Best Coffee Shops in Makassar: A Local's Guide to Every Great Cup

I have spent the better part of fifteen years drinking coffee across this city, from the old Dutch quarter near the harbor to the newer commercial strips creeping south toward Sultan Hasanuddin Airport. Makassar has always been a trading port, a place where Bugis and Makassarese merchants mixed with Arab, Chinese, and European sailors, and that mercantile spirit still lives inside every warung kopi and specialty bar in town. If you are searching for the best coffee shops in Makassar, you need to understand that this city does not separate coffee from community. People here gather over a cup of kopi tubruk to settle business deals, argue about football, or just watch the afternoon rain roll in from the Makassar Strait. This guide reflects what I have learned by walking these streets, sitting at these tables, and talking to the people who roast, brew, and serve the drinks that keep this city running.

Traditional Coffee Culture and Old Town Makassar

Before you step into any modern specialty cafe, you need to understand where coffee lives in the bones of this city. Makassar's relationship with coffee goes back centuries, tied to the Toraja highlands that produce much of South Sulawesi's arabica and robusta. The old port area around Jalan Penghibur and the Karebosi district has always been where traders would stop for a bitter cup before boarding ships. That tradition never died. It just changed shape. Today, you can still find elderly men serving kopi tubruk from a single cart at five in the morning, grounds boiled straight in a glass, no filter, no fuss. The top cafes Makassar has produced in recent years owe everything to that foundation. They are building on a culture that was already here long before anyone heard of a V60 or a flat white.

1. Kopi Phan on Jalan Penghibur

I walked into Kopi Phan on a Tuesday morning last week, around 6:45 AM, and the place was already half full of dock workers and ojek drivers getting their first cup. This is one of the oldest continuously operating coffee spots in the old port neighborhood, sitting on Jalan Penghibur roughly two blocks east of the Losari Beach waterfront. The owner, a man named Haji Ridwan whose family has run this stall for three generations, still uses a blend of Toraja arabica and Mandailing robusta that he roasts himself in a wok over a charcoal burner out back. Order the kopi susu phan, which is his signature, a thick, almost syrupy coffee with condensed milk that he stirs into the grounds before pouring boiling water. The best time to come is between 6:00 and 8:00 AM, before the midday heat makes the open-air seating unbearable. Most tourists never make it here because there is no English menu and the signage is a faded wooden board that half the street vendors have already blocked with their own carts.

Local Insider Tip: "Ask Haji Ridwan for the 'kopi hitam spesial' if you want the unsweetened version with a pinch of cardamom he adds when he is in the mood. He only makes it for people who ask by name, and he will look at you differently once you do."

The connection to Makassar's history here is direct. This stretch of Jalan Penghuruh was where Bugis pinisi ships would offload cargo, and the coffee stalls served the laborers. Kopi Phan is a living piece of that waterfront economy, even as the cargo ships have moved to the deeper harbor at Soekarno-Hatta.

2. Warung Kopi Murni on Jalan Nusantara

Warung Kopi Murni sits on Jalan Nusantara in the central Tamalanrea district, about a ten-minute ride from the Universitas Hasanuddin campus. I went here on a Friday afternoon and the crowd was almost entirely students and lecturers, hunched over laptops and notebooks, arguing about research papers over glasses of kopi jahe. The coffee here is straightforward, no-frills tubruk style, but the ginger version is what regulars come for. They grate fresh ginger root into the glass along with the grounds and sugar, then pour the water off a height that creates a slight froth. It costs around 8,000 rupiah, which is less than half what you would pay at a specialty cafe. The best time to visit is between 3:00 and 5:00 PM, when the afternoon crowd is lively but the evening prayer rush has not yet emptied the room. One detail most visitors miss is the back room, a narrow corridor with four tables where the owner keeps framed photographs of Makassar from the 1950s and 1960s, including a few shots of the old fort that no longer stands in its complete form.

Local Insider Tip: "Sit at the second table from the back wall if you want the strongest signal for your phone. The owner installed a Wi-Fi router in that exact spot because his daughter needed it for school, and it is still the only reliable connection in the building."

This place tells you something about where to get coffee in Makassar if you want to feel the university pulse of the city. Tamalanrea is the education corridor, and Murni has been fueling that intellectual life since before the current campus buildings existed.

