Last updated on October 2nd, 2026
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From minimalist Japanese-inspired coffee shops to trend-setting roasteries and cafés housed in old Victorian loos, here are some of the best coffee shops in London to keep you caffeinated on your trip.
London has no shortage of incredible coffee shops; the main problem might actually be that there are too many, making it hard to know where to go. Luckily, I got to spend almost three months drinking my way through the city looking for my favorite ones.
On this coffee guide, you’ll find the coffee shops I visited that I think are worth adding to your London itinerary, divided by neighborhood for easier navigation. That way you can plan your days geographically and then find the coffee shop that is closer to you.
Most of these shops are on the list because of the coffee, with only a few exceptions where you’ll see it’s more about the experience.
So, after way too many coffees, here are the London cafés I’d actually recommend.
⭐️ Visiting London for the first time? Check out my ultimate London bucket list to make sure you’re not missing any of the quintessential things to do in the city.
The Best Coffee Shops in London You Need to Visit
Best coffee shops in London at a glance
| Coffee shop | Area | Why visit |
|---|---|---|
| Lift Coffee | Notting Hill | Great coffee + Japanese-inspired vibe |
| Guilliam Coffee | Kensington + multiple | Consistent coffee + seating |
| Monmouth Coffee | Covent Garden | London coffee institution |
| WatchHouse | Covent Garden + multiple | Best all-around option |
| Kiss the Hippo | Fitzrovia + multiple | Excellent coffee + cozy space |
| Allpress Espresso | Shoreditch | Great coffee for picky drinkers |
| The Gentlemen Baristas | London Bridge | Perfect coffee stop near Borough Market |
Best coffee shops in Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area you’ll inevitably visit during your trip to London, so it will be a big relief for you to know that the area has some great coffee options to fuel your day of exploring the colorful streets.
Amoret Coffee Portobello: Spacious coffee shop in Notting Hill
- Best for: Working or relaxing over coffee in Notting Hill
A great way to start or end your day exploring Notting Hill (depending on if you go from north to south or vice versa) is by having a tasty flat white at Amoret Coffee.
Amoret is a coffee shop you can’t miss while in the area. Seriously, the outside of the shop is so beautifully decorated that you’ll surely stop to look at it before you realize this is your coffee shop stop of the day.
This Portobello Road coffee shop offers lots of seating space on its second floor, wifi, and a delicious flat white—all of my favorite things a coffee shop could have.
A good spot to take a rest and enjoy an afternoon pick-me-up while being out and about in Notting Hill.
Hermanos Colombian Coffee: Coffee shop in the heart of Portobello Road
- Best for: Convenient coffee stop while exploring Portobello Road
Hermanos Colombian coffee shop blends with its colorful environment in the heart of Portobello Road, with its eye-catching pink and red exterior.
The charming-looking coffee shop serves, as the name suggests, Colombian coffee. I would not consider their coffee outstanding—the milk was too hot and fell flat—but it gets the job done.
I’m mostly adding this location to this list because of its convenient location in the heart of Portobello Road Market, making it a great pit stop while browsing the stands.
Lift Coffee: Minimalist coffee shop
- Best for: Excellent coffee and minimalist vibes
Leaving the best for last in, or around, Notting Hill—and one of my favorite coffee shops in London—Lift Coffee.
Lift Coffee is a minimalist-style coffee shop that reminds me of modern Japanese cafes all over Tokyo, serving excellent coffee time after time—we love a consistent coffee shop!
Besides serving perfectly prepared coffee, this unique London coffee shop also offers Wi-Fi, some tables to work from on the basement floor, and some bar seats on the ground floor.
PS: Try their almond croissants; they are amazing!
Best coffee shops in Kensington
Kensington is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful areas in London, lined with gorgeous Victorian-style houses, lush gated parks, and quiet residential tree-lined streets. Walking through its quaint streets makes you feel like you have stepped into any movie ever filmed in London.
Luckily, there are also some very good options for coffee if you’re out and about exploring this cute area of London, or if you’re on your way to one of the museums in the vicinity.
