Last updated on 09/22/2026
Ellen Mehrhoff-Roddewig
For me, there’s nothing cozier than spending a free Saturday afternoon with a good cup of coffee and a classic book open on the table. Add to that the smell of freshly baked cake and old paper, and I’m lost in the book for a few hours. My favorite place to do this is the Buchkantine in Moabit, where people are reading and flipping through books all around me, yet no one bothers me. It’s exactly this blend of company and quiet solitude that I’ve been looking for in this list.
Bookstore, reading café, and delicatessen in one: Buchkantine, located in Moabit on the Spree, combines literature with culinary aspirations across approximately 400 square meters. Browse books, drink cappuccino, taste champagne - all with a view of the water.
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The TAZ-Kantine on the ground floor of the new taz building on Friedrichstraße in Kreuzberg has been a meeting point for the editorial team and the neighborhood since 2005. At lunchtime, there's a changing menu with many vegan dishes starting from 9.90 euros, and a cappuccino costs 3.60 euros. As a reading café in Berlin, it scores with the current taz newspaper on the table and the taz Talks in the evening.
She said on Kottbusser Damm in Neukölln has been both a bookstore and a specialty coffee shop since 2020. The shelves exclusively feature books by women and queer authors, many from marginalized perspectives. At the counter, freshly baked cinnamon rolls are available daily. Authors read from their new books here one to two times a month.
ocelot on Brunnenstraße in Mitte is an independent bookstore with a café and large windows overlooking Volkspark am Weinberg. The shelves feature literary fiction, poetry, English titles, and many small publishers, while a La-Marzocco machine graces the counter. For this reading café in Berlin-Mitte, it means: come early, as the few tables fill up quickly.
Café Tasso on Frankfurter Allee in Friedrichshain is both an organic café and a second-hand bookshop: over 20,000 used books are available on the terrace, on the ground floor, and in three basement rooms, each costing 2.50 Euros. The reading café is run as an inclusion enterprise. A novel from the shelf costs less here than the cappuccino you drink with it.
Frau Polda in Maxstraße on Leopoldplatz is a bookstore and Italian bistro in one, opened in 2025 by a publishing professional and a restaurateur from Tuscany. Between novels, children's books, and English titles, there's focaccia from 3.40 Euro and Aperol Spritz. In this reading café in Wedding, a chapter is often followed by focaccia under the tree.
The Café Schwartzsche Villa is located in the Steglitz Cultural Centre, home to the Berlin Authors' Forum, where readings regularly take place in the salon. It is operated by an inclusion company, and a slice of cake costs 4 Euros. As a reading café in Berlin-Steglitz, the yellow Wilhelminian villa boasts a summer garden for around 100 guests.
LeseGlück in Ohlauer Straße, Kreuzberg, is a neighborhood bookstore with coffee and a couch, founded in 2007 and awarded the German Bookstore Prize in 2021. The shelves feature German and English titles, many from independent publishers. Tips at this Berlin reading café come from the owners, who also present books on radioeins.
Shakespeare & Sons on Warschauer Straße in Friedrichshain is an English-language bookstore with its own bagel bakery: Fine Bagels hand-rolls and New York-boils its bagels. Tables are set between the shelves for browsing. In this reading café in Berlin, the next novel is usually already on the table before the bagel arrives.
Periplaneta's literary café on Bornholmer Straße in Prenzlauer Berg is a café, publishing bookstore, and reading stage of the eponymous indie publisher. During the day, people read and work with coffee and Wi-Fi; in the evenings, TresenLesen, Vision & Wahn, and the open stage Rühmchen take place. Anyone who wants to read their own texts here only needs courage and seven minutes.
