Five of the best: Dublin coffee bars

Coffee Angel

Coffee Angel first brought speciality coffee to Dublin a decade ago and has expanded from a single street cart to a handful of locations across the city. Proprietor Karl Purdy insists on a maximum serving size of 12oz – because anything larger yields an inferior brew – and gets his coffee from Bailies, a Belfast micro-roaster. The no-frills South Anne Street location also serves pastries.

16A South Anne Street, Dublin 2; 353 1 969 6001; coffeeangel.com

3FE

Founded by Colin Harmon, a former investment banker turned expert barista, 3FE is a favourite haunt for “Googleheads” from the tech group’s nearby European headquarters. The café is the official Irish distributor for Stafford roaster Has Bean coffee, and the beans on offer change weekly. A variety of espresso and filter coffee tasting menus lets you judge the skills of its baristas for yourself.

32 Grand Canal Street Lower, Dublin 2; 353 1 661 9329; 3fe.com

Roasted Brown

Tucked into tourist district Temple Bar, first-storey café Roasted Brown sits calmly above the fray and invites you to linger. Ask the barista to choose a favourite roast and make you up a board: it comes with a shot of espresso and a piccolo, a miniature version of the flat white. Proprietor Fergus Brown recently introduced beans from the London roaster Notes into the rotation.

2 Curved Street, Dublin 2; 353 1 679 6716; facebook.com/RoastedBrown

The Fumbally

The food is as good as the coffee at The Fumbally, which is why the spacious café stays packed most of the day. The espresso comes from Has Bean, which provides the café with a blend of Guatemalan and Salvadoran beans, the former grown on a farm at the edge of the Acatenango volcano. On Fridays, the baristas sometimes try out single-origin roasts. Park yourself on a wooden bench at one of the shared tables, try the falafel plate and follow it up with a flat white.

Fumbally Lane, Dublin 8, 353 1 529 8732; thefumbally.ie

Vice Coffee Inc.

Vice is the epicentre of Dublin’s speciality coffee scene but is much more than a café. You can get your hair cut in the basement, purchase some vinyl at the vintage shop in the back and return after hours when the building, the Twisted Pepper, turns into a nightclub. As for the coffee, you can’t go wrong with the flat white, now the de rigueur choice in Dublin. Vice is among the first in the city to starting sourcing espressos from guest roasters – including east London’s Square Mile.

The Twisted Pepper, 54 Middle Abbey St, Dublin 1; vicecoffeeinc.com