Café Johanna is located at Venus Berg, which – to my mind – is a very special street. It’s near the harbour, near the portugiesen-viertel and the michel, but at the same time it is very calm because it is a little bit off the touristic trouble. There is a pleasant neighbourhood with lots of design and architecture studios.

The interior is kind of Scandinavian-style, everything is very simple and clear. They offer some snacks, very good cakes and fantastic coffee. Last time I had a Swedish cocoa-cake which was really awesome. Prices are not that cheap but everything is organically grown (which seems to be standard in hamburg’s café meanwhile – I remember I wrote this sentence before…). I think it’s the perfect stop after a walk ’round the harbour or the Portugiesen-Viertel and a very good alternative to all this crowded Portuguese cafés in the Ditmar-Koel-Straße (which are nice as well, no question).

By the way: none of the founders of Café Johanna is called Johanna. I never asked how they came up with their name..

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Café Johanna | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks | Coffee € 3.00
Venusberg 26 | Harbour | +4915787925891
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 18:00, Sat 10:00 – 18:00

Between Schanze and Grindel you’ll find a very beautiful old building that once was a hospital. Nowadays, there is a very beautiful café, the Hadley’s, located in the former emergency room area. Don’t worry, there is nothing left, that might remind you of a hospital. During the daytime the Hadley’s is a café with a fantastic breakfast and delicious cake.

In the evening it turns into a bar. They offer a great selection of wines. On every first Monday in a month you can go to “Monday meets Jazz”, a live Jazz night. You can check their homepage for their current program.

Another really nice offer is their “Abendbrot”. You can have the typical German supper with bread, cheese etc. together with some friends. We spent a beautiful birthday-party there, with many friends on a long table, covered with dozens of good things.

In summer you can enjoy the great outdoor seats in the garden. You’re sitting in the backyard, very green and calm. Just beautiful.

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Hadley’s | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks, Restaurants (Mixed) | Breakfast from € 10.00
Beim Schlump 84a | Grindelviertel | +49404505075
Mon – Sat from 10:00 – open end, Sun from 11:00 – open end

As I LOVE everything about cooking, food and eating (I read cookbooks like other people read novels) this place is one of my favorite spots.

The Kochkontor is a mixture of bookstore and restaurant. They sell cookbooks of all shades, from different countries, about different topics – everything your culinary heart could wish for.

Included in this shop is a big open-space kitchen and a few tables. Every day they select one of their incredible plenty of books and cook one or two dishes for lunch. You should go there early as there are only a few tables for many potential guests. If you liked your dish you may just buy the appropriate book or any other book that caught your eye.

If you have the possibility and you speak German you can also participate in one of their cooking classes. I haven’t done this yet, but it’s definitely on my agenda. I would probably choose „Classique – French cuisine”. Have a look at the dates on their homepage. Many classes are booked out long before.

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Kochkontor | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants | Lunch dish € 8.00
Karolinenstraße 27 | Karoviertel | +494043216036
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 19:00, Sat 10:00 – 17:00

I associate very special or at least just beautiful-days-without-a-special-cause with the Atlantik Fisch. Atlantik Fisch is a shop with diner located in the Große Elbstraße directly at the harbor. And guess what you get there: everything the ocean has to give. From oysters, gambas, crabs to diverse shells and fishes – you will find everything.

I always go there on Christmas eve about noon to buy Irish oysters for my family and me and then I get a glass of white wine or champagne and have some oysters already for lunch. The interior is very simple and pragmatic, you sit on wooden benches between this great selection of sea-fruits and look at the flurry of activity.

We go there as well in summer times to have oysters, white wine and baguette, sitting in the sun and enjoying our lifes. Sad to say, that’s not our everyday program, it’s rather reserved for some special days.

Go there if you like high quality seafood or need something really special, you will find it here. Or just enjoy the harbor atmosphere and have a salmon sandwich – as you like.

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Atlantik Fisch | Bars, Shopping, Snacks | Seafood dish € 6.00
Große Elbstraße 139 | Harbour | +4940391123
09:00 – 18:00 daily

Erika’s Eck is a place for taxi drivers and all kinds of stranded people to have a coffee and a lusty snack at night. It is a very colorful mix of party people and people who finished their shift. The food is the best antidote for an upcoming hangover.

It’s good and simple German food. They sell sandwiches with roast pork, tartar or salmon. If this is not enough you can order a “Wiener Schnitzel”. Drink your last beer and enjoy this original atmosphere. Don’t go there before midnight, because that’s when they start selling their sandwiches.

If we are too tired to stay there we take our sandwiches to go and eat them at home. Believe me, you’ll feel better the next morning.

