london cafes s/d

If HardKore - the Wimpy on Kingsway.

i have nice memories of the one in the tate modern, and a greasy spoon near blackfriars

It's what the interweb was made for: http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/

a) Formica tables
b) Gigantic urns
c) Large red bottles covered in congealed sauce.

There are several fine places in Bermondsey but I can't remember the names of any of them, apart from Lou Archer's and that's more of a pie & mash shop.

PIE & MASH! Any of the many Manze's mostly SOTR, or of the various Kelly's (with varying initials) in Bethnal Green. My favourite of all is the fabulous Bert's which is in Peckham, just off the Old Kent Road (it's on the 381 route). It has a jellied eels sign in the window which someone should make into a t-shirt pronto. Goddards in Greenwich is pretty good, even if it does pander to the vegetarian tendency. Not sure any of these are especially laptop-friendly.

I'm a big fan of Manze's pie shops, old school - nice.

also the pies at Cambridge football ground are very fine

Waterfall Cafe (boss always gives my son a lollipop; coffee is good), Enjoy Cafe (coffee good although they pile on the chocolate powder..not complaining though; also a secret significance), Best Cafe in Town (man with moustache is cool..so is coffee), A Toca Snack Bar (I look forward to Tuesdays..and Thursdays).

Most of these places will rustle something like that up for you if you ask nicely.

sausage in "cafs" is to be shunned at all costs!!

yes, once and only once, pre gig at Zodiac. The food was gross. And there was this old woman in a beige tea-cosy hat who kept glancing round the cafe and saying "oh my God, what a zoo!"

There's a fantastic caff near Horseferry Road. I can't remember the name anymore, like.

Cumberland sausage with mashed potato and beans appears sometimes on the specials menu at A Toca Snack Bar and is not to be shunned at all.

I tend to prefer Café Med on Kentish Town Road these days. I am approaching the day when they rechristen the Cheese, Onion and Mushroom omelette the Troussé in my honour.

Also a word for Le Petit Prince, tucked off KTR, which is nice if you like French cooking and have a high twee threshold.

: (

Tommy,s tuc in (yes, they use a comma instead of an apostrophe) at the end of our road isn't bad at all too, they do a lovely bacon butty (proper style with pappy white bread that your fingers poke through)

I haven't been for a fry-up in ages :o(

On Gray's Inn Road there is Andrewes, and that fulfils all aesthetic and culinary needs. Top Nosh on Rosebery Avenue/Clerkenwell Road conjoinment has London's best felafel and the world's worst decor. I also like Siddoli's Buttery on Store Street - although it may have had a name change due to generational change in management.

You can get boiled eggs and soldiers at Smiths of Smithfield, and even though it's a bit sceney round there the food is good value and they don't seem to mind lingerers.

Centrally, the Blue Room on Bateman Street might be a bit noisy but prices include table rental, or at least seem to. Also, in the afternoon the ICA bar is dead quiet, just people working on laptops uninterrupted.

Where's that exactly?

tell me of favourites in holloway/archway, camberwell/peckham, or stepney/whitechapel,

The above are all greasy spoons. For a step upmarket, you might try the Peckham Experiment, also on Bellenden Road about 5 minutes walk from Peckham Rye station. I had some delicious kippers there.

The only caff I've been to in Camberwell was the tiny Big Eat, on Camberwell Road just north of the big junction at Camberwell Green. I went there with Starry after looking round the Gala bingo on the last Open House weekend. I think I may have been hung over. It was really good, and the portions were enormous. Happy days.

See post from June 2003 for Pie & Mash recommendations. If you're in the Camberwell / Peckham area, Gareth, you should give me a shout. If you want.

the crumble at goddards in greenwich sounds enticing, i may be in greenwich again soon

seymours in camberwell seems very seasidey, but i havent been in yet, it seemed closed when i went past yesterday

I went to an excellent cafe the other week, but it was only at the Highbury end of Holloway Road - the Paradise Cafe.

Best omelette I've had in ages.

Also, I had lunch at Bar Italia in Soho for the first time ever - I've only ever had takeaway coffee there, but it was lovely to sit at a table outside and watch the world go by.

millenium cafe is quite a favourite amongst the locals. it has very nice wood panelling and they will serve you a moussaka at 11am on a sunday morning if for some reason you feel like ordering it.

where else is good, anyway? someone recommended the photographers' gallery to me, though i haven't tried it yet.

I've been going to Andrewes a lot recently for the comfort-food lunches; they seem to have had an interior refit but the furniture and facade are still the same, and the kitchen is still good. Escalope, mash and peas for £5!

I am pretty spoilt for breakfast - nothing but Smiths of Smithfield or Konstam will do, since I DO NOT get on with budget sausage of any kind, and these places seem to have a minimum quality threshold of giving you a Cumberland at the very least.

SoS' mustard is a wee too fierce for me, but good sausages and nice thick white bread. £3.50 for a sausage sandwich stretches it a bit but no matter.

i found a peruvian cafe, by london bridge station. didn't seem very peruvian though

Red Lion Street and Lamb's Conduit street are lined with good cafes, although my favourite greasy spoon remains the one next to the Bowling Alley in Lewisham.

ech. i work near it. it's ok.

update for 2016 please? i need somewhere quiet, interview-friendly in soho...

went to bistro no.1 last year, that was nice and quiet iirc

that looks like more of a restaurant...

think it functions as either but yeah probably not quite cafe enough for your needs

it's a surprisingly tough question. will put it to my gf who would know better

i like this place Blend up in Haringey.

The cafe in Foyle's? But I don't know when the quiet times are or even if there are any.

See Foyles Cafe used to be fairly quiet but now in the nu-Foyles not so much. Depends at what time/day but its still pretty good.

the Delaunay Counter on the Aldwych is a good bet IMO- not quite Soho but near enough...

yeah that place is the best

foyles is definitely not quiet!

ended up going to a caffe nero that looked fairly empty, minute i started the interview the entire world piled in and started yelling at each other and the coffee machines started drilling away non-stop, the minute i stopped everyone left. fuck cafés imo

or maybe just fuck soho

i once had a v good phd supervision going from one end of the victoria line to the other, highly recommended for the formal exchange of ideas

walthamstow benjamin to ludwig brixtonstein