Thousand Hills Espresso is one of the best places in Kigali to experience Rwanda's exceptional specialty coffee. Rwanda produces some of the finest arabica beans in Africa — grown at altitude on the volcanic soils of the western highlands — and Thousand Hills sources directly from cooperatives and serves it with genuine care. The espresso is excellent, the pour-overs even better.
The café in Kiyovu is a calm spot in a city that rarely sits still, with good wifi and a menu of sandwiches and cakes. It draws a mix of Kigali professionals, researchers, and travellers who have figured out that this is where to spend a morning. A bag of beans to take home is a better souvenir than most of what is sold in the craft shops.