Strand, Sandwiches, Cakes, Etc Restaurant Guide

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!”

Fans flock to this coffee shop trio for “always delicious” brews and “friendly, well-organised service” – they’re “so busy, it’s amazing that they don’t make mistakes”. The cute Covent Garden branch, established in 1978, is “the original and the best” – “tiny and crowded, but there’s something lovely about sharing a booth with strangers whilst nibbling an excellent pastry and drinking the best coffee in town”. Its follow-up was an early marker of Borough Market’s emergence as a foodie hub, while the roastery has moved to newer premises in Bermondsey.

“One of the handsomest dining rooms in London… and they serve EXCELLENT kedgeree!” – The Wolseley Group’s theatreland outpost is “a recreation of Vienna in London” and its “classy” and “impressive” interior is “buzzing” from early breakfast onwards, especially with “a lot of successful meetings”, as its well-spaced, cossetting and comfortable interior is “ideal for those ‘serious’ discussions”, making it one of the most popular venues in town for a business meal. (Its location, off Aldwych, makes it an ideally placed rendezvous, convenient to Legal Land, the City and the West End). As with its more famous sibling near The Ritz, though, its appeal is wide-ranging, and it also serves shoppers, tourists and – in particular – “makes a great option when popping to a show”. “Despite Jeremy King’s departure, the Delaunay has retained its level of service” and “the food has changed little, if at all”: “authentic Mitteleuropean” dishes that “aren’t setting the world alight but are very reliable”: “a formula, yes, but a good one”. “Prices are not as high as you might expect either”. There is also “an adjacent ‘counter’ area, serving coffee and pastries”. Top Menu Tip – “one day I will order something other than the schnitzel… but it is soooo good!”; “always finish (or start!) with their superb Black Forest gateau or their apple strudel, all of which are made to authentic recipes in their kitchen”; “fantastic eggs royale”.

“One of London’s treasures”, founded in 1871 and now “the only traditional patisserie baking on the premises in Central London” – this French operation is “with Bar Italia the last authentic Soho coffee stop since Chez Valérie was taken over by private equity and destroyed into a chain”. “I doubt if anything has changed here in the last 100 years – even the chips on the paintwork are unchanged from my visits as a child with my grandparents”: it’s the place to go when you want to get “high on genuine old Soho atmosphere”.

2024 Review: 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 delightful Yemeni gem on Warren Street”, where “the coffee is first class and the pastries are perfect”. Founder Faris Sheibani works with more than 7,000 smallholder bean farmers around the world, and his Qima Foundation donates a sapling coffee tree to a farmer for each cup sold. A smart flagship branch opened in Covent Garden in spring 2025.

For a snippet of affordable West End glam, this handsome, two-year-old café by the Savoy (occupying the former premises of the old Savoy Taylors Guild on The Strand) may not be a super-foodie experience, but it fits the bill for a civilised bite in the centre of town, including for pre-theatre meals, for which it is superbly well located. All feedback is positive, but too limited for a rating as yet.