Some time ago I did a post on the London coffee scene. As you can see in the posts before this one, we have spend some time in the Shoreditch area. So this is an update looking at the east London coffee scene. And there are some very nice ones here. Probably Nude Espresso is the best known one, having their roastery (with espresso bar) in Brick Lane (Truman Brewery) and an espresso bar in Hanbury street. Also on Brick Lane you can find Full Stop, a nice bar presenting Square Mile coffee. We enjoyed Fix 126 in Curtain Road (they do Flat What instead of Flat White) and Foxcroft & Ginger, located in the popup shopping mall Boxpark. I tink my favorite in the area is Protein by DunneFrankowski in Hewett Street. Difficult to find, in an exposition room in a dead-end street. But with a near fanatical dedication to making a perfect coffee. And if you are in the area, don’t forget the Shoreditch Grind on Old Street and Allpress Espresso in Redchurch Street. So definitely a great area for coffee!
Walking down Brick Lane in London you come across a lot of Indian restaurants. And it looks like they are all ‘The Best Curry House of 2012″ or have been given another prestigious award. Although the Brick Lane area is one of my favorite spots in London, what I do not like is people trying to pull you into their restaurants. As a rule of thumb, I never eat in restaurants where they have people on the street trying to pull you in. I think a good restaurants lets their staff look after the guests or cook good food. We came across two very nice restaurants just off Brick Lane, that both did not need to pull people off the street. Meraz Cafe is a small and busy Indian restaurant in Hanbury Street, serving excellent food. The other one is Tayyabs, a very busy Punjabi restaurant in Whitechapel with people queuing on the street. But even with a long queue we were seated within 20 minutes. Both serve excellent food, and when you like to have beer or wine with it, you need to bring your own bottles.
There are probably a lot of restaurants like Le Sain Sert in Paris. But it is definitely a restaurant I like. Traditional French cooking. Quality ingredients. A warm welcome by a chef who is clearly proud of his menu and his food. And a lot of locals, making it even busy on a quiet Monday night. I had some very nice asparagus and an excellent Salade Gourmand.
A wonderful Vietnamese restaurant in Berlin. It is called Monsieur Vuong, and you can find it in the Alte Schönhauser strasse 46. No reservations, so there can be long lines. But absolutely worth the waiting.
The coffee scene of London might be one of the most vibrant in Europe. Recently I had the opportunity to visit some of the top espresso bars, and I was amazed by the high quality of products and services. Coffee was of very high quality, often by roasters such as Square Mile Roasters, Has Bean or Monmouth.
But is was not only the high level of the coffee served. Most places gave a very warm welcome, and good service even when it was crowded in the place. Although I was not able to taste the food in all places, the things that had been served were very good. Nice cakes for breakfast, or good sandwiches for lunch.
When it comes to coffee, Kaffeine and Nude Espresso are my favorites. When it comes to overall concepts, I like Caravan in Exmouth Market and Fernandez & Wells in Sommerset House most, as they are able to serve you from breakfast to diner.
Below a series of pictures to give you an impression of the London coffee scene.
Whenever you are in London, and especially in Notting Hill, you should have a look at this wonderful shop just across Portobello Road. It’s called the Spice Shop, and although it is a tiny shop, it offers you the largest choice of spices I have ever seen.
Coffee is such an inspiring product. The core product with its origin in exotic places, with much difference in taste between beans from Africa, America or any other regions. And the roasting done in our regions, by craftsman or even home roasters like myself. Both the core-product as the roasting adds evenly to the end product.
Trabocca in Amsterdam is a company that specializes in sourcing specialty coffee from Ethiopia, probably the country with the largest diversity in coffee beans. This video gives a very impressive view of how they do their business, in harmony with the local people.
Thanks to Columbian Coffee Hub for providing this visual aid for detecting defects and problems with green coffee beans. Perfect tool for home roasters.
