kaffeine

in the space of ten months, my outlook on london coffee has flipped on its head. good cuppas can be found! you have to know where to look. the irony is that the best coffee places i’ve stumbled upon are usually australian/ new zealand owned. usually independent too, with hip staff, exposed wood interiors and top brews. and another one for that list with all three iskaffeinein fitzrovia.

in sydney, we are used to great cafe culture. in london, with all it’s chain cafes and restaurants, this may seem harder to come by. however, with the help of twenty something london, ds and i were able to findkaffeine– a place with sandwiches, salads, coffee and cute little wooden crates that double as chairs and tables. if you’re wondering why the coffee is so good – it is australian/new zealand owned!

i have been going tokaffeinesince they first opened. the coffee has always been to a great standard and their lunches are always awesome. the salads are always inspiring and i would recommend their pie & salad! love love love this place!

by koray hussein

when it comes to coffee in central london, the areas that immediately spring to mind are soho and covent garden with the fitzoria area falling some way behind. however that’s where i headed to earlier this week when i visited great titchfield street’s kaffeine.

i arrived a few minutes before opening time and waited as the four or five workers set up, which kind of surprised me. five people working in a rather small coffee shop at 7.30am? seemed a little overkill to me considering they had more staff than tables but what would i know?

as the interior is so small, the first thing i saw upon enteringkaffeinewas their counter top which had some seriously good looking snacks packed in. croissants, rolls, pies and an especially tasty looking fruit salad all adorned the glass and made it kind of difficult to decide.

being my usual indecisive self i asked one of the guys behind the counter to help me out and was recommended their breakfast pie (for the life of me, i cannot remember what was in this thing, apart from baked beans and bresola and can’t find it on their website) which i ordered along with a glass of coffee (seriously guys what’s wrong with serving coffee in cups?).

i took a seat at the back wall facing back into the shop and was taken aback at just how tiny kaffeine’s tables are, if you can call wooden boxes, tables. the seats at the back are fine for placing a cup- sorry, glass of coffee on but how the hell am i meant to eat the pie when the table is at arse height when sitting down? there are elevated tables along the central wall but with elevated tables comes elevated seats and as i’m a short bastard, i tend to avoid any seats that make me look like a bearded toddler with my legs dangling down.

after i’d finished internally bitching about the table height i looked up and noticed that the place seemed quite busy already. it hadn’t been five minutes since the doors opened and there were two people sitting at the higher tables, a couple sat beside me chatting and a queue of three people. i guess i spoke too soon when i thought that five staff members was overkill at 7.30am.

my attention was brought back to the boxes masquerading as tables once the breakfast pie and coffee arrived and i was left trying to fold myself forward to actually get to the damn pie.

at first glance the breakfast pie looked like it’d be a pretty standard pie but once i tried to actually crack it open and taste this bad boy i realised it wasn’t going to be that simple. whether it was due to the heating process, the actual crust itself, or the blunt cutlery supplied, actually getting inside the pie was a bit of a problem. it took several seconds of prodding, slicing and practically thumping to get at the insides but i’m extremely happy to say that that’s the last complaint you’ll have from me about this pie.

although i (annoyingly) can’t remember what was actually inside, i can remember being surprised with just how savoury and spicy it was. that’s not a complaint however as all the ingredients complimented each other perfectly and i was left even enjoying the crust that tried it’s best to prevent me from having my breakfast.

the coffee on the other hand didn’t strike me as anything special which is a shame. it’s not bad by any means but the fact that it’s a stones throw from places like daisy green and soho bikes is a pity as i’d much rather walk the extra five minutes and get a coffee at one of those places.

i’ll definitely be going back tokaffeineas that pie deserves another visit and if you’re in the area you could do a lot worse than trying kaffeine’s coffee, just don’t expect anything mind blowing.

for our non-food related reviews and features or updates to the reviews we have posted here on zomato, please visit our site.

