*London cafes: your very best recommendations, please!

[Mr Retro]

Not exactly a cafe but no guide is complete without a mention of the Brick Lane Bagel shop. Delicious proper bagels the most expensive is smoked salmon (loads of) + cream cheese at £1.90. A cheese bagel is only 30p. A dozen to take away costs £1.44.

There are loads of yummy cakes including proper apple strudel and other breads and buns all very cheap.

The Jewish have the best food in the world imo

 

[hammerntongues]

Originally posted by Mr Retro
Not exactly a cafe but no guide is complete without a mention of the Brick Lane Bagel shop. Delicious proper bagels the most expensive is smoked salmon (loads of) + cream cheese at £1.90. A cheese bagel is only 30p. A dozen to take away costs £1.44.

There are loads of yummy cakes including proper apple strudel and other breads and buns all very cheap.

The Jewish have the best food in the world imo

Good call ,a 24 hr heaven ,join the back of a 10 person queue at 4 am behind Dinner suits and ballgowns,Trannies,clubbers,prostitutes,cabbies,winos,its like the cast of a Fellini film and do they taste good .

 

[Hollis]

Afew others in Islington..

Rheidol Rooms, St Peter's Street. - Pretty upmarket as greasy spoons go, and tends to attract the Islingtonian 'in-crowd'.

Cross Cafe, Cross Street - friendly service, relaxed

Fosby's Cafe, Chapel Market. - Very busy market cafe, also serves Fillipino & Chinese food.

 

[Steve]

Polly's
55 South End Road
London NW3

just over the road from Hampstead Heath station on the North London Line, is well worth a visit.

Food is excellent and varied from all day fried breakfast to salads, not a greasy spoon but nor does it seem to attract pretentious twats, very relaxed old fashioned atmosphere, lots of wood, polite friendly staff, obvious trouble taken to prepare food well, coffee/tea of very good quality, prices very reasonable considering the quality of dishes. Plenty of room between tables.

Situated within a street of useful varied small shops. Hampstead Heath is across the road, Keats House and Keats public library are around the corner. Erno Goldfingers 1930's modernist house is 5 mins walk away.

 

[agricola]

theres also an excellent bagel/pastry shop on Stoke Newington High Street at the junction with Evering Road...

 

[twinkle]

the Royal Cafe on the corner of Exmouth market is my very favourite. quite small but all seats good for watching stalls blow over in the wind etc.
the veggie breakfasts are huge and better than anywhere else. good prices. staff leave you alone, play radio, read papers. chill out, no pretensions. love it

 

[missing twin]

a lovely, reasonably priced and relaxed Turkish cafe in Camberwell, Tadims. (Camberwell Church Street) Muralled wall, everything from great coffee to borag (sp?) to meze to kebab. A meal and drink sets you back about a fiver or just over. And its always open!

Also, Seymour Brothers (next door to Hermits Cave). Breakfasts of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs - or you can just take cornflakes very relaxed, little garden out the back, and great pizzas from Wednesdays to Saturday evenings.

camberwell, camberwell, camberwell

 

[Razoredge]

Oh no missing twin! Don't tell everyone about Tadims or it will fill up with North Londoners and us local won't be able to get a seat. Seriously - I totally agree. Pleasant atmosphere, good food and reasonable prices - iand you can stay as long as you like over a meal without any hassle. Another similar place, but Middle Eastern rather than Turkish, is Gaby's in the Charing Cross Road. It does great Lebanese food including a lot of vegetarian specialities for very reasonable prices given its location. Compared with the other eating establishments in the area its amazingly good value.

 

[past caring]

Seymour Bros is ok just as long as you don't try the veggie burgers-pre-cooked then re-heated in the microwave and consequently tough as old shoe leather.

Locals might also like to try The Walworth Road cafe, the green fronted one near the post office on the road of the same name...not a huge amount of veggie selection, but clean, Italian run and Marie (pronounce Mahrie) does a blinding esspresso.

A bit further afield is the original Heather's Cafe, not the veggie delight (now defunct) in Deptford, but it's parent, run by the original Heather in New X, on Trundley's Road. Excellent fry-ups, (including veggie sausages), garden in the Summer, fresh pasta, very friendly...all round excellent.

