One of the most underrated parts of traveling, moving, or even spending a few days somewhere new is finding your coffee spot.

Not just any café, but the one. The place that becomes part of your rhythm. The place you trust for the first cup of the day, the quick reset between meetings, or the slow morning where you want to sit, look around, and feel like you understand the city a little better.

This topic is especially close to home for us because, in many ways, this exact search is what started everything.

When my wife and I moved to Montreal in 2017 after living in the States, we loved coffee but weren’t yet deeply immersed in specialty coffee culture. We had been exposed to a few great coffee companies before, enough to know there was another level beyond the average café, but we hadn’t fully entered that world yet.

Moving to a new city changed that.

On days off, we started exploring coffee shops all over town. At first, it was simple: Google ratings, Yelp, whatever came up first. But very quickly we realized something important: a high rating does not always mean great coffee.

Sometimes it simply means the shop is perfectly serving its audience.

That was a huge lesson.

A place can have glowing reviews because it makes sweet, fluffy, nostalgic cappuccinos or big flavored drinks that people genuinely love. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if what you’re looking for is clarity, sweetness, clean espresso, traceable coffee, and properly sourced beans, the review score alone won’t tell you enough.

That gap between “well rated” and “actually excellent” is what pushed us deeper into learning how to evaluate coffee shops for ourselves.

Years later, that curiosity eventually turned into Micro Espresso.

 

Start With One Keyword: Specialty

 

The fastest way to narrow down the search in a new city is simple: search specialty coffee first.

Try terms like “specialty coffee near me,” “specialty coffee roasters,” “third wave coffee,” or “best espresso bar.”

The word specialty usually tells you that the standards are self imposed and intentionally high.

It suggests the shop is thinking seriously about freshness, roast style, extraction, staff training, workflow, and the quality of the coffee itself.

That alone filters out a huge amount of noise.

 

Look for Roasters First

 

One of the best indicators of a great coffee experience is when the café either roasts its own coffee or works closely with a respected local roaster.

Roaster cafés tend to care deeply because the coffee itself is part of their identity.

Even if the roasting happens off site, it usually means they’ve spent time building a real coffee program rather than treating coffee as a side item.

A city with a strong coffee scene almost always has a few roasters that quietly supply many of the best cafés.

Once you find one good roaster, it often leads you to several other strong spots.

 

Don’t Be Fooled by Design Alone

 

Beautiful design can be amazing, but it doesn’t always translate to better coffee.

Some of the best coffee shops I’ve ever walked into had plywood benches, worn floors, simple counters, and an atmosphere that felt built by people who put most of their budget into the coffee bar itself.

That’s usually a very good sign.

A café that feels lived in, well used, and built around workflow often tells you the priorities were right from the beginning.

By contrast, a place can spend a fortune on interior design and still treat the coffee as an afterthought.

The machine might look incredible, the pastries may be stunning, the lighting perfect, but if the beans are generic, stale, or disconnected from the level of care the room suggests, the whole experience falls flat.

The best cafés usually feel like the coffee came first.

 

Equipment Still Tells a Story

 

Equipment is not everything, but it absolutely tells a story.

If you spot machines from brands like La Marzocco, Victoria Arduino, Slayer, Sanremo, or handcrafted systems like Kees van der Westen, it’s usually a strong sign that the operators take coffee seriously.

The same goes for grinders.

Multiple grinders on bar is usually a great sign: one for house espresso, one for decaf, maybe another for guest coffees or filter.

A shop that takes decaf seriously usually takes coffee seriously in general.

On the other hand, one of the biggest red flags is seeing a fully automatic machine in a café setting.

If the main setup is something like an Eversys, pod system, or another super automatic machine, I usually stay away.

There’s a place for those systems in offices, hotels, and high volume convenience settings, but in a coffee shop they often signal something else: less emphasis on barista training, less willingness to build skill in staff, and a workflow designed around automation rather than craft.

Automatic systems can create consistency, yes, but they also flatten the human side of espresso. A great café should be able to dial in, taste, adjust, and respond to the coffee throughout the day.

That level of care is hard to fake.

 

Read the Reviews the Right Way

 

The trick is not reading the best reviews.

Read the most recent lower reviews.

This tells you much more.

If the common complaints are about speed during rushes, a barista being a little rough around the edges, or the service feeling “serious,” that can still be a good sign if the coffee itself is consistently praised.

Ironically, some of the best specialty coffee shops in the world have a bit of that edge to them. The team is focused, the workflow is tight, and they care deeply about the result in the cup.

Obviously hospitality matters, and at Micro Espresso we care a lot about warmth and service, but coffee people know that sometimes the most passionate places can feel a little intense.

That’s not always a red flag.

What matters is whether people keep mentioning the coffee itself.

 

Use Better Tools Than Google

 

Google is only the starting point.

For better coffee specific recommendations, Reddit is fantastic.

Search the city name plus:

best specialty coffee

local roasters

third wave coffee

espresso bars

Coffee communities tend to be brutally honest in the best way.

There are also great tools like Third Wave Coffee and Café Passport, which are much closer to what actual coffee drinkers use when they travel.

Instagram is also surprisingly useful because it quickly shows you which cafés are respected within the local scene.

 

Ask the Baristas You Already Trust

 

One of the best tricks people forget is simply asking the baristas you already trust.

Before traveling or moving somewhere, ask your favorite local coffee shop:

“Where would you go for coffee in this city?”

Coffee people move around constantly.

They’ve worked guest shifts, visited cafés abroad, gone to coffee expos, and stayed connected with friends in other cities.

A trusted barista recommendation is often better than an hour of searching.

 

The Best Coffee Shops Usually Feel Personal

 

At the end of the day, the best way to find great coffee in a new city is to look for places that feel personal.

The smaller, well worn in café run by people who clearly care often beats the giant polished concept café every time.

It’s usually obvious within a minute:

the staff know the coffees, the menu feels focused, the bar setup makes sense, and the whole room feels like people actually love being there.

That’s usually where the magic is.

 

Let the Search Become Part of the City

 

The truth is, finding your coffee spot is one of the best ways to learn a new city.

It teaches you neighborhoods, local habits, pacing, design culture, and what the people there actually value.

For us, that simple search years ago eventually changed our lives.

It started with trying to avoid bad coffee and eventually turned into building a coffee company of our own.

So next time you land somewhere new, don’t just search “coffee.”

Search for the places that care.

That’s where the city starts opening up.

And if you ever visit Montreal, we’d love to be that spot for you at Micro Espresso NDG, Micro Espresso Mile End, and Micro Espresso Vieux-Port, or online at microespresso.com.