i used to work as a dispatch rider in london and went to hundreds of cafes and i've seen some of my old faves on your website. i wonder if you can help me find a real gem.... it was a small cafe run by an ex-boxer in his late 50's and had old b&w photos of boxers/fights/promo posters all over the place and i mean from skirting boards to ceilings. the food was good but the character of the place and the people there was awesome. all i can remember is that it was in it's own small building in the greenwich area on a desolate industrial estate. it'd be great to re-visit or see a review cheers and thanks for all that dedicated eating
It may be too far out of the west end for you, but I have a haven of greasy spooned-ness at the end of my road. YORK CAFE on Woolwich Road is clean, friendly and with proper chips. It is even licensed I think. Give it a go!
TJ's Cafe in mortlake sw14 open seven days a weeks, big portions!! cheap. you should definatley visit this place won the "best greasy spoon" in london award 2003
Russell how come we have not seen you at our cafe you are missing a treat. We serve the best all day breakfast in the North West We cater for everyone also we are in the process of taking on the title of the Ace Cafe of the Midlands Regards Lynn & Pete.
May I heartily recommend Sues Cafe in Gillingham Road, Gillingham, Kent (almost opposite the Arriva Bus Depot). Great food, great tea............very good prices for such good quality breakfasts and dinners.
The mess in Hackney is much nicer (and admittedly middle classer) than it's local counterparts (nice sausage rather than pig's bum). Some say it's better than Mario's... Alt for a good proper greasy spoon Dilari's on the corner of Mare Street is pretty good. Packed out every lunchtime and they have a non-smoking side of the room. Finally, if you live near Ealing and you've never been to Starvin' Marvins you're missing out. I was cautiously eating my breakfast with the pancake and maple syrup on one side and the bacon and eggs and hash brown on the other. Then absentmindedly I stabbed a bit of bacon onto the end of my syrupy pancaked-up fork… It's manna from lardarse heaven.
I love yr book and website. I have never commented on one or a blog before as I dont know how to. My son got this space for me. I am trying to get info on my favourite old cafe, The Blue Sky, by corner of Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Rd,London W2, between PAddington and Portobello Rd, which was my home from home from 1974-80.I lived in various squats and flats nearby and hung out with various groovy people in those days.... It closed down a few years ago. I wld love to get photos and the name/address of the lovely Irish waitress and Italian boss.... I have tried the Archives at Westminster City Library but no luck. I am doing a Ceramics degree as a v mature student and want to do an installation recreating a table at it, the light coming thru steamy bright plateglass windows, the smells, food, china,plastic menus, etc etc. I have assembled a load of stuff (tables, chairs etc),but they are not perfect. I wonder if you have any ideas on where I cld borrow/hire perfect stuff in one fell swoop, for a few days in early Jan 07? Most of all I want to get hold of a tape/CD of cafe background noises. Any ideas? Many thanks, Emma
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Not normally my kind of thing, a vegetarian cafe, but this place is irresistible. They've taken the shell of an old cafe and filled it with ancient patinaed bits of second hand stuff. Old wooden table and chairs, trays you might have got in a school canteen...
...and those 70s cups with the plastic sleeves/holders.
All kinds of wood, scented with generations of crumbs.
That condiment area says a lot. No sauces. You're not going to get eggbaconchipsandbeans here.
I wandered into Victoria and found a load of great places. I think it must be due to the unchanging nature of the place. The same kind of people have lived and worked here for years, no real gentrification, not a lot of change. So the cafes can hang on. This is a great example. A huge place. Lovely. Airy. Tiles. Great old features.
And a lovely cup of tea. I'm going to have to come back here.
This is a lovely place. Not an architectural or decorative wonder, but incredibly friendly and welcoming. You can sit for hours and nurse a cup of tea and watch the neighbourhood call in. There's flowers and light and a lovely couple who run the place.
Traffic wardens are a great sign of a good cafe. They know them all, they're always looking for friendly refuge, they appreciate value. Find a traffic warden and you'll find a good place. I'm all for traffic wardens.
A hugely Italian place in the Brunswick Centre. Festooned with all sorts of Italian football stuff. Signed shirts. All that. Strangely few of which I've taken pictures off. And a lovely, hot, cup of tea.
Not inspiring from the outside, but well worth popping in.
Two bottles of brown. Hurrah.
If those chairs could talk. If patina could speak.
The Tors is in a fine tradition of splendidly basic transport cafe populated almost entirely by blokes in dark blue corporate poloshirts and safety gear. Truck drivers, delivery men, workers from Severn Trent. They don't trouble the menu with any fancy stuff, just basic cobs and fry-ups. No chips available or it would be in eggbaconchipsandbeans.
There must be thousands of places like this in London. Italian owned, or Spanish, or Polish, or Thai, or somewhere else. Little local business. Nice food. Sort of generic interiors but always with some strange little twist. Posters for local things. Their own little customs. Their own regular customers. This place isn't remarkble, it's just life-affirmingly ordinary.
I thought I should have a look at Picasso's because Gordon Ramsey raved about it so much. And it is nice. Though it's not really a greasy spoon. Much too bright, clean, shiney and posh for that. But, nevertheless, a great place to sit, have a cuppa and watch the class war in Kensington and Chelsea. Everyone's there, the arrogant euro-trash, the braying aristos, the little rich old ladies and the blokes in dusty polo shirts installing piping next store. And obviously the yuppy scum like me.
