The window seats at the original White Mulberries cafe may have one of the best views of all the coffee shops in London, especially when the yachts in the St Katharine Docks marina glint in the sunshine. London's speciality coffee scene has changed a lot since my 2014 write-up, but the coffee, all-day breakfast and sweet treats at White Mulberries are still great. White Mulberries' second location, in Hay's Galleria in London Bridge, is even closer to my Bermondsey home.

If you were looking for good coffee while in Bankside, you used to have to head to Borough, but the arrival of branches of Caravan and Origin Coffee has filled in a few Southwark specialty coffee gaps. And the latest addition, Saint Nine Coffee, is rather special too.

Somehow, I still haven't made it to Lyle's, the modern British restaurant in Shoreditch, whose high-quality speciality coffee offering has won as many plaudits as the food. Luckily for me, a sister restaurant, Flor, opened up closer to home, in Borough Market, a few months ago. I've now visited twice, experiencing both a light breakfast at the downstairs bar and a lunch in the tiny but beautifully designed upstairs dining room.


In a stuffier establishment, I might have felt out of place showing up for breakfast in my running kit one August morning, but at Flor, the welcome was warm — while the marble counter  that occupies most of the diminutive downstairs was pleasingly cool. There isn't a coffee menu — and there's no filter coffee — but the usual espresso-based drinks are available. They rotate coffee roasters, and on this first visit, the espresso was a honey-processed El Salvador variety roasted by Berlin-based Bonanza Coffee Roasters. I ordered a piccolo, which was immaculately brewed, sweet and well-balanced.


There were a few light bites on the breakfast menu, but I was always going to have the fig and fig-leaf custard pastry, which was, by turns, crisp, gooey, sweet and tart. It was almost too pretty to eat, but needless to say, it did not last long!


I returned last week, taking the opportunity to visit on a rare day off in London. I booked a table in the upstairs dining room, which seats about 20 people. Although there were a few free tables when I climbed up the cast-iron spiral staircase at the back of the restaurant, before long, they were all full.



Once again, I started with a coffee, ordering another piccolo. There was a Ugandan coffee from Assembly in the hopper this time and again, it was very well made. After spending a week in New York where piccolos and cortados tend to be on the longer side, it was good to enjoy a more appropriately petite version.


As for the lunch menu, it included 15 dishes of varying sizes and prices. I knew that I wanted to try the scarlet prawns with yuzu kosho (£18), and that I wanted to save room for a pudding. There were lots of tempting dishes on the menu, including an oxtail muffin (which looked great), but in the end, I went for the purple sprouting broccoli tempura with bergamot (£9). I'm not sure the two dishes went very well together necessarily, but they were both delicious. The prawns were so flavourful with the yuzu kosho adding a potent citrus and chilli kick. The broccoli tempura, meanwhile, was perfectly crisp and very moreish.



For dessert, I ordered the delica pumpkin ice cream, which came with a well filled with macadamia milk and a macadamia cookie (£8) — a clever twist on the classic milk and cookies. It was not a cheap meal (£43 including service), but each item was well-executed and a delight to consume. The service was very good too, even though it was busy.


Flor. 1 Bedale Street, London, SE1 9AL (Tube: London Bridge). Website. Instagram.

For 100+ more of my favourite coffee shops in London, please check out my speciality coffee guide.

A couple of years ago, I set about revisiting some of my 'old favourite' London speciality coffee spots, like Flat White, which I've loved for a decade but which I had never written up properly for my blog. One such favourite — and one of the first Aussie brunch cafés I discovered in London — was Lantana on Fitzrovia's pleasant passageway Charlotte Place. I used to be a regular when I still lived in Marylebone and it featured in my first London coffee shop guide in 2011 (and its less-coffee-centric 2009 predecessor).


Somehow, though, I never ended up writing up a full review but when the café opened another branch — its third — nearer to my current Bermondsey home in London Bridge in late 2017, it was the perfect opportunity to return to Lantana. Conveniently close to Borough Market and the South Bank but far enough away to ensure that it's still possible to get a table (especially if you book), the newest Lantana is located on Southwark Street. There is scaffolding on the outside of the building so the large, glass front windows let in a little less light than usual, but the airy, bright interiors make up for that.



Compared to the Fitzrovia branch, which is better described as 'cosy' and which is usually packed, there's much more space here and the relaxing atmosphere really did transport me back to Melbourne. As I hadn't booked, I was lucky to squeeze into an empty spot a the long, L-shaped bar. I loved funky teal bar stools too. In the main dining area, there are plenty of tables to suit all group sizes.


I was in the market for a breakfasty brunch rather than a lunchy brunch, so I didn't look too closely at the cocktail and wine lists, instead skipping right to the coffee. I started with a piccolo made with Lantana's house blend, currently a Brazil/Colombia/Peru combination that tasted smooth and chocolatey with a little milk.