Specialty Coffee and the New Wave

The specialty coffee scene in Makassar started gaining real momentum around 2016, when a few young entrepreneurs who had worked in Jakarta and Melbourne came back home and decided the city deserved better than instant coffee. The top cafes Makassar now offers rival anything you would find in Surabaya or Jakarta, with single-origin beans sourced directly from plantations in Tana Toraja, Enrekang, and the Mamasa highlands. These are the places where you will find manual brew methods, latte art, and roasting equipment that cost more than most people's houses. But they are not pretentious. This is still Makassar. The baristas will sit down at your table and talk to you if the shop is quiet.

3. Tanamera Coffee on Jalan Sultan Alauddin

Tanamera Coffee occupies a converted Dutch colonial shop house on Jalan Sultan Alauddin, about 500 meters south of the Karebosi traffic circle. I visited on a Wednesday morning and the light coming through the tall front windows was perfect, hitting the exposed brick wall where they hang rotating work from local artists. The owner, a young woman named Dian who roasted professionally in Bandung before returning to Makassar, runs a small Probat roaster in the back and sources her beans almost exclusively from farmers she visits in Enrekang Regency. Order the pour-over flight if it is available, which usually features three single-origin coffees brewed on a Hario V60 with a 1:15 ratio. The Tana Toraja lot, when it is in stock, has a dark chocolate and tobacco profile that is unlike anything else in the province. The best time to come is between 9:00 AM and noon on a weekday, when the roaster is not running and the space is quiet enough to work. The outdoor seating along the narrow sidewalk gets brutally hot by 1:00 PM from March through October, so avoid it during those hours unless you enjoy sweating through your shirt.

Local Insider Tip: "Ask Dian about her 'cold brew tabruk,' a hybrid method she invented where she does a traditional tubruk extraction and then chills it over ice with a splash of coconut cream. It is not on the menu, but she has been making it for friends since 2021 and will make it for you if the shop is not busy."

Tanamera represents the bridge between old and new Makassar. The building itself dates to the 1930s, and Dian kept the original tile floors and wooden ceiling fans when she renovated. It sits on a street that was once the administrative center of the Dutch colonial government, and drinking specialty coffee inside a structure built by the colonial regime while supporting Toraja farmers feels like a quiet act of reclamation.

4. Kopi Selasar on Jalan Ahmad Yani

Kopi Selasar is on Jalan Ahmad Yani in the Panakkukang area, tucked between a print shop and a motorcycle repair garage in a narrow three-story building. I went here on a Saturday morning and the second floor, which they call the selasar or veranda, was the best seat in the house, overlooking the street through a wall of open wooden shutters. The cafe opened in 2019 and has become a gathering point for Makassar's small but growing community of freelance designers and writers. They serve espresso-based drinks using a custom blend of Toraja arabica and Flores robusta that they roast in-house every two weeks. The espresso tonic, made with house-made tonic syrup and served over ice with a slice of local calamansi, is the drink I keep coming back for. The best time to visit is Saturday or Sunday between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM, when the crowd is creative and the playlist leans toward Indonesian indie rock. One thing most tourists do not know is that the third floor is a small gallery space that hosts rotating exhibitions by artists from the Makassar area, usually opening on the first Saturday of each month.

Local Insider Tip: "The Wi-Fi password changes every month and is written on a chalkboard near the staircase to the third floor, not at the counter. If you ask the barista, they will look confused because they only know the staff password."

Kopi Selasar connects to Makassar's identity as a creative city that does not always get credit for its art scene. The exhibitions upstairs have featured everything from Bugis textile photography to political cartoons about port development, and the cafe has quietly become a node in a network of young Makassarese artists who need a place to show work.

5. Soekarno Coffee on Jalan Urip Sumoharjo

Soekarno Coffee sits on Jalan Urip Sumoharjo in the Pettarani district, about three kilometers east of the city center. I stopped here on a Monday afternoon after running errands and ended up staying for two hours because the air conditioning was the strongest I have found in any cafe in Makassar, which sounds like a small thing until you have experienced a July afternoon in this city. The space is large, almost warehouse-like, with high ceilings and a long bar where you can watch the baristas work on a La Marzocco Linea Mini. They focus on milk-based drinks here, and the flat white made with their house blend of Mandailing robusta and Toraja arabica is the best I have had outside of Jakarta. The best time to visit is on a weekday afternoon between 1:00 and 4:00 PM, when the lunch crowd has cleared out and you can claim one of the big communal tables. The parking situation on Jalan Urip Sumoharjo is genuinely terrible after 5:00 PM, so if you are driving, come earlier or prepare to circle the block several times.

