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If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I've visited a fair few speciality coffee shops over the past 16 years. Many of these cafes have been beautifully and thoughtfully designed. But the new branch of  % Arabica  in Spitalfields really takes the cake (canelé, perhaps) with its stunning coffee bar. If you enjoy the works of Yayoi Kusama , you'll probably feel at home here. % Arabica is a Japanese speciality coffee company founded by Kenneth Shoji to celebrate his twin passions of coffee and design. He opened the % Arabica flagship cafe in Kyoto in September 2014 — four months too late for my trip to Japan , unfortunately. I've been to one of the London branches, in Covent Garden, a few times, but I hadn't realised how much the company had expanded: they currently have 150 cafes in 20 countries. I had seen a couple of pictures of the company's newest coffee shop, inside Spitalfields Market , and took advantage of a bank holiday Friday to ch...

While wandering home from Stoke Newington recently, I made a pit stop at  Batch Baby , a unique and welcoming coffee shop in Haggerston that puts filter coffee — including batch brew, of course — front and centre. Located on the ground floor of the Rose Lipman Building, a community space and creativity hub on De Beauvoir Road, Batch Baby occupies a colourful space with a relaxed vibe. There is plenty of seating, from the stools at the bar, to the tables of various sizes by the windows and a bench out front. The décor has a vintage feel, from the comfy leather dining chairs and wooden counter, to the pops of red and orange. The bright red La Marzocco that sits on the counter was the first thing I spotted, but my eye was soon drawn to the three bags of coffee beans sitting on the counter. These were the three coffees available that day as hand-brewed filter coffee (batch brew filter coffee is, of course, not just available but encouraged, but I soon got my heart set on this trio)....

Sometimes a new speciality coffee shop opens that just has it all: warm hospitality, beautiful design, a relaxed atmosphere and, of course, excellent coffee.  Nagare Coffee , which opened in Spitalfields at the end of January, lives up to all of these, and both of my visits so far have been a pleasure. I was disappointed when I found out that Montezuma's chocolate shop at 40 Brushfield Street had closed at the end of last year. I love their chocolate and peanut butter bites and it was the only place I could find them in London. But I'd always thought the small space with its period features was wasted as a shop filled with so many shelves of sweet treats. Nagare makes perfect use of the space with a wooden counter taking up the space on the left-hand side, while the rest of the room houses a few small tables dotted around the fireplace and window seats. Two big windows let in a lot of light even on the greyest of winter days. There are also benches outside offering additional s...

As 2022 draws to a close, it's time for the 12th edition of my annual speciality coffee and food awards , where I share my favourite coffee shops and eateries from among all of those that I visited for the first time this year. Over the past few years, I've tweaked the geographical boundaries of some awards to reflect my travel schedule, which has changed somewhat as a result of COVID. Throughout the year, I visited some fantastic speciality coffee shops and ate some delicious food, so it was hard to pick my favourites. I was lucky enough to travel to  Kenya ,  Uganda  and  Bali  for work, drinking some excellent coffee at the farms and washing stations I visited. I also enjoyed city breaks in New York City (where the  coffee  and  food  were as good as always) and  Athens . And closer to home, I continued eating my way around London (most of my coverage is  on my Instagram ) and  Bristol . Read on to find out which places made...

I've been spending more time in and around Elephant & Castle since I moved house earlier this year and although there are plenty of great eateries in the area, there aren't a lot of speciality coffee options. So, I was pleased to come across a new location of  Old Spike  — the Peckham-based coffee shop and roastery — mere steps from Elephant & Castle Tube on one of my lunchtime walks. I've long been a fan of Old Spike and their commitment to combining great coffee with social enterprise and social impact. As well as their Peckham Rye cafe, they have a coffee bar near Piccadilly Circus, which was formerly a Department of Coffee shop and, before that  Tonic Coffee . Their third coffee shop on Southwark Bridge Road opened up a few months ago. The coffee shop is located on the ground floor of a sleek residential development a block north of the infamous not-quite roundabout. It was a sunny day when I visited and light was streaming into the small cafe. There are limi...