Ninina

Pastry, a kitchen and a specialty coffee programme run side by side at the Palermo Soho branch, the first house Ninina opened in 2013 and still its production centre. The brand calls it the heart of the operation, and the open kitchen makes the point: baking and cooking happen in front of the room rather than behind it.

Restaurant, cafe and pastry shop at once

Ninina describes itself as a restaurant, a specialty coffee house and a pastry shop, and the three are not ranked. The dining room takes breakfast, brunch and all-day eating, the coffee is treated as its own craft, and the pastry case is a destination in its own right. That combination is what makes the Palermo Soho room work for a whole day rather than a single errand, in a neighbourhood already full of cafes.

The coffee side is controlled in-house. At the Holmberg branch in Villa Urquiza the company runs what it calls a coffee laboratory in full view, selecting, roasting and cupping its own coffees, and that work supplies the name across all three rooms. The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops placed Ninina 64th in 2025.

Three rooms, three jobs

The branches are genuinely different. Palermo Soho is the original house, the production centre and the clearest expression of the bakery and kitchen side, spacious and relaxed with the open kitchen at its centre. Holmberg is the visible roasting room, where selection and cupping are put on show. El Solar sits inside Plaza del Solar, surrounded by greenery and with unusual views over the city.

Each carries the same three-part identity, but the reason to choose between them changes. Come to Palermo Soho for the pastry and the kitchen, to Holmberg to watch the coffee being made, to El Solar for the setting.

How to spend a visit

Treat Palermo Soho as a bakery-restaurant first. The case and the open kitchen are the reason the room is busy from breakfast onward, and the pastry is the clearest thing the house makes that nothing else in the neighbourhood matches.

Coffee comes second only in order, not in seriousness: what is poured here is selected, roasted and cupped by the same company at Holmberg, so it is worth asking what is on and drinking it black at least once. Then eat. Breakfast and brunch cover the kitchen’s strengths, and the desserts close the loop back to the pastry counter. A visit that takes in coffee, something baked and one plate from the kitchen gets the whole idea of the place.