The 5 prettiest cafes in Hamburg

Café Paris is quite definitely no hidden secret these days. Ceiling tiles from the old abattoir (1882), lamps, seats, the wooden staircase and the colourful stained-glass windows in the sitting room – it’s all pretty much ‘en vogue’, when you compare it with new startups in Hamburg. Since the turn of the millennium, almost every table here is reserved.

On one of Hamburg’s few hills, you’ll find one of its prettiest cafes. The legacy of newspaper kiosk proprietor Johanna Knuth has been handed down in the cafe’s name. Plentiful light and few frills focus attention on the essentials: excellent bakery products and fresh lunchtime meals. Only the panorama of St. Peter-Ording beach draws the eye to distant shores.

Light-flooded vju is 30 metres up, on the converted flak bunker (now ‘Energiebunker’) in Wilhelmsburg. Its 360° panorama spreads the Hafenstadt literally at your feet. The skilled lighting and colour scheme inside create a pleasant ambience, despite ten-metre-thick concrete walls. You’ve really got to try the homemade cheesecake.

The furnishings at this cafe are in constant flux. Chairs, tables, vases, artworks on the walls – many of the vintage pieces of furniture and accessories flaunt little price tags. At every visit, the cafe seems transformed. Fortunately, founder Jan Havermann provides continuity with his baking and beverages: an unqualified delight.

Black gold among sprockets and scrap metal: Le Vélo Café is really a bicycle shop. Above the little French bistro tables hang elaborately restored vintage bikes with unique add-ons from the twenties to the forties. Proprietor Senad Sarac collected them all over Europe. Only his coffee beans come from Black Delight next door.