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Outside  Over Under Coffee 's Ladbroke Grove cafe, there's an A-board that reads 'best in the west'. Indeed, the Antipodean speciality coffee company has other locations in Earl's Court, West Brompton and Wandsworth, all a little far west for me even now I have two wheels at my disposal. And it was on two wheels that I made it to Ladbroke Grove on Sunday morning, despite the intermittently inclement weather. It wasn't my first Over Under experience; I visited the location in Soho's Ham Yard  a number of times before it closed, and have had the newest cafe on my radar for some time. I arrived at the Ladbroke Grove cafe just after 10 am, hoping to beat the mid-morning brunch rush. Spotting the pink signage across the road, I hopped off my Brompton, folded it up and was able to slide it in next to one of the free tables inside, glad to shelter from the rain. The slender cafe has an up-lit counter near the door, which faces a pink sofa, and behind which are a ha...

While I was back in Oxford for the weekend, I got to check out New Ground Coffee , a new-to-me coffee shop and roastery based two miles east of the city centre in Headington, not too far from the shark . This roastery opened about a year ago, although founders Joel and Dickon have been roasting for longer, but having missed their Selfridges pop-up shop , I found out about New Ground via  Tom . The roastery is based in a small warehouse set back from Windmill Road, near the junction with London Road, Headington's main drag. It's a beautiful space inside, with high ceilings, lots of light and minimalist interiors. The long wooden counter runs along one wall with a few bench-style seats opposite. At the back, there are a couple of tables just in front of the roaster itself. New Ground aims to combine a high-quality coffee experience with social responsibility. They have a selection of coffees, mainly sourced from small farms, that changes seasonally, and they offer training and j...

I grew up in a small, quiet village east of Oxford, where my parents still live. Up over the aptly named Ladder Hill is Wheatley, a larger village that has a few more shops, pubs and cafes. Among these is a speciality coffee shop with the excellent name of  Bruin Café , which my parents told me about some months ago. And I finally managed to visit while I was with my parents at the weekend. I decided to run to Bruin from my parents' house on Saturday morning, a steep two-mile journey. The cosy café is located on the High Street, just across the road from a stretch of shops including the Cornfield Bakery, which has been there since I was very small. Inside, there are a few small tables and a pair of armchairs in the window, all with appropriate distancing and occupied by regulars during my morning visit. There are also some outdoor seats just next door in front of the Merry Bells, the village hall in which, long ago, I attended Brownies meetings and gymnastics practice, and gav...

UPDATE. I was very sad to hear that as of spring 2022, BUSI has closed. They do hope to return in some form in another location in the not-too-distant future. If anything was going to cut through the gloom of another grey and rainy Saturday in London, the pastel-hued design and thoughtful speciality coffee offering of BUSI  stood a very good chance. The high-concept speciality coffee shop opened up in the summer — I heard about it thanks to Amelia's beautiful photos — on Great Portland Street, just north of Oxford Circus, and combines the respective passions for design and coffee of owners Anna and Emil . The name BUSI is the couple's term of endearment for each other, and in a 2020 world where joy can sometimes feel in short supply, it's hard not to warm to this philosophy. BUSI's lavender exteriors stand out from the other shopfronts on the street, as does the colourful and rather baroque window display. There's a small step up from the pavement into the cafe, wh...