City, Sandwiches, Cakes, Etc Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Good coffee… and the food’s OK too” – this Borough Market café remains one of the top caffeine hits in SE1. “It’s great for breakfast” too.

“The aroma is breathtaking and you will want to linger longer than one cup”, especially at the original WC2 branch of this renowned coffee chain: “a tiny, friendly place where you always share a table with someone interesting”; and with “an exceptional array of coffees from around the world”. “Yes, you will likely have to queue; and no, it is not somewhere to linger with friends. But for the best coffee served by supremely knowledgeable staff in special surroundings, this is still the benchmark, with outstanding pastries too”.

2021 Review: “Perfect coffee every time” keeps caffeine fiends crawling back to this small and serious chain. “Baking from Fortitude Bakehouse is a good complement”.

2021 Review: “Perfect coffee every time” keeps caffeine fiends crawling back to this small and serious chain. “Baking from Fortitude Bakehouse is a good complement”.

2021 Review: “Could this be the best coffee in London?” – this speciality chain has grown from this Leather Lane site to 15 around the capital in 10 years, and is, by all accounts, “exceptional” – “definitely worth going out of the way for a brew”. “Staff are friendly”, and sandwiches, salads and cakes are prepared fresh every day at a central in-house kitchen and bakery.

Caffeine aficionados beat a path to the Leather Lane premises of “one of the early champions of speciality coffee”, where they imbibe information from the “friendly and knowledgeable staff” along with their brews. It’s a “comfortable refurbished space”, and there are “great pastries” and breakfast/brunch options to munch on.

2021 Review: “A wonderful location off Bermondsey Street” – a “quirky”, ancient, tiny shelter originally built for watchmen guarding the graves of nearby St Mary Magdalene Church – helps win fans for this small coffee house (which has since spawned a couple of spin-offs at Tower Bridge and Fetter Lane). It wins many nominations for its “top coffee” too (supplied by Shoreditch roasters, Ozone) and “delicious food”. One quibble: service can be “so laid back, it’s almost horizontal”.

This legendary 24/7 East End bakery is “worth the hype, and the queue, for top salt beef bagel action”. Ignore the “grumpy service and horrible interior (please don’t gentrify!)” in the knowledge that “one of life’s great pleasures is noshing a fully loaded salt beef bagel outside the shop while it’s still piping hot”. Last summer, the operation made its first foray into pizzas with a residency at the Hoxton. It also endured a social media panic as news spread that its near neighbour the Beigel Shop (both businesses use the traditional European spelling) had closed due to a family dispute.

There’s “a real buzz” around Quality Chop House’s “little sibling next door”, where chef Nick Bramham, working solo, knocks out a “short but enticing menu that changes every week” – “how he does it in the tiny kitchen is baffling!”. “You might need to perch but it’s great food and fun to visit”.

“Smoothly run and charming – the Wolseley’s “grown-up” Theatreland cousin off Aldwych is “another Corbin & King former favourite that seems to be surviving pretty well under a change of management”, a switch that “doesn’t seem to have dented its consistent quality”. The “lovely surroundings are reminiscent of a coffee house in Vienna” and its “well-spaced tables and professional service make it a particularly classy choice for a discreet business lunch”. The Mittel European brasserie fare is “undemanding” and “won’t excite” (“it’s not about the food here”), but the menu provides “a wide choice” and “the overall package is pure quality and not too expensive for what it is”. In particular, “they make breakfast into an occasion” with an excellent selection of choices and coffee. Top Menu Tips – “Fantastic schnitzels”; very pleasant Veal Bratwurst with sauerkraut; or reasonable Chicken soup with spätzle”. At breakfast, “eggs royale is an indulgent choice”; and “you will never taste better kedgeree than theirs!”

2022 Review: “You will literally not get a better toasted cheese and onion sandwich in this world!” – so say fans of Bill Oglethorpe’s market stall, which is a mainstay of Borough Market. On Saturday mornings and lunchtime, you can also eat-in at their dairy in nearby Bermondsey.

Down a cute Covent Garden alley, this tiny Scandi café with a handful of seats outside in summer is sweet in more ways than one: “the renowned Princess Tarta is criminally delicious and can be personalised to order… 100% authentic too!”

“The aroma is breathtaking and you will want to linger longer than one cup”, especially at the original WC2 branch of this renowned coffee chain: “a tiny, friendly place where you always share a table with someone interesting”; and with “an exceptional array of coffees from around the world”. “Yes, you will likely have to queue; and no, it is not somewhere to linger with friends. But for the best coffee served by supremely knowledgeable staff in special surroundings, this is still the benchmark, with outstanding pastries too”.

This “magical place” – “the best patisserie in town, magnifique!” – is a living monument to old Soho, having been founded in 1871 by a Communard exile from Paris. “Great scones, proper clotted cream, and the best cream cakes in London – still cooked on the premises” – reward visitors (but it “gets busy, and is very popular with tourists”).

This “small, often crowded” independent coffee shop by Soho’s Berwick Street market is a pilgrimage site for caffeine junkies, as the source of Antipodean ‘third wave’ coffee culture in Britain since its 2005 opening. And yes, “the coffee’s very good”.

A “spectacular breakfast” – “the options are hard to choose from, but none are a poor choice” – is the top culinary feature at these Kiwi haunts, whose zeitgeisty vibe and in-house roasting (omg the smell in Shoreditch!) makes them a magnet for a “top notch coffee” at any time of day.

2022 Review: “Still turning out wonderful cinnamon buns and coffee” along with some “excellent Scandi sandwiches”, this Nordic fixture in Soho remains “well worth a visit”.

“Superb coffee” is the name of the game at “one of the original Aussie coffee shops in London” – still providing “exemplary service and high standards” after 15 years under its Melburnian founder, Peter Dore-Smith, and now with two branches in Fitzrovia. There’s also a pretty extensive menu of snacks and light bites to get you through the day. Top Tip – “try the great peanut butter made in-house”.

“Superb coffee” is the name of the game at “one of the original Aussie coffee shops in London” – still providing “exemplary service and high standards” after 15 years under its Melburnian founder, Peter Dore-Smith, and now with two branches in Fitzrovia. There’s also a pretty extensive menu of snacks and light bites to get you through the day. Top Tip – “try the great peanut butter made in-house”.

“Excellent smørrebrød” (open sandwiches) are on display at this Fitzrovia café, “but a lot of people go for the Swedish meatballs” – “this is where I head when homesick”, says an expat reporter. “There also is a little shop downstairs selling Scandi goodies”.