Makassar cafés with standout design
Three Makassar cafés picked for their design: a polycarbonate greenhouse café, a pink-lit hotel rooftop bar and an old house opened up around a skylight.
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These three cafés in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, are worth a visit for the room as much as the cup. MKO Culture is a 20 m² (215 sq ft) café shaped like a greenhouse, built in a front yard from polycarbonate and plywood. Teratas Koffiebar sits on the eighth floor of a hotel, with pink neon, a planted wall and windows over the city. Lidi Cafe fills an older building whose walls have been opened up around a skylight. If you came for the coffee itself, the section on Toraja coffee below points to where the region’s best-known beans are poured.
The photos and design notes are by Andrew Chung, an architect and the founder of Best Cafe Designs, published with the first version of this guide in December 2023. In October 2026 we rechecked the design facts against the architects’ published projects. CoffeeHow hasn’t tasted the coffee at any of these cafés, so this is a guide to the spaces, not a coffee ranking.
Updated October 2026: rewritten as a design guide. We removed design credits we couldn’t confirm, added a section on Toraja coffee and noted that MKO Culture is temporarily closed.
- MKO Culture: a 20 m² greenhouse-shaped café by INS Studio, in polycarbonate and plywood, in the front yard of a house in Panakkukang. Temporarily closed in October 2026.
- Teratas Koffiebar: an eighth-floor café and bar in a hotel, with pink neon, a planted wall and long windows over the city.
- Lidi Cafe: an older building opened up around a skylight, with rough brick edges left on show and green steel beams.
- For Toraja coffee, the region’s best-known beans, look for Toarco Toraja, a brand Japan’s Key Coffee revived in 1978.
The three cafés at a glance
| Café | Where | The design in a line | Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| MKO Culture | Jl. Dr. Leimena, Panakkukang | A 20 m² greenhouse of polycarbonate on a curved white steel frame, lined with plywood | Temporarily closed |
| Teratas Koffiebar | Continent Centrepoint Hotel, 8th floor, Panakkukang | Pink neon, a planted wall, exposed roof trusses and windows over the city | Open; check Instagram for hours |
| Lidi Cafe | Jl. Rusa 41, Maricaya | An older building opened up around a skylight, with brick edges and green steel left on show | Open; check Instagram for hours |
Andrew chose these cafés for their design: the materials, the light, and how each one fits the building or yard around it. Coffee quality wasn’t a criterion and the list isn’t ranked.
MKO Culture
MKO Culture started with a client who wanted a small café in the front yard of their house in Makassar. INS Studio, with Wisnu Wardhana as lead architect, designed it in 2021 on just 20 m² (215 sq ft), according to designboom. The architects built it from two materials, polycarbonate and plywood, chosen because they’re durable, easy to find locally and affordable, according to ArchDaily.
The shell is 6 mm polycarbonate on a curved frame of white-painted steel. Its outer layer has a heat-reducing treatment, and both faces are coated in white anti-heat paint to keep the room cool under the Makassar sun, designboom reports. Inside, plywood lines the back wall, the counter and a long ledge along the side. In the rainy season, drops running down the ribbed polycarbonate make patterns you can watch from inside, according to Architecture Lab. A few tables sit outside for good days.
- Address: Jl. Dr. Leimena, Tello Baru, Panakkukang, Makassar
- Designed by: INS Studio (2021)
- Status: temporarily closed, according to @mko.culture in October 2026; check before you go
- Best for: a coffee in a room the size of a garden shed
Teratas Koffiebar
Teratas Koffiebar is on the eighth floor of the Continent Centrepoint Hotel in Panakkukang. The name means “top” in Indonesian, and the room makes the most of the height: long windows run down one side and look out over the city.
The design mixes hard and soft. Thin pink neon lines trace the walls and ceiling, and a wall of plants carries the café’s name in neon. Overhead, the dark roof trusses are left exposed. The bar is timber, with bottles on backlit shelves set into a white tiled wall. In 2023, Andrew noted that the café also hosts music and cultural events.
- Address: Continent Centrepoint Hotel, 8th floor, Jl. Adiyaksa 15, Masale, Panakkukang, Makassar 90231
- Menu: Teratas menu
- Hours: not published; @teratas.koffiebar was active in October 2026, so check it for the day’s hours
- Best for: an evening drink with a view of the city
Lidi Cafe
Lidi Cafe is in an older building in Maricaya, and the conversion shows. Walls have been cut away to join the rooms, and the rough brick edges are left on show instead of being plastered over. Green steel beams carry the openings, and a slatted skylight brings daylight down onto the counter.
The rest is kept simple: a terrazzo floor, white walls, a timber and green-painted counter, a few plants and a large painting over a pair of armchairs. On Google Maps and Instagram the café appears as Lidi Kopi.
- Address: Jl. Rusa 41, Maricaya, Makassar 90142
- Hours: not published; @lidicoffee.id was active in October 2026, so check it for the day’s hours
- Best for: a slow coffee in a converted house
If you came for the coffee
Makassar is the gateway to Tana Toraja, the highland region behind Sulawesi’s best-known coffee. Toraja’s plantations were abandoned during the Second World War. In 1973, Japan’s Kimura Coffee, now Key Coffee, sent an executive to Sulawesi to revive them, and the coffee came back to market in 1978 as Toarco Toraja, according to Key Coffee. Its farms sit at 1,600 to about 1,800 m (5,250 to 5,900 ft), and Key Coffee runs a Toarco Toraja showroom in Makassar.
Two places come up again and again for coffee in the city. Toarco Toraja Coffee on Jl. Gunung Latimojong offered hand drip, press, syphon and espresso, and Warung Kopi Phoenam on Jl. Jampea, dating back to 1946, is known for coffee with condensed milk and kaya toast, according to a Miss Tam Chiak food guide. That guide is from 2016, so check both are still open before you go.
Tips before you go
- Check Instagram or Google Maps for hours on the day. None of the three cafés publishes current hours on a website.
- MKO Culture is temporarily closed. Check its Instagram before you plan a visit around it.
- Go to Teratas Koffiebar in the evening for the view over the city.
Makassar cafés FAQ
Three worth seeing for their design are MKO Culture, a 20 m² greenhouse-shaped café by INS Studio; Teratas Koffiebar, an eighth-floor hotel café with pink neon and city views; and Lidi Cafe, an older building opened up around a skylight.
INS Studio, with Wisnu Wardhana as lead architect, according to designboom. It was completed in 2021 in polycarbonate and plywood, on 20 m² (215 sq ft) in the front yard of a house.
On the eighth floor of the Continent Centrepoint Hotel, Jl. Adiyaksa 15, in the Panakkukang district of Makassar.
Coffee from Tana Toraja, a highland region of South Sulawesi. Japan’s Key Coffee revived its plantations after the Second World War and has sold it as Toarco Toraja since 1978. Its farms sit at 1,600 to about 1,800 m (5,250 to 5,900 ft).
Sources
- Best Cafe Designs: Andrew Chung’s photos and design notes (2023)
- designboom: 20 sqm coffee shop pops up like a greenhouse (August 2023)
- ArchDaily: MKO Culture Café / INS Studio
- Architecture Lab: MKO Culture Café / INS Studio
- Key Coffee: Toarco Toraja history
- Miss Tam Chiak: The ultimate Makassar food guide (2016)
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