My go-to. Decent people making great coffee. Lines outside are ridiculous but that's part of the experience I guess.

Super fast service. Coffee was GOOD.

I love Kuro Kama! Best coffee in the neighborhood. Very limited seating, but great coffee.

Best coffee in Manhattan! Love thus little place. Friendly and personal.

Lovely spot, great coffee.

Great little spot for a sunny afternoon on the weekends.

Are they putting crack in this coffee? It's amazingly addictive. Also the baked goods are super yummy. I have to rate it 5-stars on the quality, but man I wish they had more places to sit. (Then again, I'd never leave.)

I love how this place is so close to my apartment and their coffee/chai is absolutely the best! There are usually two different guys who work the front, both are so kind! This is my favorite coffee spot in NY

Great coffee spot! Very consistent, and they use nice beans from counter culture. Great pastries too. Shoutout to David who’s always very friendly!

Best coffee in the area and cheaper than Starbucks! Everyone is super friendly and helpful. The pastries are all usually delicious as well. We love Kuro Kuma!

The Perfect Shot™ of espresso, worth the 10-min detour past the free Nespresso machines at the Columbia office and a couple Starbucks to increase productivity in the remaining 50 minutes of that writing hour.

in my book they get a 5 star for having the best coffee /cappuccino made with love...by the best place around for miles. it's worth trying them out, you will feel rewarded.

Kuro Kuma is a great grab-and-go coffee shop in Morningside Heights. (The space itself is cozy. If you're looking for a sit-down cafe, head to Dear Mama a few blocks north.) Kuro Kuma serves Counter Culture coffee and always has a solid assortment of pastries -- but never any gluten-free ones, unfortunately. Although it isn't advertised, they also sell 32 fl oz cartons of Oatly's Barista Edition Oat Milk, which can be difficult to find at grocery stores. Just ask to buy some, and they'll ring you up! Kuro Kuma's prices are slightly below average for third-wave coffee shops in Manhattan, and they do *not* charge extra for sales tax. It's a great little spot!

Three thousand and forty-five years ago, the grand coffee master Kuro Kuma invented Chai Latte, and all you get from the rest of the world that bear the same name are sad attempts to replicate it. There are two version of The Chai Latte: 1) The warm and foamy one that melts your soul into that cupful of silkiness. 2) The cool and sugary one that lights up your eyes like an ice-cold horchata. Order the former if you prefer a more complex flavor profile and a perfectly balanced texture. Their cappuccino converted me from a black coffee drinker into a milk enthusiast. Their espresso is phenomenal as well. If you are in a mood for pastry, try the cinnamon bon. The place has limited indoor and outdoor seating. There is free wifi and one power outlet on the left. I've been around in terms of coffee. Kuro Kuma is definitely the best in the neighborhood.

Tiny coffee shop near some of my favorite restaurants. Service is always quick and friendly, and even though I'm usually a fan of simple black coffee, they make the best mocha I've ever had.

Get the iced chocolate milk! It’s the perfect ratio of chocolatey and sweet; so refreshing on a hot day. Also, the croissants are super light and flaky.

I’ve tried blue bottle, stumptown, la colombe, and few other coffeeshops around NYC. Somehow, this small cafe is the one that surprises me. Probably it’s because of its modest appearance, which may easily fool anyone. You wouldnt’t have thought that they can actually deliver above expectation. For me, one way to test a coffee shop is to order a latte (large one would be better) because this one particular drink can easily get overmilked and that is, in itself, a challenge for the shop and its barristas. Kurokuma passed the test, ellegantly. I am so lucky I live just a around the block from it.

Staff and owners are friendly and make great coffee! And I personally love the small size - makes me feel like I'm in a little teacup :)

The cortado at Kira kumo is insanely good. You will not believe the flavor and smoothness of this beverage. Perfect afternoon pick me up.

Wonderful spot, small, smells delightful the second you walk in the door, folks friendly and happy, cappuccino delicious, croissant tender and flaky. Ah, life.

Excellent small coffee shop with free WiFi and restroom. They make the best coffee in the area, and they also sale some tasty bakery .

Iced americano, matcha and a croissant. Great spot, nice to seat outside in de shade under the trees.

Hidden gem in a quiet part of west harlem/UWS. Nice experience

Best coffee within 20 blocks in all directions. People who care about the craft. No frills. Extremely tasteful. The. Best.

