Camden Coffee House, London

Camden Coffee House
30 Camden Road
London NW1 9DP

Phone number 020 7428 9477

Given the high rating of this place, I've been trying for awhile to grab a coffee here, but they shut quite early (last orders around 16:45), so yesterday was the first time I actually managed to step in by 16:30 and order some takeaway coffee.

The people at the counter were really sweet and polite and it looked like they had a lovely garden area downstairs.

When we arrived, they warned us that they would be shutting in 20 minutes, in case we wanted to linger over our coffees. After 4 hours wandering around the warrens of Camden markets, We just needed to sit down for 5-10 minutes and get our caffeine fix before carrying on, so this wasn't a problem.

The reason I haven't given the place a higher rating is
1. The seats were low and slightly uncomfortable. (We sat upstairs) I understand the tighter fit (think economy seats on budget airlines) as their space is limited in a small shop, but they were really low or maybe it's just my bones growing older.

I could ignore this completely as I mostly take my coffee to go and don't bother with sitting down.

However,
2. We ordered 2 iced coffees and my mum got a nice iced latte type coffee, but mine barely had a spot of milk in it. Mums looked and Tasted like it had been well blended, mine looked like a black coffee poured on ice and a spot of milk added to it.
I had to go back and request more milk in my coffee as I couldn't drink it the way it was served.

Unfortunately, we were so hot and tired that mum finished her coffee before I even got up to add more milk to my coffee, so I didn't have the chance to click a comparative picture.

Dad's hot latte was fine. I'm not sure if this was a shop / machine closing time problem, but if I order 2 of the same thing, I do expect them to look and taste similar.

We had a lemon white chocolate muffin and that was good too, but for a coffee shop to not make my coffee right? I really wanted to like this place and was sadly disappointed.

Rating : 2/5

Hofburgstüberl, Vienna

Hofburgstüberl
Hofburg 4
1010 Vienna
Austria

+43 1 5351932

Our cheapest sit down breakfast in Vienna. Thanks to Rick Steeves who recommended this place. It's quiet, a little haven in the midst of the Hofburg palace tourist throngs.

When we entered, I was a little wary as to what this tiny cafe could serve. It looks like one of those many tourist trap cafeterias.

But the young lady at the counter was super efficient and friendly. She had sausages on the boil in various containers under the counter.

We got our order including 2 melange (coffees) in under 5 minutes and were done with breakfast in 20 mins.

Such a change from all the sedately paced coffee houses around town. I do enjoy a leisurely meal, but not when every minute lingering over a meal could have been spent at a sightseeing location, staring at the imperial crowns or a Klimt.

3 breakfast plates and 2 coffees and we had the seating space to ourselves all for the kingly sum of 13.5€ !

Rating : 4.5 / 5