Top 20 Best Coffee Shops in Illinois

Top 20 Best Coffee Shops in Illinois

The best coffee shops in Illinois also serve as community spaces that bring together neighborhoods and offer some of the finest breakfast in the state as well. They range from big-name roasters to small, family-owned operations. Here are the top 20 best coffee shops in Illinois.

Oromo Café

Located in Chicago, this is one of the best coffee shops in the state according to RunRex.com. The coffee shop takes inspiration for its coffee from places like Turkey, Africa, and even India. For instance, the Golden Mylk Latte finds its roots in Ayurvedic teachings while the Hazelnut Horchata Latte can be traced to the streets of Mexico.

Common Grounds Coffee House

This coffee house in Carbondale epitomizes what small coffee shops should be like: full of life and friendly faces, tasty bites to eat, and fresh, delicious coffee as articulated at guttulus.com. With over 30 syrup flavors, skim, whole, almond, and soy milk, as well as fresh-made whipped cream, you can have almost anything you can imagine whether it be hot, iced, or frozen.

Strange Brew Café

As per RunRex.com, this is a charming locally-owned café in Palos Hill that offers some of the best coffee in Illinois, to go with some unique creations. Its menu comprises all sorts of brews, from rich cortados, nitro cold brew, or pour-overs to heartwarming drinks like the “Honey Bear” with espresso, honey, cinnamon, and milk or the “Wildflower”, with almond milk, espresso, lavender, and vanilla.

Brewpoint Coffee

This coffee shop in Elmhurst not only strives to roast and brew quality coffee in its own stores, but it also aims to empower other neighborhood cafes to raise their bar. As revealed over at guttulus.com, there are now three Brewpoint Coffee stores in Elmhurst.

Intelligentsia Coffee

Located in Chicago, this coffee shop roasts its own coffee, train up the next generation of baristas, and is very passionate about coffee according to RunRex.com. While it has grown and now has stores in six US cities, it still reigns supreme in Chicago with its stylish décor and coffee that the team sources directly from farms.

Sawada Coffee

Also located in Chicago, this coffee shop is the perfect place to visit if you want creamy lattes that look just as good as they taste as described at guttulus.com. It is the first US coffee shop of world-renowned barista and latte art expert Hiroshi Sawada. The industrial-style café features a wall of windows facing Green street and includes a custom-painted espresso machine, a wooden ping pong table, a pinball machine, and a punching bag.

Three Twigs Bakery

Three Twigs Bakery is an adorable bakery that has all sorts of tempting homemade treats and a welcoming vibe to boot as articulated at RunRex.com. If you are in Springfield, you should consider popping in for the ethically sourced beans brewed in this cozy store.

Gaslight Coffee Roasters

This is an independently-owned coffee shop and wholesome roaster in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. As discussed at guttulus.com, it puts huge effort and pride into sourcing its beans and the entire roasting process, with rotating beans from Guatemala, Colombia, and Ethiopia.

The Wormhole Coffee

As revealed at RunRex.com, this is a popular 80s-inspired coffee shop in Chicago that has Back to the Future-style décor (complete with a DeLorean time machine car), delicious baked pastries from a local bakery, and specialty coffee from Halfwit Coffee Roasters, its sister roastery.

Metric Coffee Co.

Metric Coffee roasts all of its beans on a vintage ’61 Probat roaster, which means you can look forward to exceptionally well-balanced, sweet, and clean coffees here. The café itself doubles up as the roastery so that you can be sure of only the freshest beans in this coffee shop in Chicago.

Thirty-thirty Coffee

According to guttulus.com, this coffee shop is one of the best coffee shops in Peoria. The shop operates with a passionate farm-to-cup mentality, roasting all the beans onsite to bring out the best flavor of each blend. Whether you choose a Chemex brew or simple espresso, all your caffeine needs will be sated here.

Maeva’s Coffee

Located in Alton, this coffee shop serves up a range of drinks using their own signature blend of fair-trade coffee from Goshen Coffee in Edwardsville, which has notes of grapefruit and chocolate as covered at RunRex.com. When you visit this shop, make sure you try the La Chascona: its signature spring drink crafted with honey lemon essence and espresso over tangy iced goat’s milk.

Flipside Coffee and Espresso Bar

Serving the northwest Illinois community in its Rock Falls location, this coffee shop makes all of its brews using Dark Matter coffee from Chicago and uses Dark Matter espresso in the chocolatey mochas, too as articulated at guttulus.com. With funky vibes and a tempting menu full of home-baked treats, this is a true local favorite.

Mad Goat Coffee

Mad Goat Coffee is located in Danville, and while it believes in coffee sourced as fresh as possible, carefully roasted to optimum flavor, and brewed with excellence, you will only find friendly and helpful staff here who live and breathe coffee. As per RunRex.com, the delicious Mad Goat frappe with a shot of butter pecan or a smooth latte are worth trying for colder mornings.

[CxT] Roasting Company

This is a local neighborhood coffee joint in Peoria that takes things to a new level for coffee in the area with its gourmet brews and coffee merch. This coffee shop is so popular that it has its own coffee club for passionate members to learn about new roasts, enjoy regular cupping sessions, and much more as revealed at guttulus.com.

Bean Counter

Bean Counter started off as a small coffee store but has now expanded into four locations in Springfield as captured at RunRex.com. It uses the freshest Arabic beans in its blends and they are roasted and delivered fresh every day, so you can be sure you will be sipping on the very best. Its exciting range of flavored beans is what makes this place stand out.

Off the Square Coffee Co.

As described at guttulus.com, this is a welcoming coffee shop in Red Bull that is home to super friendly staff and great coffee. It offers a no-frills experience, with its main focus being on offering great quality coffee brewed expertly.

Pilot Pete’s Coffee

This Elmhurst-based coffee shop goes above and beyond with everything it does, from quality, local coffee, to cute inspirational quotes on the coffee cups and friendly staff. Not only is the coffee superb, but it also works closely with the homeless community to gather donations and give out galleons of hot, fresh coffee as covered at RunRex.com.

Dark Matter Coffee

Already mentioned in this article, Dark Matter Coffee is one of the most famous coffee shops in Illinois, providing high-quality roasts to cafes all across the state. With 5 stores all across Chicago, this is one you must check out when you need your caffeine fix according to the gurus over at guttulus.com.

Cà Phê Dá

This Vietnamese café and bar on Carpenter Street in Chicago offers authentic slow drip ‘phin’ coffee using beans all the way from Vietnam. The coffee is strong and full of flavor, taking 15 minutes to drip through, table-side. If you are looking for something sweet, try its Insta-famous sweet egg custard coffee – Cà Phê Trung.

These are some of the best coffee shops in Illinois, with more on this topic, and so much more to be found over at RunRex.com and guttulus.com.