Kuro Kuma is my favorite local coffee shop.. on the weekends I enjoy long morning walks at the CP or Riverside park and always end up here.

In a city with amazing single roast coffee shops, this is the absolute best! I highly recommend it, and as an added bonus, the staff is incredibly nice

Wonderful service every time and a beautiful oasis. Always calm and well done!

Great indie coffee shop! They brew Counter Culture coffee and serve Balthazar pastries. They use local, high quality milk and also have non-milk alternatives. I highly recommend the cortado!

This cafe has the best light roast coffee in Manhattanville! The service is warm and professional. The barista makes very high quality artisanal lattes, matcha, and other drinks. I also recommend their everything croissant with cheese!

Enjoy great coffee in as smaller, more intimate place. Staff is friendly and will make whatever you fancy. Good selection of fresh pastries too. If you find yourself at Starbucks, walk around the corner and support this local coffee shop. You'll be glad you did!

A couple of the baristas are not nice, but those same baristas make the best coffee in the area. 5 stars.

incredible coffee and pastries, but the real gem is the staff. Very kind gentleman made sure we were completely taken care of. He even offered to completely remake my coffee free of charge after I forgot to ask for it iced (completely my mistake!). Service like that as well as the quality of the drinks will keep me coming back for years and you should too.

Perfect little coffee spot and the best thing was the service - Thank you for being so kind this morning!

This place is the best cafe around Columbia University & Manhattan school of music !

Coffee is phenomenal and the service is exceptional. What more is there to say? Dave is not only a professional but perhaps one of the most kind and genuine person I have ever met. He's always there to lend an ear, sometimes even offering me some sound advice but more importantly, I get to call him a friend. For the coffee connoisseurs, they serve Counter Culture coffee (single origin I believe). Whether it be a pour over or latte w/ oat milk, you can't go wrong. Don't be discouraged from the line outside as there's only room for one customer at a time. Highly recommended!

Place is a bit small but they have good coffee. I tried their chai spice latte (or something like that, I don’t quite remember what’s the name for my order) but it was decent. Price is alright too.

It would be great if Kuro Kuma kept the outside area clean maybe hose it every morning before opening there is bird poop and other vagrancies that makes it unhealthy

Best coffee in the neighborhood. The coffee shop offers great quality of coffee and snacks, not a wide variety, though. They have four small tables, free (slow) wifi, and an electrical outlet. Convenient location just a few minutes from 125 station.

Great coffee, lattes, cafe au lait, fast efficient service. Steady stream of repeat customers. Get there early to get pastry or they run out.

Great coffee and pastries. The staff are friendly; it feels like a neighborhood joint. There are four tables inside and two great benches outside. They are cash-only for transactions under $10, which sometimes trips up non-locals.

Very friendly, efficient service. Love the benches outside to eat my buttery French pastry and drink the most smooth delicious brew. Love the choices of milk products And their Cold Drinks.

Great matcha lattes and exceptional service! I love this cafe whenever I’m in the Morningside Heights area for any occasion.

One of the best coffee place in West Harlem/Morning side heights area. Their chai latte is worth trying of. Ask for a punch card and your 11th coffee would be free. Also, it's a small cafe. Not enough space to sit but you can take out and walk to the Hudson River and enjoy your coffee.

Cute place with a very relaxing atmosphere. The coffee was done so quickly and so well

A good espresso drink should be delicious without sugar. I never sweeten my hot drinks here. The rules are weirder for iced coffee, but my point is: delicious lattes, cappuccinos, cortados, and seriously do not go to the Starbucks a block away. Not when there's an option this much better so near by. Sheesh.

Located on LaSalle St. between Claremont and Broadway, it is a nice place to get a quick coffee, tea, or pastry. There are just a few small tables inside, and a bench outside, so you can only count on sitting down at low-traffic times, but the staff is friendly. A lot of the regulars are professors and students from nearby Columbia University. It is just a few doors down from Riverside Pilates, so you can do a workout and cap it off with an espresso.

Nice little coffee shop. Couple tables outside and inside. Brews counter culture coffee for batch, rotates through different origins. Has a rewards card. Owner is friendly

I was a bit disappointed by the coffee scene in NYC until I had one of the best cappuccino at this place. The texture was so smooth and silky, with no harsh coffee taste. It was a perfect cup. Would definitely comeback during my next visit to nyc.