Local Insider Tip: "Order the 'kopi susu Soekarno' with less sugar than default. They use a very sweet condensed milk that overwhelms the coffee if you do not ask them to cut it by about a third. The baristas know this and will adjust without judgment if you say 'kurang manis.'"

Soekarno Coffee is named after the first Indonesian president, and the walls are decorated with black-and-white photographs of Makassar during the early independence period. It sits on a street that was one of the first major commercial arteries built in the post-colonial era, and the cafe's industrial aesthetic nods to the area's history as a trading and logistics corridor.

Neighborhood Gathering Spots and Local Favorites

Not every great cup of coffee in Makassar comes from a specialty roaster. Some of the best places to sit and drink are neighborhood spots that have been around for decades, serving the same recipes to the same families. These are the places where you learn what Makassar coffee guide writers mean when they talk about the social fabric of the city. Coffee here is not a solitary activity. It is a reason to be near other people.

6. Kopi Toraja Asli on Jalan Veteran

Kopi Toraja Asli is on Jalan Veteran in the Bontoala district, a short walk east of the Makassar Grand Mall. I came here on a Thursday evening and the place was packed with families, the kids running between tables while the parents talked over cups of kopi tubruk and plates of pisang goreng. This is a no-frills operation, plastic chairs on a concrete floor, a single electric burner where the owner brews coffee to order. The draw is the beans. They sell and serve 100% pure Toraja arabica, roasted medium-dark, and the flavor is clean and earthy with almost no bitterness if you let the grounds settle before drinking. Order the kopi susu if you prefer it with milk, or the kopi hitam if you want to taste the bean straight. The best time to come is between 6:00 and 9:00 PM, when the atmosphere is most alive and the fried snacks are fresh from the kitchen. Most tourists walk right past this place because it looks like a residential house from the outside, with only a small hand-painted sign near the gate.

Local Insider Tip: "Bring cash in small denominations. The owner does not have change for anything larger than 50,000 rupiah after 7:00 PM because he sends his assistant home early. I learned this the hard way when I tried to pay with a 100,000 note and had to walk to the nearest ATM."

Jalan Veteran has been a residential and commercial mix for decades, and Kori Toraja Asli reflects the way Makassar neighborhoods blur the line between public and private space. The owner lives in the back of the building and has been serving coffee from the front room for over twenty years.

7. Kedai Kopi Makassar on Jalan Ahmad Dahlan

Kedai Kopi Makassar sits on Jalan Ahmad Dahlan in the Wajo district, about a kilometer north of the city center near the old Dutch church, Gereja Sion. I visited on a Sunday morning and the place had the feel of a community living room, with elderly men reading newspapers, a group of women celebrating a birthday with a small cake, and a young couple sharing a single cup of kopi susu. The interior is decorated with vintage photographs of Makassar and old Bugis script prints on the walls. The coffee here is traditional tubruk, served in thick ceramic glasses, and the house blend is a mix of Toraja and Enrekang beans that the owner sources through a cousin who runs a small export operation. The best time to visit is Sunday morning between 7:00 and 10:00 AM, when the atmosphere is relaxed and the owner is most likely to sit and chat with customers. One detail that most visitors overlook is the small bookshelf near the entrance, which holds a collection of used books in Bahasa Indonesia and Bugis language that you can borrow or exchange.

Local Insider Tip: "Ask the owner, Pak Iwan, about the 'kopi jahe lemon.' He adds a slice of local lemon to the ginger coffee and it cuts through the sweetness in a way that makes the whole cup feel lighter. He started making it during the pandemic and kept it on as a regular request."

This cafe sits in the historic Wajo district, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Makassar, and the building itself dates to the early 1900s. The connection to the city's layered history, Dutch colonial, Bugis, and modern Indonesian, is visible in the architecture and the clientele.

