The London Lounge

Gentlemen,

It has been a pleasure reading Your opinions on the various restaurants, chefs and menus in London.

I recently listened to a recorded interview with a gentlemen who ran a cafe in 1937 in Tallinn which served 12 different types of carefully chosen coffee and 72 different pastries. One could, for instance, coming from an overnight train ride, have his morning coffee in a private area while having his suit pressed!

I guess an establishment like such would be very difficult to find today, but why dont we find out the favourite places for a cup of coffee, a morning newspaper and some pastry of the esteemed LL members?


Happy holidays! -Oliver

I dont know London too well but Libertys have a lovely cafe. It's very casual so I dont know if it would be stylish enough to be included here. Great pastries & hot chocolate though.

OliverRuuger wrote:. . . . [W]hy dont we find out the favourite places for a cup of coffee, a morning newspaper and some pastry of the esteemed LL members? . . . .

I'd mention the lovely fin de siécle Las Violetas in Buenos Aires, a city full of charming cafés. Las Violetas (in Almagro, if I remember correctly) stands out by being much, much less touristed than the more famous Café Tortoni on handsome Avenida de Mayo and somewhat less costly, but with better service, a more humane ambience, and a menu in no way inferior.

For me, only a tiny handful of places in Paris or New York can compare.

Brompton / Kinghtsbridge is the heartland of London cafe culture.


The best café’ in London is Brompton Quarter (Knightsbridge)

The chain of French bakeries, Paul, has tables in most locations and serves fantastic pastries. The coffee, given the French background, is lamentable, to an Italian like me.

The Wolseley (Piccadilly) has a very nice café room.

Despite the moronic name, “Snobfood” in King’s Road is also excellent. A real little jewel.

Ottolenghi, in Notting Hill, is fine, assuming you can ever find a chair…

The best coffee chain, in terms of a Cup Of Joe, is Caffe’ Nero, but obviously we’re talking mass market here.

In terms of a more brasserie feel, Oriel (Sloane Sq.) is v. good.

On the basis that there's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil, I suppose that I should add something - which is that, however true this may be, whereas the Columbians keep the best coffee for themselves, the Brazilians must export it because, having Jamaican Blue Mountain as a measure, there is nothing that we have had here that comes close. Accordingly, we don't go to cafes in Rio. Thetea is worse.

However, in Finchley Road, London, there is a great cafe and Hungarian patisserie in an unlikely spot - Louis wonderful sausage rolls and chocolate triangles.
NJS

I thoroughly support NJS re. the merits of Louis!

A bit boring perhaps - ive always liked Fortum and Masons - you see and meet some interesting people there.

I can remember a time 20 years ago when you couldnt find a decent cup of coffee in London anywhere. The advent of the coffee chains has thankfully put an end to that. Almost all do decent coffee and (as mentioned above) I think Caffe Nero is the best of the mass market.

Sadly price is no guide to quality. The very best coffee I come across is (free) in an office I visit every few weeks. It comes out of one of those fresh bean machines (grinds and dispenses at the push of a button). I had 2 cups this morning and the quality of it just stopped me in my tracks; as good as anything I had in Naples last October.

As an example of how random these things are, the BHS department store cafe (entrance in John Princes St near Oxford Circus) does very good coffee indeed (with the occasional dud) in a very workaday setting. Also worth a stop is Francos at the St James St end of Jermyn Street - where you will pay more than twice as much - but you can at least sit outside and look at Emma Willis's window display of lovely shirts opposite.

The best places I know of to eat - snack or proper meal - are regrettably not open to the public. Commercial enterprises generally seem obliged to step up throughput (perhaps understandably) so if you don't mind 'busy', you're spoilt for choice. I had lunch today (just me, my iphone and my urgent emails, sadly) in Selfridge's Food Hall salt beef sandwich shop. As a very rapid place to eat good food, it's hard to beat. For mass market sandwiches, Pret A Manger is still the reliable option but 'Eat' is catching up fast. Their coffee is well above average too.

