We have been out and about again and again we have sought out more new coffee shops and Bubble Tea Shops for you to check out…
Biju Bubble Tea
As you may have gathered we like K-Pop and we like Bubble Tea, so this was a must for us. Biju Bubble Tea Shop in Old Compton Street were doing a Stray Kids Give Away Day, where they gave away cup protectors and member’s Photo Cards to every customer.
So we queued outside with the other fans of and after 10 minutes wait we entered the chaos, there was music playing, a mass of girls (& two guys apart from Ash) sitting around, sipping teas, taking 100’s of selfies and buying Stray Kids merch from a little stall to one side. We just ordered our teas and got our cup holders and photo cards and then headed out again.
The Bubble Tea (‘cos clearly that’s what you want to know about in this post!)
1x Brown Sugar Milk Tea & 1x Oolong Tea with Tapioca and both Soya as per usual and both were actually good, like really good! The cups were big, the tapioca wasn’t gooey and the tea was really nice and the staff was helpful and fun.
So much so that we will detour to go back there on a non-KPop day!
Music & Beans Haringey
Being as we are frequenting this area more these days we wanted to try to find more Coffee Shops in the area, rather than keep going back to Arabiça every week. We saw this place and gave it a go. It’s a quirky place, that sells Guitars and Violins as well as Coffee (As you do!)
We ordered the usual (1 Mocha and an Americano) and sat. The order took a looooong time to be made and Bob ordered a piece of vegan pie too, which also took a while to be plated.
But eventually we got the order and it was ok, just not great the coffee was lukewarm at best and the food was ok except for our allergies and this ticked way too many of our allergies!
So we prefer Arabiça and will be returning there (even with the staff’s screaming children!)
Orée Covent Garden
We wandered about trying to find a new and different Coffee Shop around Covent Garden the other week, having tried every Nero, Pret and other chains, as well as most of the other indy’s around the Piazza. We found ourselves in New Row, that little pedestrianised road between Garrick St and St. Martin’s Lane and we found Orée.
It’s a large café with a lot of seating and a large selection of sandwiches pre-made that were rather shiny, like they had been sprayed with Bee’s Wax! We ordered the standard Soya Mochas and a Mozzarella & Avocado roll and took our order ‘To Go’.
The coffee was good, nice chocolatey flavour and the sandwich was ok, if maybe a bit rubbery.
Ellamia Coffee St Martin’s Lane
This is instantly known as The Rose Gold Café. It looks like a restrurant from the outside as everything is very well appointed and of the same colour – Rose Gold!
We were greeted by a very smart barista in a black uniform and we ordered 2 Soya Mocha’s (big surprise there!) and a minute later he handed us the cups of steaming hot coffee. We walked while drinking and were surprised , it was good if we had ordered 2 latté’s, the drinks had not been stirred, so the chocolate was all at the bottom. It’s a shame because it looks like a nice place to while away an hour if we sat in there!
Finsbury Park View Cafe
In an attempt to find more coffee in the area, we stopped off a Manor House and tried the Park View Cafe, this place is confusing, there are counters in the park entrance and by the bus stop, but they are all the same place. We had a long wait to order because there were a bunch of strange men in front of us, that didn’t seem to be able to count, speak or hear – a kind of day out from the hospital, we think! Then we were ignored in favour of the Arabian group who just talked over us to pay.
Eventually we ordered a Mocha and Black Americano and the order was pretty quick. This may be to the staff seemingly not wanting us there or to take pictures – it was quite an uncomfortable atmosphere.
While we waited we looked at the collection of random lights and the mass of seating inside, clearly they expect to get busy!
We took the coffees and went to walk through the park for a bit and noticed the outdoor seating area. The coffees were mhh! Nothing interesting or worth a return.
Simply Organique Manor House
We aimed for another Coffee Shop opposite the Park View, but it was closed and so we had spotted a sign for coffee in the Organic Shop on the corner of Manor House and so we headed in there instead. The shop is quite large and has a seating area up some steep stairs, but we just ordered from a woman who didn’t sound like she looked, (she was very pleasant and had a reserved English accent), We ordered our Mocha/Americano and took a look around the shop. A little bit of a wait, but not too long and we took our drinks and walked.
One sip and we were surprised at how good these were, they didn’t last long and we finished them quickly and will definitely return again.
Well there we go a large enough collection of coffees and Teas for you to try, if you do try any do let us know what you think and we will be back with another coffee post soon enough.
Climbing Moss 