08 January 2021

Quiz: Cafés of the world

Cafés are perfect for people-watching, writing postcards or reading a good book. But how well do you know the world’s most historic cafés?

4 mins

1. Set under the arches of Procuratie Nuove, Caffè Florian has finely painted ceilings, gilded mirrors and views of Piazza San Marco. Casanova wooed the ladies here. Where is it?

Rome

Venice

Milan

Verona

2. Established in 1654, Queen’s Lane is reputed to be the oldest continually working coffee house in Europe. In fact, JRR Tolkien visited. In which scholarly city would you find it?

Oxford

Cambridge

Bath

Edinburgh

3. This grand café in the Palais Ferstel is the place to sample traditional apple strudel or slices of torte. Sigmund Freud often joined literati to formulate ideas here. Where is it?

Vienna

Prague

Munich

Leipzig

4. An Art Deco institution, this intellectual hangout is known for inventing the ‘Bica’ a supercharged espresso, best enjoyed with a pastéis de nata. Where is it?

Rio

Brasília

Lisbon

Porto

5. This noisy, chaotic café has been trading since 1773. Enjoy a mint tea and shisha and watch stallholders in the nearby Khan El Khalili bazaar. In what city would you find it?

Marrakech

Cairo

Tunis

Fez

6. Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde enjoyed espressos at this 19th century café. In which hard-working city would you find it?

Turin

Sicily

Capri

Naples

7. Talking of Hemingway, his favourite café was further north. It is within Les Deux Magots that he would tell his tales to authors James Joyce and F Scott Fitzgerald. Where is it?

Paris

London

Amsterdam

Lille

8. Jorge Luis Borges visited this 19th century café so often that a sculpture of the artist still sits at his regular table. Order churros and take in a tango show or two. Where is it?

Montevideo

Lima

Buenos Aires

Santiago

9. Arguably the world's most beautiful café, the painted ceilings and marble pillars of New York Café have been stealing visitors’ breath since 1894. You can order the beef goulash in...

Budapest

New York

Las Vegas

Washington

10. Established by a Swiss baker in 1919, Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms is rightly famous for its Yorkshire tea and a belt-busting scone called the Fat Rascal. But where is it?

Bradford

Harrogate

Leeds

Sheffield

11. This is the place to try an authentic cup of ‘white coffee’, a sweet and buttery brew (yep, they put margarine in it). In which Malaysian city would you find it?

Ipoh

Kuala Lumpur

Langkawi

George Town

12. Opened in the 19th-century by Zoroastrians from Iran, this is one of the last Parsi cafés in the city. You can enjoy a ‘creamy caramel’ and chai here. In which Indian megalopolis would you find it?

Delhi

Hyderabad

Ahmedabad

Mumbai

13. The oldest café in this eternal city, waiters in bow ties and pinafores have been serving coffees to Byron, Keats, Wagner and Casanova for a quarter of a millennia. But where is it?

Athens