The choice of food offering in London is staggering in terms of variety. With the cost of rents in central London, poor operators don't last long. If there's any kind of rule, it must be to just watch where the locals go for their lunch breaks and steer clear of the tourist trail!

Regards

David

Quite by the by... I do love London. I was on the Underground this morning when 4 chaps dressed as Pirates (breeches, swords, tricorn hats, stuffed parrots etc) plus another dressed as the Cookie Monster got into the carriage at Charing Cross. Absolutely no reaction whatsoever from anyone else on the train - noone batted an eyelid or looked up from reading their papers. Left me wondering what would prompt a response. Brown shoes 'in Town' perhaps?

Melcombe wrote:... If there's any kind of rule, it must be to just watch where the locals go for their lunch breaks and steer clear of the tourist trail!
...

So true. And busy is not a reliable indicator of a great meal. I had a great meal in Trastevere, Rome where only four tables were occupied: a tourist, a party of locals, the President with guest, and the requisite security detail.

In contrast, at a local festival celebrating Caribbean culture, I bought food from the vendor with the longest lineup thinking it was the choice of those in the know, only to conclude during my wait that the lineup was due to slow service!

Regards.

C.Lee wrote:

Melcombe wrote:... If there's any kind of rule, it must be to just watch where the locals go for their lunch breaks and steer clear of the tourist trail!
...

So true. And busy is not a reliable indicator of a great meal. I had a great meal in Trastevere, Rome where only four tables were occupied: a tourist, a party of locals, the President with guest, and the requisite security detail.

The best food I've recently was in Naples, in a place near the train station seated next to a gent with a magnificent walrus moustache, one regular (he was there the next day) and a possibly derelict fellow who commented on the television (I think) to no one in particular. The tablecloths were changed between each patron, something that doesn't even happen in the M* restaurants these days. The waiter and owner were the same person and his mother was the cashier. Beautifully fresh seafood, real extra virgin oil, bellissima.

cathach wrote: The best food I've recently was in Naples, in a place near the train station...

Dear cathach

Do share the name and exact location of the place, please . I'm going to visit Naples a few times this spring/early summer for obvious reasons and one can never have too many restaurant recommendations, especially where it concerns fresh fish and seafood and proper olive oil. Living in a landlocked country, there is never enough of either.

Cheers
T

Dear Rick,
for a very informal but heavenly snack to eat with your fingers between stops at tailor and shirtmaker shops (and Marinella, of course), try Friggitoria Vomero a true Neapolitan institution at the corner of Domenico Cimarosa and Via Kerbaker, one block from the funiculare station.

Tutumulut wrote: Do share the name and exact location of the place, please .

Not at all, it is Trattoria Avellinese da Peppino, Via Silvio Spaventa 25 or thereabouts. To quote the Merchant 'But thou, thou meagre lead,. Which rather threaten'st than dost promise aught,' is what you want to go for in Naples. Wander up a side street and see what you find, Chiaia is great for ties from Cappelli and Giorgio and cloth in Piccolo and for a wander, but its a bit too clean and chi-chi. Check out Tessuti Esposito as well on via Renovella off the Corso Umberto for a little known cloth merchant with a great selection of pastel linen for summer as well as linen in woven patterns.

cathach wrote: but it´s a bit too clean and chi-chi.

That´s not the Chiaia I remember, but I guess that clean and chi-chi -like everything else- is relative (or maybe that´s the way the world goes now in every neighborhood with character).
In any case, thank you cathach for the tip on pattern woven linen, which is common for upholstery but very rare for men´s garments. I´ll have to check that out sometime.

hectorm wrote: In any case, thank you cathach for the tip on pattern woven linen, which is common for upholstery but very rare for men´s garments. I´ll have to check that out sometime.

Not at all, their entire range is dedicated to mens' shirting though not suitings. If you're in Roma TeCa Tessuti is worth a look as well http://www.tecatessutiroma.com/ as well as Fratelli Bestetti who do suitings drapery etc. as well.