film-poster-lined branches of BC, packed with chattering, well-manicured folk. The menu is a telephone directory of continental, Indian and other dishes. Have you ever seen so much cheesecake on a menu? Who’s to quibble when it’s this good?
reviewed
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Three Monkeys Coffee House
A family business for 14 years, Three Monkeys serves it up supersized – piping hot coffee and spicy chai come in soup bowls. Hide away in the cosy den, or wolf down your chocolate cake on the bench outside.
reviewed
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Babalú
More inviting than your own living room, this first-floor cafe is ubercute. It only sells tea, coffee, hot chocolate and the odd crêpe, but once you’ve settled into one of its snug corners you won’t want to move. A teeny wooden balcony gives you a great vantage point over Skólavörðustígur, and in summer there’s occasional live music.
reviewed
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Fatboy’s Café
The $4 breakfast at Fatboy’s is legendary: eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato and toast served any time (add just $1 after 5pm). It’s easily the best value hangover cure in town and it’s located smack bang in the action in the Brunswick St Mall.
reviewed
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Helena’s
Helena’s is deservedly popular for its set breakfasts, one of the highest rooftops in Thamel, cosy interior and super-friendly service, with a wide range of coffee, good cakes, tandoori dishes and steaks. It’s warm and cosy in winter. If you are heading off trekking, consider breakfast on the 8th floor a form of high-altitude training.
reviewed
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Yak Café
Another unpretentious and reliable Tibetan-run place at the other end of Thamel. The booths give it a 'Tibetan diner' vibe and the clientele is a mix of trekkers with their Sherpa guides and local Tibetans who come to shoot the breeze over a cigarette and a tube of tongba (hot millet beer). The menu includes Tibetan dishes, with good kothey (fried momos), and South Indian food, at unbeatable prices.
It feels just like a trekking lodge, down to that familiar electronic sound of a chicken being strangled every time a dish is ready.
reviewed
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Cornucopia Museum Café
Appended to the museum and gallery, this café makes for a good stop while you're in the 'hood. Maybe share a trio of dips, commenting on how good a dip would be, while overlooking Vestey's Beach. Try a salad or pasta special, remarking on how special that collection of artwork you've just walked around is. It's also good for a late breakfast, for the children and for meaty mains.
reviewed
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Auguszt Cukrászda
Tucked away behind the Fény utca market and Mammut shopping mall, this is the original Auguszt cafe (there are newer branches) and only sells its own shop-made cakes (200Ft to 500Ft), pastries and biscuits. There’s limited seating on the 1st floor.
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Cafecito
A few steps above street level, this open-air café attracts a mix of foreigners and neighborhood regulars (the Argentine owner is a longtime Santa Teresa resident). You'll find imported beers, desserts, cocktails (caiprinhas and mojitos), tapas plates and gourmet sandwiches (with ingredients like smoked trout, artichoke hearts and prosciutto).
reviewed
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Ministry of Coffee
A landmark modernist structure, with a library (with English-language books and magazines) upstairs and a cafe below. It’s ideal for an espresso or latte, but the food (mainly snacks and cakes) is pretty average.
reviewed
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California Café
Run by Tim, from California no less, this hip pad does breakfasts at any time, plus light lunches and salads – it’s a funky, chilled space to while away many hours. You can spend the day listening to the sublime world music collection or reading one of the hundreds of books available for exchange. Wi-fi is a godsend to laptop junkies and rich espressos and dozens of herbal teas will keep you sipping till closing time. Tim is active in the development of ecotourism in the Cordillera Huayhuash and is a goldmine of information on that area. He organizes ‘ultimate Frisbee’ games every Friday.
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Indian Coffee House
The mythic Indian Coffee House was once a meeting place of freedom fighters, bohemians and revolutionaries. Today its crusty high ceilings and grimy walls ring with deafening student conversation but despite the dishwater coffee, it’s perversely fascinating. One block south of MG Rd, walk 20m east off College St and it’s upstairs on the left.
reviewed
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Café Santropol
This is an iconic Montréal eatery known for its towering and creative sandwiches, its colorful digs, and lush outdoor garden patio. Its creations range from the sweet root (carrots, raisins, coriander, nuts, mayo and fresh apple) to pepper island with ham (which comes with jalapeño pepper jelly, pesto and cream cheese spread).
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Himalayan Java
Above the Bakery Cafe, this modern and buzzing coffeehouse serves good espresso and fine paninis and cakes, in addition to decent breakfasts. There’s a sunny balcony, lots of sofas and big-screen TV for the football, but from certain angles it feels a bit like a hotel foyer. It’s popular with hip middle-class Nepalis and there’s wi-fi.
reviewed
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Flying Biscuit Café
Sleep in if you want, the Flying Biscuit serves all-day breakfasts of omelets, organic oatmeal pancakes, fried green tomatoes and tasty grits, all accompanied by their justifiably famous fluffy biscuits. A diverse, happy crowd enjoys the rest of the vegetarian-friendly menu of black bean quesadillas and veggie burgers.
reviewed
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New Orleans Cafe
Hidden down an alley near the Brezel Bakery, New Orleans boasts a relaxed and intimate candlelit vibe and a great selection of music, often live. It’s a popular spot for a drink but the menu also ranges far and wide, from Thai curries and good burgers to Creole jambalaya and oven-roasted vegies, plus good breakfasts.
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Paradox Cafe
A cosy favorite in the charming Belmont neighborhood, the Paradox whips up vegetarian and vegan treats like a tempeh Reuben that could win over the most devoted steak lover. (If not, though, there's also the organic, hormone-free beef burger.) Its kitsch decor includes a soda-fountain counter and blue vinyl booths.
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Killiney Kopitiam
The original local coffee joint, which spawned a whole host of imitators and an empire of franchisees, is still the place for breakfast. The waiter yells your order at ear-splitting volume and the coffee – shaken by the resulting seismic disturbance – inevitably arrives erupted into the saucer.
reviewed
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Sheinkin
Sheinkin stands out amongst the other eggs-and-coffee joints in Auckland's CBD due to its stellar Israeli-inspired food, quality coffee and unhurried atmosphere. They do a fabulous tasting plate, soups and salads and there is plenty of glossy reading material to peruse while you wait for your bagel.
reviewed
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Coffee.Com
Puducherry's cosmopolitan vibe is typified by this hip little internet hang-out. It's a meeting place where you can go online, read magazines, drink espresso coffee and there's a widescreen TV and a selection of DVDs. The café also serves up great baguettes, pasta, pastries and milkshakes.
reviewed
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Gallops
This is a spiffy air-conditioned cafe with a camel leather–clad lounge area with big windows. There is real, and very good, espresso coffee, but at Rs100 a cappuccino, you would have to be keen. The menu also features pricey Indian and Chinese veg and nonveg, including tandoori specials.
reviewed
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D'Arcy's Kitchen
Next to the Omani Heritage Gallery, this friendly and award-winning establishment serves Western favourites at reasonable prices and is open when most other cafés are taking a siesta. An English breakfast will set you up well for a 'constitutional' along the nearby beach.
reviewed
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La Gran Via
Chinese food comes hot, fresh and in large portions; the soups are great. Lunch specials are a better deal.
reviewed
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Harbour Square
A modest food court overlooking Manila’s marina in the CCP Complex.
reviewed