London, Sandwiches, Cakes, Etc Restaurant Guide

2016 Review: A “cosy”, all-day, café-cum-bistro near Parsons Green, with an evening menu featuring ‘proper’ cooking; initial reports suggest it’s a cut-above (and that goes for the coffee too).

2019 Review: At the foot of a new aparthotel near Aldgate East tube, this year-old venture comprises a coffee shop and terrace downstairs, and a restaurant and bar upstairs, which – under seasoned chef George Tannock – tries harder than you might expect in this location: “a welcome, local, go-to business lunch place, with an excellent and varied menu and staff who are efficient but welcoming”.

2019 Review: “Fabulously busy… in a good way (as it feels like you have come to the right place)” – this cute tea rooms near Holborn Library spawned a chain of the same name on the back of its inviting-looking cakes and “tasty lunches and snacks” that are “worth a little waiting for”.

“A caffeine hit and empañadas, obvs” – that’s the deal at this well-liked small coffee bar, off Chiswick’s main drag, which, as well as its trademark Latino bites, serves a selection of baps, pastries and other brunch-ish fare from early morning till afternoon.

This “eccentric but marvellous treasure” is a Soho landmark and “one of the few remaining original London pâtisseries”. “Gateaux to die for” and “wonderful tea and scones” provide a “trip down memory lane” in premises opened by a Parisian exile in 1871 and graced by Karl Marx and Virginia Woolf as well as generations of Soho bohos.

This “stylish and serious”, coffee-shop operation with two sites in Fitzrovia is “still one of the best independents in London”, 10 years after pioneering modern Antipodean-style coffee culture in the UK. They serve “brilliant coffee” (naturally), “a nice range of pastries” and “excellent sandwiches”, and have a “good vibe at both locations”. “Only the slightly monastic seating lets things down” – and there’s “not enough” of it!

“There really is only one winner here when it comes to coffee!” – these caffeine-havens remain the survey’s No. 1 coffee company thanks to its “perfect” brews – from a “fabulous, rotating and extensive selection of beans” – delivered by “patient and helpful staff”, who are “invariably lovely despite the crazy-massive queues”. By Borough Market, the “rustic, no-frills SE1 branch with its communal heavy wood table” offers a “quintessential London breakfast experience, with a cult following” (foodwise, there’s bread and jam, plus “beautifully-sourced pastries”). The original WC2 branch is also “lovely… if you can get a seat”; and a recent addition is a Saturday-only branch at Spa Terminus in Bermondsey SE16.

“There really is only one winner here when it comes to coffee!” – these caffeine-havens remain the survey’s No. 1 coffee company thanks to its “perfect” brews – from a “fabulous, rotating and extensive selection of beans” – delivered by “patient and helpful staff”, who are “invariably lovely despite the crazy-massive queues”. By Borough Market, the “rustic, no-frills SE1 branch with its communal heavy wood table” offers a “quintessential London breakfast experience, with a cult following” (foodwise, there’s bread and jam, plus “beautifully-sourced pastries”). The original WC2 branch is also “lovely… if you can get a seat”; and a recent addition is a Saturday-only branch at Spa Terminus in Bermondsey SE16.