Coffee in Turin: Five Historic Cafés

Turin’s historic cafés offer quite different reasons to stop for coffee. Choose Caffè Al Bicerin for the chocolate-and-coffee drink itself, Caffè Mulassano for a small savoury sandwich, or one of the grand rooms around Piazza San Carlo for a seated pause. These five addresses are all in the centre, but your choice of counter or table can change the bill as much as your choice of drink.

Choosing a coffee stop

Café	Area	What to order	Counter, per person	Table, per person
Caffè Al Bicerin	Piazza della Consolata	Bicerin	—	€7–12
Caffè San Carlo	Piazza San Carlo	Espresso	€2–4	€5–8
Caffè Torino	Piazza San Carlo	Bicerin ’d Cavour	—	€7–12
Caffè Mulassano	Piazza Castello	Coffee and tramezzino	€7–12	€11–18
Caffè Fiorio	Via Po	Coffee and cake	€6–10	€10–16

For a quick espresso, the counter is usually cheaper, but take a table when the room or a particular speciality is part of your stop. The higher totals for Mulassano and Fiorio include food, not just a drink. Al Bicerin lists its namesake among table-served specialities, while Torino’s Bicerin ’d Cavour is a different order from its espresso.

The figures are rounded guides for choosing a stop: what you select and whether you take a table can move the total. A brief coffee rarely calls for advance booking, but if you want to spend longer seated, particularly with several people, arranging a table may make more sense. For a before-dinner occasion rather than coffee, see aperitivo drinks and food in Turin.

Caffè Al Bicerin

Caffè Al Bicerin, on Piazza della Consolata, is the stop for bicerin, a hot layered drink of coffee, chocolate and cream. It appears among the café’s table-served specialities, so make time to drink it seated rather than treating this as a dash in for an espresso. The glass is the focus here: this is a more deliberate coffee-and-chocolate pause than a short counter order.

Established in 1763, Caffè Al Bicerin is described by Turin’s tourist authority as the birthplace of the drink that bears its name. Go on a day it is open if the bicerin is the reason for your visit: Wednesday is its regular closing day, although the café lists exceptional openings. Piazza della Consolata is away from the two cafés on Piazza San Carlo, making this a separate coffee stop rather than a choice between neighbouring rooms. The drink is listed for table service, so leave time to sit with it.

Caffè San Carlo

Caffè San Carlo puts an espresso in the setting of Piazza San Carlo. Choose it when the room matters as much as the short drink: a table turns an ordinary coffee into a pause in one of the square’s historic cafés. Founded in 1822, it is also the café and bistro within Gallerie d’Italia–Torino, with catering operated by Costardi Bros. That connection makes it a natural coffee stop if the gallery is already part of your day, rather than a reason to order a full meal.

San Carlo serves coffee every day of the week, so the stop can fit around a gallery visit without choosing a particular weekday. For a short break, an espresso is enough to experience the café on Piazza San Carlo, but if you want to look around the room, take a seat rather than treating it as a counter-only stop. If chocolate in the cup is the main draw, the other Piazza San Carlo option, Caffè Torino, offers a named coffee-and-chocolate drink.

Caffè Torino

Caffè Torino is the second Piazza San Carlo choice, but its stronger coffee order is Bicerin ’d Cavour, made with chocolate, coffee and liquid cream. The café also serves espresso; choose the named drink if you want a longer seated stop rather than another quick shot. Its Art Nouveau interiors give that decision a setting of their own, distinct from San Carlo’s gallery connection.

Caffè Torino opens daily and stays open into the evening, so it also works when an afternoon coffee stop slips later. A table lets you pay attention to the historic furnishings; choose a simple espresso if you only want to pause briefly on the square. San Carlo is on the same piazza, so the choice is close at hand: Torino has its own named chocolate-and-coffee speciality and Art Nouveau interiors, while San Carlo connects a coffee stop with the gallery.

The entrance view helps you identify Caffè Torino on Piazza San Carlo, where Caffè San Carlo is another option.

Caffè Mulassano

At Piazza Castello, Caffè Mulassano is the choice for a coffee with a tramezzino, a small filled sandwich. Its specialities include more than 30 varieties, among them truffle. Pick a filling you want rather than ordering a full meal simply because you have found a table. The pairing suits a shorter stop than a drawn-out chocolate drink, while still giving you a reason to look beyond the coffee cup.

The café is credited with inventing the tramezzino in 1926. Its account says owner Angela Demichelis drew on American tea sandwiches, while Gabriele D’Annunzio coined the Italian name. The room makes even a modest order worthwhile: historic furnishings and a coffered ceiling give the small café a character that a grab-and-go sandwich elsewhere would lack. Choose Mulassano when you want something savoury alongside coffee, rather than cake or cream-topped chocolate.

Caffè Fiorio

Caffè Fiorio sits beneath the Via Po arcades. Order a coffee and a slice of cake when you want to sit amid its historic parlours, rather than take a quick espresso at the next counter. The street leads away from Piazza Castello towards the River Po, so this is a useful choice for a coffee pause as you continue along Via Po.

The interiors are more than an old-fashioned backdrop: surviving nineteenth-century parlours have floral stucco mouldings and mirrors, while a later dance hall has gilded borders and decorative silhouettes. The room gives you something specific to notice while you sit with coffee and cake. Fiorio is therefore the sweeter, more leisurely alternative to Mulassano’s savoury sandwich, without requiring you to commit to a full meal.

Take a table to spend time with the parlours as well as the cake. The street image shows the Via Po setting, and the entrance view identifies the door beneath the arcade.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: key figures and opening hours.

• MuseoTorino; City of Turin — key figures
• Caffè Torino — opening hours
• Caffè Torino 1903 — key figures
• Caffè Al Bicerin — opening hours
• Caffè Al Bicerin — key figures
• Caffè Mulassano — key figures
• MuseoTorino; Italian Ministry of Culture, General Catalogue of Cultural Heritage — key figures
• City of Turin — key figures
• Intesa Sanpaolo — key figures