Best latte to get and the owner who works here makes great lattes!! Highly recommend

Without any doubt, my fav NY coffee shop. Great coffee, great pastries, staff is amazing and I live close ;) But definitely, if you’re close, give it a try. Pastries are usually gone pretty early but cheese danish and cinnamon rolls are my fav! If coffee is not your thing, their Chai latte is my fav

Great coffee, the best I have had near Columbia’s campus. I had an oat milk latte for about $5 that was delicious. The store is very small, and the tables were tiny. My friend and I could barely fit 2 laptops on the table. Other than that, I really enjoyed my experience and I would definitely recommend this place. This place is better suited for leisure time than for work.

Excellent service, outstandingly good products, Just tried this coffee for the first time, very good!

The coffee here is perfect and made my day. I’ve been in love with it since my first visit.

J Brown

Whoever was working today needs a raise or something. Poor guy was all by himself handling a constant rush. He was locked in though, very impressive.

Jessica L Lam

iced vanilla latte was best i’ve had in the area! space is small but great place to pick up your morning coffee.

Rayane Menzel

I came from france and wooow their ice vanilla latte is soooo good🤭 i can't waitbto come back 🤤🤤

Anthony Wu

The barista today was superhuman. He had so many orders to tend to, and delivered dozens of delicious coffees to many delighted customers, moving like a ninja to do so, all while being exceptionally kind and even remembering the orders of all the regulars! It can’t have been easy, but he did it with tremendous precision and skill. All in all, I am so grateful that I enjoyed another absolutely splendid half hour at what I think to be NYC’s greatest coffee shop. Absolutely legendary!

Morgan

Speaking as a former barista, the coffee is fantastic. Service wasn’t the friendliest, but not rude either and I guess that’s the norm anyway. Only a couple tables indoors, but outside is nice while the weather is still decent.

Tavleen Tarrant

The drinks are good here but the service is really good. The owner once helped me rescue a baby bird on my block so give this place some love!

fenya su

The coffee is excellent, and the music creates a lovely atmosphere. It's the kind of peaceful place every neighborhood would benefit from having.

mo mo

After trying out several overpriced matchas in the area near Columbia I finally found a place that is reasonable and has really good quality matcha! This is gonna be my regular matcha stop from now on.

Ebony Evans

I met a potential roommate her. She bought me an apple turnover which I will buy again. It tasted amazing. Regular haunt for university students. There were adults and a toddler. Sitting is limited inside and four table and eight chairs outside. Great concept. As a non coffee drinker I can’t comment on taste but seems to have a great menu for coffee lovers. Clientele while I was there was mixed. Seems to be a better alternative to Starbies which is a block away. They it. I think it’ll be a regular spot of most new people to try.

Bandee YI

I was skeptical of other 5 star reviews, but this place will be the best place for your Latte around here for sure. I don’t know what they did on my coffee but the milk foam is unbelievably silky and creamy. I also thought they put sugar in my latte since the milk itself is really sweet. I’m on my halfway through finishing my latte and even the bottom is silky. I assume they use great quality milk. I’m glad that I found a gem place in upper west and the price is also cheaper than Starbucks with amazing service and superior quality of coffee. $5.75 on medium size latte Cons: the space tiny, so you won’t be able to find a seat in most chances(only 4 tiny tables) and you may have to line for 5-10m. I think it worth it though

Mieriem Abdullaieva

Excellent coffee and pasty. Definitely would recommend.

+2

Pilar Sanchez Labrador

One of the best coffees I’ve tried in NY. I am a coffee drinker and usually rate coffee shops for their taste and quality and this is top coffee. The place is very small, but the ambiance is great and the staff is amazing! Highly recommend it if you are near by.

Eric Cortes

Nice coffee shop. Punches above its weight. It has delicious and unique croissant offerings. The espresso is incredible. I had a cortado and it was exactly what I needed. There are some chairs in front. Customer service is top-notch. No nonsense, with great efficiency. Heads up the chairs that are perpendicular to the entrance are underneath a pigeon nest, as evidenced by the little bits of poop on the ground.

Stefan Trotman

The espresso here is absolutely insane. I don’t think I’ve ever had espresso that smooth in my entire life and now I’m wondering why I spent 32 years of my life abusing my tastebuds with large chain coffee.

