My favourite of the local caffs back when I lived in the Forest Gate / Stratford area. I had many happy breakfasts here over the years. What's so good about it?
1) The price. In a city where so many bougie middle-class caffs will charge you £8 for breakfast if you give them half a chance, you can get a decent meal in here for less than a fiver. I'll take that any day.
2) The choice. A huge menu with many breakfast and lunch options. It's easy and cheap to sling together a custom breakfast of your own devising. You'll like the milkshakes, especially banana which is the best.
3) The service. Fast, friendly and unobtrusive.
4) The environment. There are always 3 or 3 newspapers lying around for you to enjoy while you eat your breakfast. Sometimes there's a telly showing music videos or Eastenders if it's the Sunday omnibus - but the volume isn't obnoxiously loud and for Easties, it's muted entirely with the subtitles on. There are some weird paintings of the wall of scenes from ancient Egypt which I spent many mornings wondering at. So mystic and mystifying, it was quite special. Generally speaking the inside is large and bright, and you'll never have trouble finding a seat even when it's busy.
All told a great little caff and somewhere I enjoyed going more or less every weekend for a period of a few years.
Any negatives? Well the toilet is a little poky and grimy but you're in a caff in Forest Gate, not the Ritz or one of the aforementioned bougie caffs such as you might find in more gentrified areas. read more