Since the restrictions have lifted somewhat in the last few months, we have finally been able to find more Coffee Shops and try them out. So here is another selection of Indy Coffee Shops that we have found in and around London…
The Lakeside Cafe – Alexandra Palace
At the top of the really steep hill in North London, there is the Alexandra Palace and just beyond is the Lake, where you can hire pedalos and feed the ducks. There is also a Café that we tried.
Inside looks more like a KFC, all bright yellow and flashing signs.
The queueing system is confusing: having to enter through one door, leave via another, wait to be served at one window, collect a drink at another, but not touch the counter, the windows, or anything, and wait for food in the glass atrium by the entry, amongst chairs, left pushchairs, and wayward children.
The noise is atrocious, with kids screaming in the waiting area or out by the water trying to punch and kick the ducks while their middle-class parents ignore their brats and continue chatting with their friends and shouting just as loud about how their Porsche needs a service, or how they haven’t been able to go skiing for a year!
The server took our order for the usual 2x Soya Mochas and we also chanced at a Mozzarella Panini and were asked if we wanted Vegan; a number of the items, it seemed, had a vegan option. This seemed really out of place in the faux KFC interior. But we ordered and were instructed in great detail as to where to stand for each item and how not to touch anything other than our own coffee when it was delivered.
The coffee arrived pretty quickly, as there were 7 members of staff behind the counter; you’d hope they could make 2 drinks quickly enough. The food, however, came from the other end of the building, by what looked like the staff toilets and the waiting area was the shouting room in the middle.
That being said, we took our order and sat to the side of the lake and watched the annoying children play with the ducks and tried to enjoy the coffee and sandwich, which were surprisingly good.
Lily Jasmine Bubble Tea – Camden Passage, N1
There is a new kid in town, a bubble Tea Kid, by the name of Lily Jasmine,
Yet another little kiosk shop in the pedestrianised walkway that holds the antiques market every Saturday.
We tried to be efficient and look at the menu on their website instead of the usual standing confused at the counter trying to work out what we wanted and what options to add, whether we wanted hot or cold, etc. But the website didn’t stay still long enough to allow us to make sense of it, so we just stood at the counter and ummed and erred as usual.
We ordered 1 Cane Sugar Milk with Pearl and 1 Milk Oolong Tea. The service was quick, helpful, and really pleasant. So much so we took a loyalty card before even tasting he drinks!
But with that said, we took our drinks and went and sat in Islington Green and sipped away at 2 quite delicious drinks, and yes, we will be back soon.
You know when you see those kiosks in the park and think, that could be good and then you get plastic coffee in plastic cups, like the one in Highbury Fields! We saw this stylish-looking Art Deco building at the edge of St. James’ Park the other day, because, well, because there was nothing else around. We ordered 2x Oat Mochas because they didn’t have Soya and waited a very short time, as the barista could be in for the fastest server in the west award.
We took our drinks and found a park bench by the lake and sipped tentatively and…
OH WOW! That coffee was one of the best, like instantly on our list of favourites, a kiosk in the park that we would happily detour around Buckingham Palace to go back to next time we are in the area. It’s probably worth the walk from Trafalgar Sq, or Hyde Park just for the taste.
So with the mention of our favourite coffee shops, we just want to remind you that our Map of London Coffee Shops is now live and we are working on getting it to appear to the side of the site, pinned their for you to find every time you come on to Climbing-Moss.com, but we have had a few teething problems with coding it (As you may have noticed last week, when it didn’t appear in the post, but we fixed it and so it is now available to view), hopefully we will be able to get it pinned the side soon and we are working through the lists to thin out the closed shops and will add these and the other latest finds soon, so bear with us. But do check out our map and see if you can find something new to try out in London.
And do come back for more coffee shop reviews and other posts on other stuff we have recently discovered while out and about in London, with Climbing Moss.
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