glorious blue sky summer days means the pleasure of making the most of the great outdoors but also taking the chance for a relaxed lunch.kaffeineis a very popular cafe with queues coming out the door at busy times. wooden panels and crate like tables make up the small seating area with some high stools near to the counter. there is a bench outdoors too.kaffeineserves up one of the best smoothest coffees and one that i would return for. the americano decaf was served in a matching black cup and saucer with soy milk. the food is displayed in the counter fridge and includes toasted foccacia sandwiches, baguettes, tarts and salads. as the food is seasonal,kaffeinehas a menu that changes each week. the vegetarian tart on offer on this particular visit was roasted vegetables in a gruyere pastry with saffron cream. the pastry was thin, light and crispy. parsnips, aubergine, red pepper, onion and courgette made up the chunky filling. it could have done

john was very excited to check out the third wave coffee shops in london. our first stop in london was tokaffeineand it set a very high bar. different from back home? 1.) a more approachable space inviting customers to spend time - not in cozy leatherette couches but on casual wood benches that ease being on your feet without being so inviting you want to set up camp. 2.) great food. with exception of lucky's doughnuts inside 49th parallel and revolver most of our coffee shops have pretty terrible food. i was delighted at the quality and variety offered at kaffeine. i had the beef and guinness pie and despite being a tough customer on a good crust i was not disappointed. no dried out scones here! 3.) crazy friendly staff. it was very approachable. we had a lovely chat with the staff once they had cleared out their customers and they helped us map out other must see coffee shops in london.  fantastic shop. don't miss it. it's a great reprieve from the hustle and bustle and in a good l

on arrival atkaffeine(yet another australian expat in the coffee business) in great titchfield street, it was like being transported back to melbourne. groovy, yet understated shop fittings were the perfect backdrop for uberstylish staff with the females all looking like they were channelling the late amy winehouse (in style terms, it should be said) with heavy eyeliner, bouffant rainbow-coloured hair and sporting lots of ink. the cafe was established in 2009 when antipodean-style coffee would still have been a rarity in the old dart,

the flat white atkaffeinecompared with 49 others.

a couple months back while back home, thanks to my family, i ended doing a coffee appreciation course. basic things, how to make a perfect espresso, latte art, etc. the long story short i'€™m know really hooked with coffee, so decided to visit recommended places and blog about coffee.  blame it on the coffee my first visitkaffeine, independent australian/new zealand coffee shop, not surprisingly as the australian coffee culture is huge. the man behind is pete a melbournian, who after researching for a cool coffee shop he decided to leave his job at lord’s cricket ground and dedicated to his new venture.  the shop has a rustic approach, long counter, a couple tables with bar stools in front and some stools and tables at the end which are in fact empty boxes. they sell food, some baguettes and foccacias, and muffins, brownies, and other sweet treats. you can also have a guest coffee

yet another australian / new zealand owned london café,kaffeinemeans business when it comes to the coffee and food that they serve. freshly baked cakes, pastries, homemade granola, muffins for breakfast and a range of salads and sandwiches for lunch provide an excellent choice and the coffee is lovingly prepared and sourced from square mile . they use top quality equipment to get the best out of the beans - a synesso cyncra espresso machine and (for the more geeky coffee lovers out there) a robus e 110v doserless grinder. they even pay attention to the size of the coffee cups in order to get the best possible taste out of the coffee. each cup comes with a double shot as standard (that would

so i continue my search for the best coffee shop in central london using my criteria and hit-list . and i finally made it tokaffeine, the oft-praised antipodean coffee shop raved about by various twitterites including tim hayward . so me and the gorgeou

high sydney standards in the west end. if you've experienced sydney's best cafes, you will already know what it means to say the following.kaffeinehas teleported the best of the essential sydney cafe experience to the west end.

the format is very simple: perfectly made flat whites (superior antipodean version of the latte), mind altering freshly made orange juice and superb sandwiches. lightly toasted and completely delicious focaccia (with sea salt and olive oil crust) sandwiches are served for lunch. kaffeine's breakfast sandwich is made with ciabattini, including poached egg, english bacon, spinach and tomato salsa. the ingredients are perfectly selected, prepared and combined meaning that the taste experience of sandwich eating is elevated to high caliber restaurant dining.

service has been cheerful and efficient each time i've visited and the interior is casual and understatedly classy. what's not to like?

the only comparable cafe heaven that i've found in london is the wonderful pantry in wandsworth. so now there are two very good reasons not to compromise your breakfast, brunch or lunch standards.