Hackney Wick is clearly on the up and the Hackney Pearl is definitely a symbol of that. Oh don’t worry the area still looks like a deserted wasteland only fit for amateur fashion shoots, but salvaged Formica tables, school chairs and copies of the observer are a slap across the face reminder of where we’re [...]

You might think that there wasn’t much in Hackney Wick and that’s because there isn’t apart from a lot of unemployed people who call themselves artists. Anyway for months i’d been going to a fairly nasty cafe as there wasn’t anywhere else. Then a great little place opened up, eclectic and quirky, like sitting [...]

It’s just so cute, tucked away at the back of a camera repair shop, and quiet and discreet with a few little tables and Simon and Garfunkel playing in the background (it’s that kind of place). The few customers here are total anoraks, wearing hiking gear including boots and said anoraks despite the fact that [...]

I’d read many a review of the Grocery café all of which condemned the service but enthused about the food. They weren’t wrong about the food, it’s amazing. And I didn’t have a problem with the service – it was fine plus I was served by a guy who looked like the freakish blond choir [...]

163-167 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3UW
020 7423 1525
Monday – Sunday 7am – 8pm

It’s often hard to get a seat here as it’s always heaving. The types who come here are the kind who move to Brick Lane because it’s cool not because they’re cool. I bet everyone here has a job in something related to advertising but they hang out on Brick Lane at Coffee @ on [...]

On my initial discovery it was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. I decided to walk up Cambridge Heath Road to avoid waiting for a bus as it was a rare sunny day when I came across what looked like a garden centre or children’s crèche with an abundance of garden gnomes, miniature chairs [...]

A home away from home with big comfy chairs (which they probably salvaged from the street thrown away by some landlord who couldn’t use them due to the fire hazard). It’s hidden in the Candid Arts Trust and you wouldn’t know it was there unless you knew it was there, which is its main attraction. [...]

Ok so another faux-Italian deli cum café, I guess I can’t get enough of these places. Distressed furniture and walls adorned with shelves of jars and Italian produce are two themes I always plum for and like gastro pubs, London has no shortage of them. I’m just picking out a few of my favourites. [...]

I think it’s accurate to say that Ray’s is the central meeting point for anyone coming to Soho. Situated in Foyle’s bookshop it serves all kinds of healthy food and cakes, coffee, tea and other drinks. Its pouring with rain outside and it’s a handy place to find myself as I have the whole book [...]

This is probably my favourite café in London (and like many others I use as an office) due to the fact that it’s black and white and it’s rare that you see anyone in there who is not either consciously or subconsciously dressed in black or white. They don’t care if you stay there for [...]