Updated as of Feb. 2025, after our beloved Third Space Cafe closed down, marking an end to their tenure on this list.
Let’s be real for a sec: Niagara Falls doesn’t have the best sushi or Korean food in the world… Canada… Ontario… Niagara Region. But one thing we do have an abundance of is cafes. Wonderfully, each spot on this list brings something different to the table, whether it’s community vibes, a professional setting, late-night cheap eats or international flair. That makes this listicle one of the easiest to write: there’s no clear winner, just choose whichever suits your style.
Hummingbird Coffee Co.
The newest addition to this list opened in Sept. 2024, tucked between the wide shopping plazas along Portage north of Thorold Stone. Hummingbird Coffee is an impressive entry to a city where coffee culture is defined by Tim Horton’s. It’s sleek, modern, and—dare we say—hip. The unassuming outside belies its interior decor, lined by fake plants, wooden slats and and wall of wholesale coffee pods and tea bags that double as colourful decoration. The pastry game is solid (croissants, muffins, cinnamon buns); the tea selection is vast; and, if you visit during exam prep-week, as we did, you’ll find droves of high schoolers packing the place to sip coffee and (ostensibly) study. If the youth approve, that’s worth something.
Cafe Dalbodre
Cafe Dalbodre is easy to miss, tucked beside a hair salon on Victoria—which is unfortunate, given its unique offering in the city. It is, we believe, the only authentic Korean cafe in the Niagara Region. This is not a coffee-and-donut shop. The pastries here are delicate, cute and colourful, like the mochi sweet potato bread, which is a creamy dessert disguised as a purple Japanese sweet potato, or the Lotus ice cake, a cheesecake topped with crumbled Lotus-brand cookies. A unique selection of teas (where else can you find barley tea in Niagara?) is appreciated, but it’s the eye-popping selection of bingsu that deserves your attention. Bingsu is essentially powdery-soft shaved ice doused in sweetened condensed milk, then typically topped with sweet red beans… except Dalbodre’s is in no way traditional, instead leaning into mango slices, crumbled Oreo cookies and ground-up black sesame seeds tossed with slivered almonds. A must-visit in Niagara Falls.
Country Fresh Donuts
Okay, admittedly, Country Fresh Donuts is less a cafe than an old-school coffee shop—the kind of unpretentious, dingy, late-night donut hawker that’ll serve you a coffee and muffin at 10 p.m., when only dim street lamps and Country Fresh’s tireless neon signage lights your way home. But we wouldn’t want it any other way. Unfortunately no longer 24-hours since the pandemic, they’re still open extremely early and late (from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.), with prices that somehow remain dirt-cheap. The cake-dough pastries, all sugar and glaze, are the Platonic ideal of a guilty pleasure. Because the place is owned by a friendly and attentive Vietnamese family, it also serves up salty bowls of pho for something like eight bucks, which is an excellent price for a meal, but also a pretty accurate one for what you get. (We are fully expecting hate mail from the wonton soup fanatics. So be it.)
Italian Ice Cream
It’s not an original name, but the brand is on-point. Italian Ice Cream is a quick walk from Clifton Hill, so if any out-of-towners don’t feel like venturing too far afield, this is worth the minor detour. A family-owned business since 1978, Italian Ice Cream serves up 24 different flavours of their famous gelato, though they claim to have crafted 100 throughout the years. Locals will buy this stuff by the tub to bring home—and if you try it, you’ll understand why. They also dish up affordable paninis, Italian desserts and, of course, espresso shots—or lattes, cappuccinos, et al. In the summer months, you’ll find folks sipping them with their gelatos on the sunny patio, chatting and watching the tourists drive by. It’s worthwhile to join them.
