If you’ve ever scrolled past yet another Starbucks in Hong Kong while dreaming of a quiet, vibey spot to sip a flat white, meet your new best friend: Dakka. Created by local Hong Kong developer Cheuk Yin Mong, the café map app is quickly making waves among coffee aficionados and indie café hunters for spotlighting small, independent joints across the city.
Yes, there’s Google and Apple Maps, and even OpenRice, but if we’re being honest, they all feel a little outdated, often providing results that don’t exist anymore. Dakka, on the other hand, is refreshingly grassroots. Created by a Hong Kong local, the app serves up handpicked cafés that put quality, character, and vibes first; it’s just legit brews in cozy corners of the city.
But as buzz around Dakka builds, so do the questions. Will it stay authentic or cave to commercialization? Could banner ads and influencer tie-ins ruin the app’s lowkey charm? With some users already voicing these concerns online, Dakka sits at a crossroads between an underground favorite and a potential mainstream tool.
Still, for now, it’s a must-download for anyone craving a more soulful coffee crawl through Hong Kong. The Dakka app is currently available for iPhone only.
Cover image via Zolima CityMag.
