By far my favourite coffee shop in London. Great place for doing work on a laptop and great atmosphere.
Decor/Atmosphere
Mix of big, comfy leather sofas, tables and small tables obviously designed for laptop use, plus one small stool area by a window. All walls have great amounts of plugs, so you'll almost certainly have a place to plug your laptop in.
Amazing varied filament lights on ropes, I liked them so much I purchased similar ones for my flat. Reminds me of Berlin where almost all the coffee shops use this type of light bulb.
Music played is typically electronic, often without singing - obviously chosen to not interfere with conversation while still providing background music with a cool vibe. Occasionally other music - nice to hear Heaven 17 played the other day!
The toilet here is weird. Nothing wrong with it, but there's two toilets in the same bathroom (no separate, but in the same room), and the walls are decorated with My Little Ponies getting up to all kinds of vices then spewing rainbows.
Overall the place feels very relaxed, with a wide variety of people coming in (students, hipsters, office workers, location-independent freelancers, local residents from Barbican/Golden Lane).
Wifi and Work-ability
Wifi is fast even with others using it. You need to connect using these codes you have to ask for when making a purchase, they last for an hour. Some baristas will hand you several without asking, never tried asking for more than one. If you're on Three there's great service here so tethering is also an option, although it's not quite as fast as using the Fix wifi. Generally people are good at keeping an eye on each others possessions if you ask them, so you don't need to pack up every hour to buy a drink then re-set up. There's a large amount of plug sockets so you won't run out of power. Comfort wise, the specific laptop tables aren't the best as you don't have a back rest - I prefer using the sofas or the window seats. There's also people on laptops which is a great sign, and the baristas don't seem to mind people sticking around for hours - although be good and keep buying coffees or if you're too caffeinated, flavoured teas or soft drinks.
Coffee and Drinks
The blend changes every so often - the current blend really suits my taste in coffee, but the previous blend wasn't quite as good. They have a good range of iced drinks that are more reasonably priced than most London shops that seem to place a hefty premium on iced varieties. The iced American is the same price as the hot variety for instance. They have an OK range of syrups (about 5 or 6 I think) and they can do Mochas in both black and white (they're ok, but no where near as sweet as the Germans make them sadly).
There's an ok selection of soft drinks such as whole earth colas, but they're a little expensive - £1.50 for a can. They'd be better off getting glass ones such as Fritz Cola or Dalston Cola. The tea selection seems ok, the berry tea is the only one I've tried but it's better than most.
Food
There's a selection of pastries, salads and sandwiches. I've tried a few sandwiches (toasted) and they're all pretty good. The goats cheese one is by far the best though. Sadly they often seem to run out of sandwiches after the mid-day rush, although sometimes they appear in late afternoon.
Overall
Best coffee shop I've found here so far. It's also nearby other great coffee shops if you fancy a change (Timber yard for instance is just up the road, not quite as good but a change is as good as a rest). There's a second Fix in Shoreditch but it lacks the relaxed atmosphere and sofas, plus it has restrictions of where you can use laptops. I hope they open a third store more like the Whitecross Street one elsewhere. Would also be good if they opened later, but I can see why they don't at this location as there's no much evening passing trade. read more
