7 Best Video Game Coffee Shops That Would Put Starbucks to Shame

Coffee shops are great places to just chill out and relax after a hard days work, or it could be a fantastic location to work on stuff like schoolwork or other projects that you may be working on. Turns out that there are some pretty iconic coffee shops found in video games as well that we wish were real. Here is our list on the seven best coffee shops in video games.

The Roost (Animal Crossing)

If I was living in the world of Animal Crossing, you won’t find me decorating my home or planting flowers around the town –absolutely not.

If you want to find me, I will be hanging out at The Roost, chilling out and listening to a cover of Wonderwall performed by none other than the ever-talented K.K. Slider.

What’s a better way to celebrate paying off your loans than to drink an Americano surrounded by your fellow neighbors? If you show up at the bar at certain times of the day, you might be able to speak to some of them and gain some insight into their personal lives.

I’m sure you would like to know all about that quiet lion that just moved into your town and this is the perfect way to go about it. And if Brewster (the owner) notices that you enjoy drinking coffee, he will let you work as a barista, paying you in coffee beans.

I know, being paid in coffee beans doesn’t sound very lucrative, however, you can sell these beans for actual money (bells) at the local shop. We’re not sure why Brewster doesn’t just pay you in bells, to begin with, but hey, it’s a job, right?

Cafe Leblanc (Persona 5)

Cafe Leblanc in Persona 5 is a very important location where you will spend most of your time when you’re not battling demons and taking hearts in the many palaces that the game offers.

Leblanc is owned by Sojiro Sakura, a barista who decides to let Joker sleep upstairs in the attic after he needed a place to stay. The shop is located in Yongen-Jaya and eventually acts as a meeting place for the Phantom Thieves.

And if you want, you can chill out and have a superb cup of joe made by Sojiro himself.

If you feel so inclined, you can even jump behind the bar and attempt to brew your own cup of coffee, don’t worry about messing it up though, Sojiro will walk you through it step by step, and Joker will even gain some skill points in the process.

Although the coffee shop doesn’t do that well business-wise, it’s the only coffee shop in Yongen-Jaya so you’ll get to talk to some of the locals from time to time whenever they stop in for a latte or some of Sojiro’s famous curry.

Starbeans Cafe (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga)

Professor E. Gadd from the Luigi’s Mansion series might seem like he’s all about inventing cool machinery and tech like the Poltergust, but did you guys know that E. Gadd is quite the coffee connoisseur?

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, you can head to the Starbeans Cafe located in Beanbean Castle Town to get your coffee fix, except they don’t really call it “coffee” in the game, but instead, bean juice.

By bringing over an assortment of collected beans, you can throw them into E. Gadd’s special StarB machine to grind them into a liquid, that when drunk by Mario and Luigi, will grant them stat boosts and such.

Professor E. Gadd might get sued by Starbucks one day for the titling choice of that bean machine, but I’m sure he has the best lawyer in the Mushroom Kingdom to back him up.

Hi-Hat Cafe

The Detective Pikachu game that came out on the 3DS in 2018 didn’t gain too much traction, considering that it was more aimed towards younger gamers, but this was the first appearance of the coffee-loving, and crime-solving Pokemon that is Detective Pikachu.

When he’s not out there interrogating witnesses and getting the scoop, our favorite Pokemon detective loves to drink a nice cup of joe — black.

Yeah, Pikachu is pretty hardcore and he doesn’t need sugar or cream to enjoy the perfectly roasted beans over at the Hi-Hat Cafe that’s owned by Pablo Millan.

The cafe serves delicious coffee and acts a resting place for Pikachu and Harry in between solving a multitude of Pokemon-related cases in the game.

Cafe Theatre

This coffeehouse in Assassin’s Creed Unity was one of the best in Paris at the time and ended up acting as a meeting place for Arno Dorian and some of the other assassins. They traded information on potential targets and had political debates.

There are also theatrical performances that would be put on in the coffeehouse and Arno would train there to improve his assassin skills. Seems like this cafe provided much more than just a simple cup of coffee for the assassins at the time.

You see, they would all blend in with the other patrons, but instead of speaking on the latest gossip, the Brotherhood would discuss more pressing matters, like who they would need to assassinate next.

Nine Bean Cafe (World of Final Fantasy)

The Nine Bean coffee shop in World of Final Fantasy is where Lann works as a barista. The coffee shop is small and quaint, with logos reminiscent of another popular coffee chain (Starbucks). 

We don’t get to see much of him actually working in the cafe, but in the opening moments of the game, we get to see Lann prepare a fresh batch of coffee while preparing various types of muffins for the customers.

It’s a nice change of pace for a massive JRPG to open up in a setting such as this, and it’s especially comforting to see Lann take care of his first customer of the day.

If were to ever get the chance to visit Nine Wood Hills, this would be the first stop on the tour.

Cafe Alps (Yakuza)

Cafe Alps isn’t the most visually appealing coffee shop in a video game as the furniture and decor is slightly vintage, but not in a good way.

Still, the coffee shop has managed to make it into pretty much every Yakuza game and has a large variety of drinks for you to try out, as well as tasty treats and pastries that will satisfy your cravings.

You can choose between a regular cup of coffee, a cafe mocha, or if you’re hungry you can try some beef curry or a strawberry parfait. And not to mention, Cafe Alps is one of the best places to bring dates or to just have business meetings.