Finding a laptop-friendly cafe with free Wi-Fi, delicious food, and good coffee can be hard to come by. Luckily, Berlin has a few unexpected gems that offer all of the above, plus interesting surroundings that you can explore when you’re done.
If you’re tired of the typical co-working spaces and want to try something new, check out these 10 work-friendly cafes.
Café au Lait
Café au Lait in Charlottenburg is my top choice for a delicious brunch, coffee, and a laptop-friendly environment. Café au Lait has free and strong WiFi, outlets to plug in your computer, and delicious brunch platters that are beautifully presented and surprisingly inexpensive given how much food you get. Stroll down the nearby Suarezstraße, Berlin’s “Antique Mile”. Lined with numerous antique stores, Suarezstraße is famous for old treasures and collectors items.
- Café au Lait Kantstr. 110, Charlottenburg, details.
betahaus Cafe
betahaus offers both an official co-working space, and a cafe with laptop-friendly tables, power sockets, and WiFi. If you want to try out how the betahaus co-working space would be, visiting the cafe is a good first step. betahaus is in the middle of the city near Checkpoint Charlie, and a short walk to Brandenburger Tor, the Bundestag, and other tourist attractions.
If you’re visiting Berlin and want to see some of the political and historical monuments and buildings, betahaus cafe is a good place to stop and work before you continue on your tour.
- betahaus Cafe Rudi-Dutschke-Str. 23, Mitte, details.
Shakespeare and Sons
This English bookstore and cafe has some tables that don’t allow laptops, but another section that explicitly does. There is free WiFi throughout the cafe, and their range of bagels is delicious, with an offering of both sweet and savoury. They also sell cookies and other snacks, and you can buy their cream cheese and hummus separately as well.
Their book selection is excellent, and they have a section of second-hand books as well as new books available for purchase. Just a 10 minute walk from Berghain if you want to go clubbing when you’re done with work, or linger around outside knowing you won’t get in.
- Shakespeare and Sons Warschauer Str. 74, Friedrichshain, details.
Brammibals Donuts
This cafe and donut store exploded onto the scene in 2015, when they brought their vegan offerings to the world. Brammibals donuts are delicious, and the available flavours rotate every month, changing with the seasons. For example, at Christmas they often sell lebkuchen donuts, and in autumn there’s almost always a pumpkin spice donut. Spring flavours include things like peaches and cream, or raspberry.
All the Brammibals cafes have WiFi, except for the store in KaDeWe. They are laptop-friendly and also allow dogs, if you need to bring your four-legged friend with you.
- Brammibals Donuts various locations, details.
Zeit für Brot
Known for their “schnecke”, cinnamon buns (or the chocolate version, or even better, the white chocolate raspberry), Zeit für Brot has delicious sweet treats as well as amazing bread, sandwiches, smoothies, and coffee. There are a couple of branches throughout the city, and as far as I know they all have the same WiFi password of “roggenbrot”.
The WiFi is free, and they’re a laptop-friendly cafe that I have had no problems with being able to work in for hours at a time.
- Zeit für Brot various locations, details.
MARS | Küche & Bar
MARS café and bar in Wedding may be an unheard-of selection for many due to its tucked-away location. With reliable free Wi-Fi and numerous quiet spaces to sit down and work, MARS offers a beautiful and interesting location to make some progress while checking out some of Berlin’s history.
As part of the silent green Kulturquartier complex, MARS sits nearby Berlin’s (now disused) first crematorium and morgue, surrounded by a graveyard. When done with work, check out the music and cultural events at silent green.
- MARS | Küche & Bar Gerichtstr. 35, Wedding, details.
Bonanza Coffee Roasters
Well-known for being one of the high quality third-wave coffee roasters in Berlin, Bonanza started in Prenzlauer Berg in 2006. Their newer location in Kreuzberg is tucked away down a small street, inside a large, airy brick building. With very high quality coffee and large tables suitable for smaller meetings, Bonanza is a good place to work alone or to meet others.
It’s laptop friendly, but unfortunately doesn’t offer any WiFi. The coffee is so good though, on balance it’s still a great place to work.
- Bonanza Coffee Roasters various locations, details.
Buchkantine
Near the river Spree, not far from Tiergarten, is the Buchkantine restaurant, cafe, book shop, and specialty store. With a broad menu of drinks and some snacks, they also offer small meals like quiche, soup, and focaccia. The bookstore is big, and they have a beautiful view of the river spree. Laptop friendly and they have WiFi for guests to use. A short walk to the Tiergarten park to get your nature hit.
- Buchkantine Dortmunder Str. 1, Moabit, details.
Impala Coffee
After shopping at Wilmersdorfer Straße, checking out KaDeWe, or hanging around Nollendorfplatz, Impala Coffee is a good place to sit down and get some work done. They have free WiFi with a password, and their food and coffee is good. Their cakes are delicious, and the cafes have a relaxed, chilled-out atmosphere.
Near the Schönefeld branches you can find Winterfeldtplatz, which has a big weekly market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The nearby Goltzstraße also has a lot of restaurants, bars, and cafes to offer.
- Impala Coffee various locations, details.
Hallesches Haus
Hallesches Haus is a large cafe / restaurant in a beautiful building with a garden, and a store selling homewares, books, and other small items. They are laptop friendly during the week but not on the weekend, when the cafe gets very full. The food is delicious (and the restaurant offers full meals, rather than just cafe food), and they have free WiFi for guests.
A gorgeous building well worth the visit, and nearby to Bergmannkiez in Kreuzberg, which offers one of the newest slow-streets areas in the city – walkable, nice shops, and interesting bars to visit once you’re done with work.
- Hallesches Haus Tempelhofer Ufer 1, Kreuzberg, details.