Hjem Kensington: Cozy Danish cafe
- Best for: A cozy coffee and cardamom bun before a museum visit
Chances are that if you’re not actively looking for this cute London coffee shop, you’ll never find it.
Tucked away in the residential streets of Kensington, Hjem is a cozy Danish coffee shop packed with locals on the weekends hoping to get their hands on their delicious cardamom buns and soft-tasting lattes.
A cute spot to visit if you’re in the area and want to enjoy a coffee in a cozy atmosphere before continuing your trip to the Natural History Museum.
Be warned; there is no wifi.
Guillam Coffee House: Great specialty coffee shop in the heart of Kensington
- Best for: Consistently good coffee and plenty of seating
Guillam Coffee House is without a doubt my most visited coffee shop in London. Mostly because it was exactly on my way to work, but most importantly, because they are super consistent with their coffee.
They offer a variety of pastries, Wi-Fi, lots of seating space in the back of the shop, and they serve delicious brunch on weekends.
I’m normally a natural latte or flat white kinda girly, but on early work days, I started ordering their Spanish Latte and got hooked.
A Spanish latte has a touch of condensed milk, which gave me that little bit of sugar kick I needed to wake up—it’s so good!
Guillam Coffee also has two other locations around: one in Notting Hill and one in Mayfair. So make sure to stop by one of these if you need a pick-me-up.
Best coffee shops in Covent Garden
Covent Garden is an area where you’ll inevitably end up at one point or another.
Whether you are shopping, going for dinner, or on your way to a musical, Covent Garden is the heart of the city. This is why this buzzing neighborhood is home to many incredible coffee shops ready to fuel Londoners and tourists alike.
% Arabica London: Famous Japanese specialty coffee chain
- Best for: Japanese-style coffee and matcha on the go
After living in Japan for nine months, I became obsessed with % Arabica, an internationally beloved Japanese specialty coffee chain offering strong-tasting lattes and frothy matchas.
I was super excited to see there are a few of them in London, with my most-visited one being very conveniently located in Covent Garden, the perfect spot to caffeinate while browsing the shops.
Sadly, there’s not much seating space, so it’s more of a grab-and-go, but it gets the job done if you’re anyway on the move.
Watch House Covent Garden: Best all-around London coffee shop
- Best for: Great coffee, brunch, and a comfortable space to sit
This stylish coffee shop chain has more locations in the city that you’ll be able to visit during your trip to London. And while chains tend to lose their quality or charm as they expand, this is the only one I have seen do it so elegantly.
Watch House has eighteen different cafes in London, and all of them have a similar style while remaining unique.
The style is contemporary yet cozy, the coffee is delicious, the locations offer plenty of seating space, and they have an extensive food menu full of brunch classics as well as a variety of pastries. Basically, it has it all.
There are plenty of locations to choose from, but the Covent Garden location is the perfect pit stop if you need caffeine and a place to rest while exploring the area.
Monmouth Coffee Company: A British icon
- Best for: Classic London coffee experience
Having started roasting their coffee in their Covent Garden location in 1978, Monmouth Coffee is considered to have been an important part of the specialty coffee movement in England.
This is why it comes as no surprise that locals and tourists alike happily line up at their beautiful Covent Garden location, waiting to get a taste of their carefully brewed coffee or their perfectly frothed flat white.
The coffee here is excellent, the pastries are delicious—I love their financiers. The space is cozy, especially if you manage to get an indoor booth; if not, there are a few outdoor tables, perfect for people-watching on warmer days.
This is a coffee shop I always visit whenever I’m in town.
Best coffee shops in Fitzrovia
I barely spent time in Fitzrovia while in London, but when looking at the pins on my maps, I wish I had visited more. This neighborhood is PACKED with specialty coffee shops. Like, back-to-back-to-back.
And while I didn’t manage to visit all of them, I did find some of the quirkiest coffee shops in London in this area.
