Great Coffee In Seattle – Live and Let's Fly

How do you find great coffee in a city like Seattle known for its great coffee? In my case, I did not have to look far…

Best Coffee In Seattle

After a flight delay into Seattle, I was ready for my afternoon cup of coffee. While my hotel, the Hyatt Olive 8, had a highly-regarded café, I ventured directly across the street to a chain called Mr West Cafe Bar.

Mr West Cafe Bar Downtown
720 Olive Way, Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 900-9378
7:00 am – 7:00 pm (Monday – Friday)
8:00 am – 7:00 pm (Saturday, Sunday)

The dining room has a four-sided bar in the center with seating around it. You can order food (menu in hte link above) and alcohol after 3:00 pm, as well as coffee. I stuck to coffee.

Very simple: a cortado at 3:00 pm holds me over for the rest of the day. I don’t drink coffee for the caffeine, though I notice that a mid to late-afternoon coffee helps me to get through the day. Generally, I do not set alarms and I do not need coffee first thing when I wake up in the morning, meaning I drink coffee more for the taste.

The coffee was excellent and I quite enjoyed my cortado.

As I mentioned, I stayed at the Hyatt Olive 8 which has excellent coffee in the O8 Bagel Shop.

O8 Bagel Shop
1635 8th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 676-4600
6:30 am – 1:00 pm (daily)

Thumbs down for not serving coffee in a ceramic cup, but the cortado here was excellent…good enough that I had two of them and took a bag of coffee home.

Finally, on my way out of town, I walked up the street and stopped at a place called Monorail Coffee, named after Seattle’s vintage Monorail system. This too is a chain.

Monorail Espresso
1004 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101
8:00 am – 4:00 pm (Monday – Friday)
9:00 am – 5:00 pm (Saturday, Sunday)

I had passed it the previous night (when going for Mexican food) and examined the menu and was glad I made the trip back up. Yes, another cortado…my drink of choice…but this was the best cortado of the four I had and it was served in a ceramic cup…a big plus.

I will certainly return here.

It’s fair to say that Seattle is full of great coffee shops…there are probably many more I should try next time and I welcome your recommendations.