There weren't any hand-brewed filter coffee options on the menu so I ordered the single origin batch brew filter coffee of the day. This was an Ethiopian Banko Jirimititi from Rotterdam-based Manhattan Coffee Roasters. The tasting notes I read afterwards indicated blueberries and jasmine, but I got more orange and whiskey notes — not dissimilar to the Ethiopian Marmora I tried at Java in Kraków, in fact. So often batch brew ends up disappointing me, making me wish I hadn't ordered it instead of a pourover in a busy coffee shop in a misguided effort to be a more considerate customer. But Lantana's batch brew was very well brewed and the coffee was flavoursome and fragrant. There are currently six filter coffees in their rotation, three from Manhattan and three from Alchemy.



As for the food, it took me a while to digest the extensive weekend brunch menu. I was tempted by the coconut French toast, but I'm really more of a savoury bruncher these days. In the end, in the interests of nostalgia, I ordered my old favourite dish: corn fritters with streaky bacon, spinach, roasted tomatoes, avocado, a poached egg and lemon creme fraiche (at some point in the past nine years, they switched from lime aioli). I've always preferred juicy, flavoursome cherry and plum tomatoes to their larger conspecifics, but the roasted tomatoes here were delicious — very nearly as tasty as those in the very first brunch I had in Melbourne at Code Black, straight off the plane. The fritters were as good as I remembered, the bacon crispy, and the egg perfectly poached.


The service was both friendly and efficient, and although the cafe was full, the atmosphere remained low-key and chilled out. Several tables were engaging in the Lantana Blowout with unlimited Prosecco (£30); there's also a cheaper version with unlimited coffee and juices, which sounds like a challenge to me!

Lantana London Bridge. 44-46 Southwark St, London, SE1 1UN (Tube: Borough or London Bridge). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

You wait an age for a great taco joint to arrive in SE1 and then two come along at once. After my recent visit to Santo Remedio on Tooley Street, on Saturday I finally got to try out El Pastór, a taquería located in a railway arch on Borough Market's Stoney Street.


El Pastór is often busy but they have a very amenable queuing system, whereby you can leave your name and they will text you once you are second in line. There are, of course, a plethora of pubs and bars in and around Borough Market for counting down the minutes until taco time over a pint. When my brother, his wife and our friend arrived just after 12:30 on Saturday lunchtime, however, there was no line and we were ushered straight in to a table at the back of the slender restaurant.



The décor is industrial-chic: exposed-brick walls, metal shelving and pendant lighting, accented with turquoise tables and even some foliage. The tables run along the length of the restaurant and you can also perch at the mezcal bar near the entrance. Our table offered a view of the kitchen and the spit-grilled meat that goes into the tacos al al pastór, which give the restaurant its name.



While we perused the menu, we ordered some cocktails. My frozen margarita (£7.50) was very good; alas, I wasn't quite feeling up to the Negroni al Pastor (£8), which sounded awesome. There are also beers, wines and an extensive and impressive mezcal list.



And so to the food... We ordered a couple of portions of guacamole (£6.50) between the four of us, one with a side of totopos (tortilla chips) and one with chicharrón (light, crispy fried pork belly). I prefer my guac a bit chunkier but it tasted great and I enjoyed both accoutrements.


The tacos are served two to a portion and advised by my brother that one taco twosome might not be enough, we all ordered two pairs. First out of the gate was the tacos al pastór (£6.50), which three of us went for. The juicy marinated pork shoulder combined perfectly with the sharp sweetness of the caramelised pineapple, and it was nice to have a bit of bonus guac on the tacos.


All four of us also ordered the deconstructed carnitas tacos (£7 per person for a minimum of two people to share). Dishes of confit pork, vinegar-pickled pork rind, crumbled chicharrón, salsa, coriander and onion were placed on the table, along with a warming dish of soft corn tortillas. We then got to build our own tacos. Perhaps we were being conservative with our taco loading, but we ended up running out of tortillas before we finished with the fillings, and the wait staff brought us some more. We probably each had three or four tacos. These tasted great and it was fun to construct them ourselves, but I still think the tacos al pastór were my favourites.




With a couple of sides (including some delicious grilled corn-on-the-cob (£4.50) and frijoles charros (£5.50)), and a couple of drinks per person, the bill came to £38 each, including service. This isn't cheap for tacos, but the food was really good and there was more than enough to fill four hungry diners. I certainly didn't have room for the 'Bounty Bar' on the dessert menu, unfortunately. One for next time...

