Cafe Bambino

Seattle's best coffee. Cafe Bambino has the best coffee period. This place is a true hidden gem. Highly recommended for the great drinks, service, and merchandise. The staff is friendly and helpful. Cozy seating is outside but covered. If you want great coffee, go here.

I have worked in Ballard for 24 years how have I missed this gem? The coffee was amazing. The best I have had in along time. I loved the mandarin orange bread.

Born and raised North Seattle yet never been? Worth the wait. Order at outside bar yet still admire cut interior and appreciate friendly service. 5 star for this business being a cool icon of 65th Ave AND having kind people and seating. Definitely recommend

Enjoyed an oat milk cafe au lait at their outdoor patio. It was the perfect temp and tasted great! Cute and compact, Cafe Bambino exudes positive vibes and feels inspired by Italy, yet totally Seattle. Their Italian-leaning drinks are tasty and the service fantastic!

I love Cafe Bambino! Whether it’s for a latte or just an herbal tea, the baristas here know exactly how to make the perfect cup of something to fill the hollows of my heart. The outdoor patio is usually vacant in the winter, which is great, because it allows me time to tune out the world, to forget about all my problems, to sip on teas and consult google maps in peace.

See, I've been on the hunt for the perfect Phinney Ridge lookout for most of the day. I’ve seen it before. I’ve been there many times, but the path is lost to me.

It’s here somewhere.

Moments turn to minutes to hours on the hill, weaving through the narrow aves and eaves of single-lane streets, passing by all the two-to-three story multi-million dollar homes that grow less impressive with each step, fading out to background fuzz. It’s at this point, each time, that I seem to get lost. The street blur together, letters lose their meaning and signs float away. I turn left instead of right, and the crows fluttering in my wake seem to be taunting me with their caws. All I know is that Palatine A-V-E is important to me—I’m not sure if the place I’m looking for is on Palatine, but it may be a cross-street. Or it may not. I’m really not sure because, back then, I wasn't the one navigating.

It was a gal I dated for a time. We hung out a lot, smoked cigarettes and pot, and spent most of our time wishing that we could make the other person less sad.

We'd wander off to somewhere new, far away, any place that a bus could bring us to, take long walks through neighborhoods pretending like we belonged, like we were well-established: like there was real food in the fridge and we could leave our phones at home because we didn't need anyone else, we didn’t need friends or relatives to bum a few bucks off of to help pay for heat, for electricity, for rent, we didn’t need anybody and we could do it all on our own. We could just take a walk on sunny day and get lost on not being anybody, or anything.

It took a few months, but we stumbled down a dead end. It looked out over the city, the mountains, and everything in between. There was so much life sprawling out all around us, so much movement that if you unfocused your eyes you almost got a sense of something bigger heading your way. To sweep you off your feet. To lift you up. To us, it felt like a wonder, like the kind you hear about astronauts being able to see from on high up in space. This whole street knew what they had, too, because all the homes flattened into the hillside to be polite enough to let their neighbors get in on those magnificent sunsets: watch the world bleed into neon colors of lemonade and cotton-candy and oreo-cookie packaging while the clouds weaved past peaks. It was a place where rabbits chased each other across the street, where on a cloudy night the city shimmered like the stars, where the dew was ever-present, coating this slice of eden in a glossy shimmer—like those close-ups of fancy dames you see in an old hollywood film.

The last few months we were together was spent up on that ridge.

We parted ways a while back, broke up over unwashed dishes, over a fight that was long brewing, and when the words came out they rang too true to deny. When the sun came up next we were both gone, like nothing ever happened, fading back into that part of your mind where dreams go to hide.

I think I found it via satellite. I’ve drawn up a map to take me there, to help me focus more on what my gut has to say rather than the caws of passing thoughts. But, right now my gut says this tea isn’t sitting too well with my empty stomach. The bathroom here is clean, homey, and the walls are paper thin: not a place you want to spend too much time in—if you get my meaning—not with such nice baristas hanging on just the other side.

If I know my body right, I should have another half hour. Maybe forty minutes. Just enough time to hike back up and take another look around.

The sun is setting soon.

Great service and coffee!!
Didn't meet up with a old friend... But the coffee was totally worth the trip! XO

One of my personal favorite coffee shops. It's so quaint and cozy and the staff are always very friendly, you can tell they truly enjoy working there. They keep you engaged in conversation when/if you want to be, and know when to be politely quiet for those that don't enjoy being engaged in conversation as often. The inside has a few seats in front of the window for street-view people watching. I suggest sitting outside on the patio; there's heat lamps and a little window that they use to call your order out. It's more spacious on the patio and very cute

Always delicious quality coffee and friendly service. Tons of options to customize your drink that you won’t find in your average sbux.

Great coffee and tasty pastries. Low key vibe. The shop is so small and cute. You'll just have to talk to everyone. I've only been in the summer, there is a larger open seating area outside. Not sure if it's used in the winter.

these guys saved me from hunger, early Saturday morning in the morning! service is good and courteous, sandwiches are delicious appetizing!

This is one of the best neighborhood coffee shops (my other favorite being All City Coffee). It's been there for years and is consistently solid. Plus, the baked good selection is nice. If you're in Ballard and need some good joe, I recommend it!

Relaxing cafe with entertains views of 65th. Cool morning with a latte and bottled water to recharge the life battery.

Best espresso drinks I've had in Ballard. The staff are good humans but they won't give you the normal customer service smile. Generally nice folks, they just don't force the usual small talk.

Nice colorful little place. Order ahead of time with Joe app for fastest service. Good selection of pastries to go along with the coffee and their outdoor seating area is small but charming.

Feels like home! It's small, or more accurately, cozy. Nice bar stool seating inside, always a newspaper there, a nice bench right outside the window, outdoor covered seating to the left, and always friendly staff. You will easily become a regular here.

I love this coffee shop because it's cute and straight to the point but also has character with local art for sale and some indoor and outdoor seating. The baristas have always been pleasant and I always try to stop when I'm in this area.

Awesome spot. The building is super cool. Get in there for your Americano and then keep walking up the hill to do some window shopping. The folks who work here are really nice and they make a killer cup of coffee.

Cafe Bambino is best-suited for the in&out crowd, as it's a small space. Lingerers may find themselves enjoying the covered patio (and eavesdropping on some hyper-local topics of conversation). The barista crew is made up of a number of long-serving employees, which makes me think they're well-cared for. Some may seem to have a bit of an edge, but if you become a regular, they are rapport-builders who care about their community. Grateful for the punch card. Get there early to have the best pick of the pastries!

Cafe Bambino is my new favorite place to go for a chai latte. It is the spiciest I have had and they grind fresh nutmeg on top of you like. The baristas are always so friendly and smiling. There isn't a lot of seating inside for studying and while there is covered area outside to do so, it isn't ideal in the winter. Love Cafe Bambino! Best chai lattes!

Evidently the outside area is heated! That's great. I haven't tried it yet. I should do so. I completely recommend Cafe Bambino.

Great neighborhood coffee shop. Wonderful baristas, great coffee. Love the way they continue to fix up the outdoor space. Enjoy hanging out there