Archetype Coffee: Cool-looking, friendly cafe
- Best for: A quick coffee with friendly neighborhood vibes
Archetype Coffee is a cool-looking coffee shop with an all-black facade, a minimalist logo on the front, and a super high score on Maps.
And while the coffee was good—they use Allpress coffee—I believe the reviews come from the warm, friendly staff that truly makes you feel like you stepped into someone’s living room and the host is offering you coffee. It’s so cute!
The space is snug with limited seating, but it’s definitely a cute spot to have a quick coffee before moving on with your day.
Attendant Coffee Roasters: The quirkiest coffee shop in London
- Best for: London’s quirkiest coffee shop experience
The Attendant Coffee Roasters in Fitzrovia has to be one of the most unique coffee shops in London, or in the world.
Housed inside an old Victorian man’s loo, this might not be the coffee shop for the germophobic, not that the place is dirty at all; I’m sure it has been thoroughly sanitized.
To enter, you go down a set of stairs as if going to a metro station, and then you’re welcomed by a water tank on the wall and a bar with stools where there used to be men’s urinals. You can still see the ceramic shape of them.
Besides being a unique coffee shop experience, the coffee was decent, and they also served some brunch options, like the tasty salmon bagel we had.
Kiss The Hippo Coffee: Cozy and minimalist coffee shop with great coffee
- Best for: Consistently excellent coffee in a cozy setting
First of all, I just love the name of this coffee shop: Kiss the Hippo. I find it so random and so cute, and second of all, I LOVE their coffee.
This is another of those rare gems where the coffee is consistently well-prepared: at the perfect temperature. Their espresso house blend is super tasty, and the vibe is very cozy—emphasized by mostly wood interiors, but very much on a chic minimalist side.
It’s a great spot to sit down with a perfect cup of coffee to take a break from all that walking around London. The only con is that there is no wifi in most locations.
Best coffee shops in Shoreditch
If you’re heading to East London to explore the cool and edgy vibe of the neighborhood, you’ll be happy to know one of my favorite coffee shops in London is in this area to keep you fueled while art street hunting or vintage shopping.
Allpress Espresso: Excellent coffee
- Best for: Excellent coffee for picky coffee drinkers
Allpress Espresso is a favorite of mine from Tokyo, and it’s good to see that Allpress in London takes their barista training as seriously as the Allpress coffee shops in Japan—I’m looking at you, %Arabica.
We made our way to Shoreditch to visit the area, but I went mostly to try this coffee, and it did not disappoint.
The coffee was simply perfect, with a flavorful espresso and well prepared; perfect temperature, perfect amount of milk froth. The location is small, with limited seating and only a few tables outside in good weather.
Definitely one of the best coffee shops in London if you’re a picky coffee drinker like me.
Best coffee shop around London Bridge
Not to be confused with the iconic-looking Tower Bridge, London Bridge is the humbler-looking bridge close to Borough Market. Where you should definitely end up at one point in your trip to try some of the many tasty treats you can find at the market.
The Gentlemen Baristas: Snug coffee shop by Borough Market
- Best for: A quick coffee to take to Borough Market
Just a few steps away from Borough Market, you’ll find the adorable The Gentlemen Baristas.
This is a small coffee shop serving perfectly frothed lattes and offering a variety of pastries. The seating is very limited, with only a couple of benches outside, but it’s the perfect location to grab a drink to-go and head out to explore the market.
Final thoughts on the best coffee shops in London
With an immense list of great coffee shops to choose from, these are some of the best coffee shops in London that I visited during my three months living here. I omitted some that I don’t think deserve a mention.
While there are always new coffee shops opening left and right, I think that if you manage to visit a few of these, you’ll be in good hands when it comes to tasting the specialty coffee scene in London.
My unmissable ones would be Kiss the Hippo, Watch House, and Monmouth Coffee, and if you feel like going a little bit off the beaten path definetly stop by Lift.
Which London coffee shop are you most looking forward to visiting during your trip? Let us know in the comments.
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Your future decaffeinated self will thank you!