 

[montevideo]

There's also a weird-looking one run by an irish bloke - name eludes me right now - but the front of it looks like an old wooden shack

This sounds like Alison's, although the outside has gone all posh now.
Best cafe in camden is by far Cafe Crescent (up near the top end of camden high st). Family run, & not as expensive as the new goodfare & nicer service. Don't think the new goodfare is technically a greasy spoon is it?

 

[scarletwoman]

The Amazon Cafe on Holloway road opposite the cinema and up a bit. Lovely in there, Free newspapers, family atmosphere (run by mother and daughter) and somtimes has a small art exhibit up on the walls. Local artists can sell through there. There is a tiny little garden out the back in the summer but it is cramped. If you going in gfor lunch you need to get there by 12 or there's no tables.

 

[biotec]

Psycadelic dream temple - chai cafe - in stables market in Camden.
If you're coming from the main entrance off Camden high road you head down to the end where cyberdog isand its on the right hand side, just past the railway arch.

if your a hippy or don't like cigarette smoke, there's a cafe above a record shop in Camden called 'psycadelic dream temple'. Its completely no smoking and ita decorated really nicely with a psycadelic-esque mural that covers the walls and celing. Its kitted out in the style of a morocan cafe with leather puffs (the seat, not homosexuals) and low tables. Theres also a bookstore selling occult and new age books up there too and the music is usualy a nice ambient affair. They're always friendly and they have a good range of teas. Food is minimal but pretty good.

 

[lincm]

regency cafe seconded - and it's only 10m from my front door! Another classic cafe i really liked was one I think was called valtarros in cartwright gardens, WC1. Filled with locals, workmen etc, and a hilarious owner - I think his name was tony (at least, thats what we called him!) and he was a passionate old bloke who'd bark orders at his poor wife (who had a bad leg and reminded me of the secretary in 'silly walks'). Anyone else know it? I suspect it may have been taken over by somebody else now though.

 

[sam/phallocrat]

The candid cafe I think will be my choice. It's part of the candid arts trust, a kind of artists collective (I think) and it's based in a building on torrens street, which is right behind Angel tube (right next to the electrowerks). You go up a few flights of stairs and find yerself in the ante-chamber (as it were) where you can get your hot drinks etc. The dining room is long and low, with a fucking massive table going down the middle and with sofas and low tables at the edges. It's always dimly lit with lots of cool art on the walls, is staffed by a random bunch of very friendly types and does lovely veggie food and cups of tea. It's a wicked place to chill if you're hanging around angel and don't wanna go t'pub.

saaam

 

[Ace]

Nico's. A Greek cafe, next to Bethnal Green tube.
Biggest portions of some of the best cafe food in London; their lamb kafado is rhapsodic. No, really...

 

[Fidel]

West London

These two should be in a cafe guide for this area.

Lisboa, Goldborne rd W10 - good honest tradtional Portugese cafe, been around forever and cheap as chips (which they dont sell here).

Cheap good coffee for well under a quid, lots of cheap cakes and other food for half the price of other cafes in the area


Oporto,Goldborne rd W10 across the rd another Portugese cafe aslo good cofee and cheap cakes and rolls

 

[pommie]

The Estrella Bar in South Lambeth Road (a few minutes walk south of Vauxhall tube) - another Portugese cafe open all day, good cheap food and beer, Portugese soccer on the telly in the corner. There's tons of genuine atmosphere - on a midweek night you can be the only non-Portugese person in there. You can sit out the front in the summer as well, which would be great if wasn't for all the bloody traffic...

 

[Sunray]

There is only two that have stuck in my mind over the years. I have been to many. Not sure it counts as a cafe but the Brick Lane Bagle Shop does serve tea and is probably best shop in London for a quick snack of a Salf beef or Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese and nice bagles 24/7. The plain bagles are only 12p each and more than often so fresh they are warm. Interesting bagle shop fact: Its only shut once in the 23 or so years its been open, for the millenium. (Ungrateful gits )

The other is up the road and its called Ginas cafe located at the Shorditch end of Bethnal Green Rd. It serves a man size plate of nicely cooked tasty food, in fairly plesant surroundings with comfy seats and frendly service. Approx about a fiver for a meal, unless you have steak. Its a cabbies fav in the area. The brek is well nice.

Oh and one final suprise, its got a bar and can serve you a pint with your breakfast if you want and its past 11:30am.

Sunray

 

[Tays]

http://classiccafes.co.uk/, " little gems of British vernacular high street design"

 

[corporate whore]

that site roooooools!