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Erikas Eck | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Sandwich € 0.90
Sternstraße 89 | Schanze | +4940433545
From 17:00 daily

I think black delight is on a mission. They want to make you addicted to coffee. Thus the coffee they offer is a true delicacy. Besides their coffee specialties they offer some delicious snacks like small salads, tartes, sandwiches and some sweets. For me, the greatest thing of all is a small cake called „death by chocolate”. This needs no further description, just go there and try it.

Apart from all this I really like their interior design, outdoors as well as indoors. It is simple, elegant and warm. Back in the time when I worked for my last agency I often spent really inspiring and relaxing lunch times there with my favorite colleague. After an hour talk, two coffee and a „Death by chocolate” for two we always felt strong enough for the second half of the day.

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Black delight | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Latte Macchiato € 2.50
Eppendorfer Weg 67 | Schanze | +494064880078
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 19:00, Sat 10:00 – 17:00

Café Panter is definitely my favorite café in the Marktstraße. It is a very relaxed place with good music and friendly service. 

You need to order at the bar where you get all usual coffee specialties and some snacks like salads, pasta, sandwiches or cake. Their food is not cheap but they use only organic ingredients. I once had a very tasty tomato-buffalo-mozzarella-salad with basil. Their pasta is simple and good as well. I warmly recommend you try their chocolate-brownies. They are so delicious, tasty, juicy! You’ve gotta try them if you like chocolate as much as I do.

We often go there for a coffee during day times or for an aperitive in the early evening as they are not open that long in the evening. Thus it is perfect for a break from your shopping tour through the Marktstraße.

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Café Panter | Bars, Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks | Coffee € 2.50
Marktstraße 3 | Karoviertel | +4940436218
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 22:00, Sun 12:00 – 22:00

One of my favorite cafés is a place called „liebes bisschen”. It is a very small café with lovely and detailed sticked interior design in a side street of the very lively and crowded Schanzenviertel.

They do not only have very good coffee specialties but also delicious cup cakes. Although cupcakes are famous and admired around the world this was Hamburgs first cupcake café. (I think meanwhile there are some more but not around that area.) Everything is made with love which you really feel when they serve your coffee and cup cakes at beautiful dishes.

The café was opened by three friends, one of them is an award winning pastry cook. All cup cake recipes are top secret and reach from really fruity ones to chocolate variants. I could die for the topping.

Go there, take a seat at the cosy couch next to the window and enjoy your coffee and delicious cup cakes apart from crowdy Schulterblatt. You find the coffee at Eifflerstraße 47, obliquely opposite of Saal II.

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Liebes Bisschen | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Cupcake € 2.20
Eifflerstraße 47 | Schanze | +494032967824
Tue – Sun 12:00 – 19:00

You should go to the Oberhafenkantine by foot because the walk is beautiful: You start at the Deichtorhallen (see article Deichtorhallen), walk over the Oberhafenbrücke and at the bridges’ end it is on the left side. The Oberhafenkantine is a very special place with a long history. And it looks very special, because of many storm tides and undercutting it is so crooked that I sometimes feel a bit queasy when I walk in! 

Since its opening in 1925 it was a place for dockworkers who got their coffee and their burger there. When landlady Anita died in 1997 (she worked there from 1925 to 1997!) the Oberhafenkantine was closed and then restored and reopened in 2006. It is a lovely place where you can enjoy some regional specialties. Everything is fresh and handmade. And in summer it is perfect when you sit outside next to the water and have some drinks. Next to the Oberhafenkantine is the Zollamt-Oberhafen a small off-gallery for contemporary art.  

By the way: The Oberhafenkantine marks the starting point of the Oberhafencity which is a huge area with epic free space and old warehouses directly at the Elbe. It is expected to develop within the next decades and is the antipole to the Hafencity. 

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Oberhafenkantine | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks, Restaurants (Regional) | Main Dish € 12.00
Stockmeyerstraße 39 | City center
12:00 – 22:00 daily

Café Mimosa is located in a beautiful part of St. Pauli, in the Clemens-Schultz Straße. It is a calm and very cute place with fine food and coffee specialities. I love to go there for breakfast. You get a selected range of cheese and everything is decorated with love and looks delicious and elegant.

Beside breakfast you get really good homemade cakes and brioches. For lunch they offer tasty snacks like toast, ciabatta with goat cheese and fig for examples, soups or one pasta dish. The interiour is very cosy with wooden tables, a dark red wall and a chandelier, but not overloaded and still decent.

They close very early in the evening so you should go there for breakfast, snack or afternoon-cake-break. For me it is a good place to work, as they offer W-Lan and it is quiet. And one thing: I adore the small homemade cookie with marmelade topping you get together with your coffee. You will know what I mean.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Café Mimosa | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Coffee € 2.50
Clemens-Schultz-Straße 87 | Sankt Pauli | +494032037989
Tue – Sun 11:00 – 19:00