8. Rumah Kopi Nusantara on Jalan Monginsidi

Rumah Kopi Nusantara is on Jalan Monginsidi in the Losari district, right along the waterfront promenade that Makassar is famous for. I came here on a Friday evening just before sunset and watched the sky turn orange over the Makassar Strait while drinking a cup of kopi susu that was strong enough to cut through the humidity. The cafe occupies a raised wooden platform right on the edge of the promenade, with open sides and a tin roof, so you get the sea breeze but almost no protection from rain. They serve a rotating selection of Indonesian coffees, including Toraja, Enrekang, Flores Bajawa, and occasionally Kintamani from Bali, brewed either as tubruk or as espresso on a modest but well-maintained machine. The best time to visit is between 5:00 and 7:00 PM, when the sunset is at its best and the promenade fills with families and couples. The one complaint I have is that the wooden benches have no cushions and become genuinely uncomfortable after about forty-five minutes, so this is not a place to settle in for a long work session.

Local Insider Tip: "Walk to the far end of the platform, past the main seating area, where there is a single table that most people do not notice. It faces directly west and gives you an unobstructed view of the strait. The staff will serve you there if you ask, but only after 6:00 PM when the main crowd has thinned."

Jalan Monginsidi is the heart of Makassar's public waterfront, and Rumah Kopi Nusantara connects you to the city's identity as a maritime crossroads. The promenade itself was renovated in the early 2000s, but the tradition of gathering here to watch the sea goes back much further.

When to Go and What to Know

Makassar sits on the equator, so the heat and humidity are constants. If you are planning to visit the best coffee shops in Makassar, timing matters. Morning visits, before 10:00 AM, are almost always more comfortable for outdoor or semi-outdoor seating. The rainy season runs roughly from November through March, and afternoon downpours can be intense enough to flood low-lying streets for an hour or two. Carry a small umbrella. Most cafes in Makassar open between 7:00 and 9:00 AM, and the traditional spots start closing by 8:00 or 9:00 PM. The specialty cafes tend to stay open until 10:00 PM or later, especially on weekends. Cash is still king at the older warung kopi, though the newer specialty places accept cards and local payment apps. Tipping is not expected but appreciated, and rounding up your bill by a few thousand rupiah is a common gesture. If you are driving or riding, be aware that traffic on Jalan Sultan Alauddin, Jalan Urip Sumoharjo, and Jalan Ahmad Yani becomes heavy between 4:30 and 6:30 PM on weekdays.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there good 24/7 or late-night co-working spaces available in Makassar?

Makassar does not have dedicated 24/7 co-working spaces comparable to those in Jakarta or Bali. A few specialty cafes on Jalan Sultan Alauddin and Jalan Ahmad Yani stay open until 10:00 or 11:00 PM, and some have reliable Wi-Fi and power outlets suitable for laptop work. For late-night work, the lobby of the Hotel & Resto & Spa Myko on Jalan Nusantara is open around the clock and has Wi-Fi, though it is not a co-working space. Most people who need to work late use their home internet or one of the larger mall food courts that close around 10:00 PM.

What is the average cost of a specialty coffee or local tea in Makassar?

A traditional kopi tubruk or kopi susu at a neighborhood warung costs between 5,000 and 12,000 rupiah. At a specialty cafe, espresso-based drinks range from 25,000 to 45,000 rupiah, and pour-over or manual brew options typically cost 30,000 to 50,000 rupiah. Local tea, either teh manis or teh tarik, is usually priced between 5,000 and 15,000 rupiah depending on the venue.

Which local ride-hailing or transit apps should I download before arriving in Makassar?

Download both Gojek and Grab before arriving, as both operate throughout Makassar and are the primary way most residents get around the city. Gojek tends to have slightly more drivers available in the central and eastern districts, while Grab sometimes offers better pricing on longer routes toward the airport or the southern suburbs. The city's public bus system, Trans Mamminasata, runs along a few major corridors but is not widely used by visitors.

What is the local weather like during the off-peak season in Makassar?

The off-peak season for tourism in Makassar corresponds roughly with the wet season, from November through March. Daytime temperatures during this period average 28 to 32 degrees Celsius with humidity above 80 percent. Rainfall is frequent but usually comes in short, heavy bursts rather than all-day downpours. The dry season, from April through October, is slightly cooler in the evenings and more comfortable for walking between cafes.

What is the standard tipping etiquette or service charge policy at restaurants in Makassar?

Most traditional warung and neighborhood coffee stalls do not add a service charge and do not expect tips, though rounding up the bill by 2,000 to 5,000 rupiah is a kind gesture. Mid-range and upscale cafes, particularly those in the specialty category, sometimes include a 5 to 11 percent service charge on the bill, usually listed as "service charge" or "pajak." If a service charge is already included, an additional tip is not expected but is appreciated for good service.