A Chelsea institution and a perfect place for celebrity spotting. Every walk of life comes here from supermodels to actors to tourists, to rich locals and down and outs. It’s a pretty standard London cafe, a bit dowdy but charming as it hasn’t changed since the sixties with the usual stodgy caff food. A few [...]

This place is ridiculous but it’s been here forever which shows it’s not a gimmick, they’re serious. Every inch of the wall space is adorned with framed picture after framed picture of Princess Diana. For no obvious reason the proprietors of Cafe Diana are such huge fans of HRH as to dedicate their business to [...]

“Do you want that on a baguette or Ukrainian rye bread?”
“Why rye today I think”
“And how do you like your coffee?”
“Black as a moonless night”
“That’s pretty black”
With walls lined with a collection of honey’s, marmalades and chutney’s as well as various novelty gifts this really is a small village shop from a long gone age. [...]

I remember a time when you ordered a coffee you knew what you would be getting and that was, by default filter coffee with a splash of cold milk. After a brief spell living in America the land of a thousand options I was looking forward to return home to be able to order and [...]

When I order a cup of tea the words “what tea do you want? We have Camomile, Peppermint…” fill me with utter dread totally alienating me from the creature in front of me. I hold them in the same regard as people who don’t drink tea or coffee because they don’t like it. The English [...]

You can get pregnant just walking through Queens Park there are so many stay at home mums and children, everywhere crawling on every surface. Children should be kept out of sight but oh well hell is other people, like Sebastien Horsely says “People should only take offense at people who are genuinely offensive – like [...]

English caffs are the focal point of any builder’s day and the Shepherdess can certainly vouch for that as on every occasion I’ve been here builders make up 95% of the clientele. It’s a get what you’re given situation and when asked if I want strawberry jam, marmalade, marmite or honey and I ask for [...]

Don’t start, I know this isn’t an authentic caff but it’s going for the look of an authentic caff, so it qualifies for my ‘caff’ section. The food here isn’t great value for money, its expensive for what you get, I come here for the novelty of the place, I love the way it looks [...]

The best thing about workman’s caffs in Britain is that they truly are full of workmen. River Cafe is authentic as they come. Being in Putney it’s not remotely trendy which it would be if it was in Shoreditch. It’s pretty much just workmen and people getting a sandwich to go. It hasn’t changed since [...]

E Pellicci’s is the ‘Savoy’ of caffs. It’s where notorious London gangsters the Kray brothers used to call their local as they grew up right around the corner on Vallance road back in the 60’s. It’s a tiny little art deco place barely visible, situated halfway up the hellhole that is Bethnal Green Road. It’s [...]