 

[rutabowa]

Just discovered: Don's Cafe, Lower Clapton Road, E5. Cheap cheap breakfasts (with Perfect fried eggs, better than i've seen anywhere else) served buy insanely happy whistling old man, with manic accordion music playing on stereo. Looks a bit like a derelict building on outside, but feels like a bit of a haven once in. I have eccentric taste in cafes tho.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Cafe Nile, 294 Clapham Rd SW9
Turn right out of Stockwell Tube and it's less than a two minute walk in a small block of shops set back a liitle way from the road.
If I'm in Stockwell I always visit. Ethiopian owned, but don't expect Injera Zigeni or traditional food from the Horn of Africa, although it has quite an Ethiopian atmosphere. It's more of a modern sandwich bar with excellent fresh juices and a really good choice of coffees. It has seating outside too, is deservedly popular at lunchtimes, but quieter at other times. Highly recommended by the Magpie family.

 

[missing twin]

Originally posted by sam/phallocrat
The candid cafe I think will be my choice.

This is a wonderful place in terms of deco, atmosphere, staff and ambience. But the food can be quite a mixed bag. I've had lovely food there but more often mediocre, sometimes not even v nice food

But in every other way brilliant

 

[chegrimandi]

New River Cafe, just off green lanes by clissold park....very tasty bubble and squeak, very good fried brekkie, nice omellettes n all......

 

[scarletwoman]

Originally posted by scarletwoman
The Amazon Cafe on Holloway road opposite the cinema and up a bit. Lovely in there, Free newspapers, family atmosphere (run by mother and daughter) and somtimes has a small art exhibit up on the walls. Local artists can sell through there. There is a tiny little garden out the back in the summer but it is cramped. If you going in gfor lunch you need to get there by 12 or there's no tables.

Forgot to add, most of their food is homemade and they do BIG, FAT, HOMEMADE CHIPS!!!!!!!!!

YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!

 

[scarletwoman]

Originally posted by scarletwoman
The Amazon Cafe on Holloway road opposite the cinema and up a bit. Lovely in there, Free newspapers, family atmosphere (run by mother and daughter) and somtimes has a small art exhibit up on the walls. Local artists can sell through there. There is a tiny little garden out the back in the summer but it is cramped. If you going in gfor lunch you need to get there by 12 or there's no tables.

Forgot to add, most of their food is homemade and they do BIG, FAT, HOMEMADE CHIPS!!!!!!!!!

YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!

 

[TinyCrendon]

all your caffs so far are in the wrong bit of London.

Adams Cafe - Askew Rd London W12 - very good indeed, also triffic Tunisian restaurant at night.

Fat Boyz - Uxbridge Rd, opposite Swainson Rd, W3. Also opposite Somerfields. Great food, lots of banter, magazines etc...Watford fan.

Farinas, Leather Lane, EC1. Proper old cafe smack bang in town, really good. Waitress service.

Churchfield Cafe, Churchfield Rd, Acton W3. Another great cafe bit further into Acton.

Zippys - Goldhawk Rd W12. Very old but refurbished cafe. Very good (Turkish) coffee, scrambled eggs not so good. Galatassaray fans.

 

[maximilian ping]

Sheperdess and Churchfield quality

but best one in london by far is Pelucci on bethnal green road.

beauty fry ups cooked by cockney italians, great crowded, can't move an inch, warm atmosphere, family run, waiters always giving it the large one with customers. plus amazing coffee and lunch stuff.

best thing tho is when they spot a traffic warden and tell all customers who run out and sit in their car for a bit.

oh yeh, and its got a fish tank

 

[dum dum]

Bassment Jo deserves a mention in the cafe guide Ed , lovely peeps nice food , vibes n all.

 

[maes]

Originally posted by adzp


Adams Cafe - Askew Rd London W12 - very good indeed, also triffic Tunisian restaurant at night.


Zippys - Goldhawk Rd W12. Very old but refurbished cafe. Very good (Turkish) coffee, scrambled eggs not so good. Galatassaray fans.

Adams Cafe is my local (I live just off the Askew Road) and I can say that it does have gorgeous fry ups, perfect for weekend breakfasts, all for the princely sum of £3.20 The Tunisian food at night is really good, a little more expensive though.

I haven't been into Zippys, is that the one with the brown-boarded front that looks very retro, quite close to Shepherds bush green? If so I'll check it out when I can .