+1

Giulio Toscani

Great cute place to have coffee and croissant! With a small place to seat outside. Just besides there is the memory of a dead cyclist that is also intetesting to see

+3

Carl Petter Opsahl

Oh, definitively on of the best coffee places in New York! The coffee always tastes exceptionally good. The barristas are highly skilled. They also have a small selection of pastry, croissants and so on. The place is very small with only very few tables, so you might not be ble to find a seat.

Fang H

Coffees are definitely way above average in the area, haven't disappointed me for once. Decent pastries too.

3 tables. Good coffee. Friendly, efficient service. On north side of LaSalle, hidden in Street View photos by a large tree.

Good coffee. Small place. The employees always remind me of Seattle. Very portlandia.

Very good coffee (could be a bit bolder). The place is very small, with 4 tiny tables, but cozy. A small cappuccino costs $4...

Kuro Kuma is a tiny espresso place just off of 125th Street and Broadway, and is extremely easy to miss. However, that leaves this place as one of the great hidden gems of the area - while other cafes in the area may be saturated with customers (ie. Joe Coffee on 120th and Broadway), the baristas of Kuro Kuma can take the time to talk to everyone who comes in, learn about their regulars, and take the time to deliver some really high-level drinks. This cafe also regularly rotates paintings by local artists, giving a fresh new feel every season. Definitely worth taking a look.

Haven't tried anything but the coffee, but that's why I keep coming back. Not overpriced and far superior to other coffeehouses in the area. I always get to go, but you may have a hard getting a seat, much less a seat with someone else; it is a small storefront.

Love the neighborhood feel of this restaurant and its location about a two-minute walk from my front door. Their chai latte (with soy) is amazing and their plain croissant is pretty good too. The prices match the neighborhood and are moderate ($4.00 for chai latte w/soy; $2.50 for a croissant). The owners are kind and efficient and the cafe is small, minimalist, and comfortable.

Decent coffee and pastries. I think they get their pastries from Balthazar Bakery. I like the almond croissants. The space is pretty tight but they have benches outside. Staff are generally very nice.

Love their coffee! And small pastry collection. Not really any place to sit. Three small tables on the inside and two benches outside. Usually full, so not great for studying or getting work done unfortunately :(

Deliciously smooth ice coffee has willed me from my bed on these scorching July days. The staff is reserved but polite. Cash only did throw me but the barista smiled and accepted my debit card with 0 fuss. Prices are the most reasonable I've seen with the 16 oz ice costing 3.25$. My wallet thanks you, Kuro Kuma!

Decent drip

A wonderful nook with strong espresso and plenty of sunshine. The space may be too crammed for a computer and notebook but is great for reading and chatting.

I’m a black-coffee-drinker and while their drip coffee wasn’t terrible (and not even bad at all!), it also isn’t the best I’ve had. That being said, their pastry options are phenomenal, especially their cinnamon rolls! Outdoor tables/seats greatly appreciated. I don’t live in the neighborhood but frequent the area with pick up/drop off for my son’s school, and I can tell this is a lovely neighborhood staple. I’d sooner support this place than the Starbucks down the block.

Came here with a friend and got the iced mocha per her recommendation. The mocha was smooth and creamy, not too sweet, and the coffee and chocolate was well-balanced.

fair coffee nothing extraordinary small place with nice atmosphere. Excellent service.

Lex Braxman

Great quality coffee. The bakery stuff seems defrosted and delivered and definitely overpriced for the quality, not worth it. Nice service and has some seating inside though there are many students that frequent.

Andreas Mehlsen

Decent coffee, fine croissants, fair prices. The seating is very limited, they only have four small tables so you might consider something to-go here instead of staying.

Nice, small coffee shop with good coffee and pastries. Just 4 tiny tables so more for take away than sit and stay.

World's unfriendliest barrista, never smiles or says hello. Probably not a great job but still...

Overpriced and tge coffee doesn't taste that good. The workers shows fake smile while acting rude. Not coming to this place again.

Amanda Gonzalez

I went in for a tea and I shoulda gone to the deli!! They don’t even put the sugar in for you… it’s more expensive and DO NOT get me started with their cent lids! If they are paying more for them, they should stop!! It will not stay on no matter how hard you press it down! Starbucks “a chains”employees being nicer and actually saying good morning is the biggest kicker. Needless to say they will not be getting anymore of my $$