El Pastór. 6–7a Stoney Street, London, SE1 9AA (Tube: London Bridge). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

I didn't get the opportunity to visit Santo Remedio before its original Shoreditch location closed down, so I was delighted to hear that following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the modern Mexican restaurant was back — and much closer to my Bermondsey home. The new restaurant opened a few weeks ago and although it can be difficult to book a table (most tables are reserved for walk-ins but you may wish to consider booking in advance during busy times), my friend and I secured a booking for a weekday evening last week.


Santo Remedio occupies the former site of Magdalen, a family favourite of ours and one of the venues where I celebrated my 30th birthday. Located on Tooley Street, closer to the Tower Bridge end but less than ten minutes' walk from London Bridge station, the restaurant takes up the ground two floors of a red-brick building. Inside, it is surprisingly bright: there are a few tables next to the gorgeous blue-tiled bar in the first room, while the back room is colourful and creatively decorated. From next month, they will serve cocktails and bar snacks in the upstairs cantina.




The menu is concise: there are five types of tacos, as well as guacamole and salsa to start, and three side dishes. There were also several specials, including both larger dishes and smaller bites. The drinks menu included a couple of cocktails — one margarita and one mezcalita (£8.50 and £9.50, respectively) — and several wines, beers and soft drinks. My friend ordered the margarita and I went for the mezcalita — my trip to Oaxaca in 2015 gave me a taste for the agave-based spirit. Santo Remedio's cocktail came with cucumber, parsley, pineapple and jalapeño, a perfect combination of sharp, sweet and smooth flavours.



A little unsure how much food we would need, we began ordering up a storm. We wanted to try the guacamole topped with grasshoppers but unfortunately, the grasshoppers had hopped off; the regular guacamole (£6) was delicious, although the portion was only just enough for two people (in particular, it would have been nice to have a few more corn tortilla chips).


Between us, we then ordered two sets of tacos (carnitas caramelised with orange juice and Coca-Cola from the main menu (£9) and the special soft-shell crab (£12)), a side of elote (grilled corn with butter, lime, smoky mayo and Pecorino cheese; £4.50), and two of the special sides: chicken wings (£5) and barbacoa beef croquetas (£5.50). This turned out to be plenty of food for the two of us, although I was a little disappointed not to have room for the churros for dessert.


Each dish was delicious and bursting with flavour. I ate two-thirds of the pork tacos, which were incredibly flavoursome. I also tried one of the soft-shell crab tacos — not something I would usually order — and it also tasted great. The croquetas were a bit like the nicest variety of beef Wellington I've ever tried and had a melt-in-the-mouth texture. Meanwhile, the elote was perhaps the star of the show; it was so moreish, I could probably have eaten both halves of the portion. If I had to pick a weak item, it would be the chicken wings, but they were still very good and I'm not a big chicken-wing fan anyway (too much effort for too little pay-off).



The service was friendly and efficient. Unprompted, the manager took the guacamole off the bill when we explained that we were disappointed we hadn't been told there were no grasshoppers (we weren't sure if they were so well combined into the guac that our palates couldn't detect them, and so it was only when we saw the bill that we knew we'd been given the regular version), which was a completely unnecessary but thoughtful thing to do.

Although we sampled almost half of the dishes on the menu, I'm keen to return soon to Santo Remedio to try the rest — and to get my fix of the delicious elote. Great Mexican food used to be impossible to find in the London Bridge area and now, with both El Pastor and Santo Remedio, we locals are spoiled for choice.

Santo Remedio. 152 Tooley Street, London, SE1 2TU (Tube: London Bridge). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Since Caravan opened its second site five years ago in Granary Square, a five-minute walk from my desk, I've regularly enjoyed breakfasts, lunches, dinners and especially coffee breaks there. But as I'm rarely in King's Cross at the weekend, I've never been for brunch. When Caravan opened its third branch in Bankside (a little closer to home) last year, I looked forward to righting this wrong but it took me longer than I'd hoped.


I finally took the opportunity to visit Caravan Bankside on a rare bank holiday weekend in London. The restaurant occupies a large, industrial-chic space on Great Guildford Street, just south of the Tate Modern and the Globe, and just around the corner from one of my favourite London signs.


The restaurant is beautifully designed with plenty of seating, from the tables with comfortable bench seating that traverse the main dining room, smaller tables next to the huge warehouse-style windows that let the sun stream in, and bar stools for perching (or if it's busy and you haven't booked a table). It wasn't too busy when I arrived, a little bit before peak brunch hours and I took a table in the centre. All Saints' Pure Shores was playing on the sound system and there was a fun but relaxed ambiance.




Before I got to grips with the extensive brunch menu, I asked for the coffee menu, but this in itself required quite some consideration. There were three espressos on offer (house, guest and decaf) and seven single-origin filter coffees, available brewed through the Aeropress or Kalita Wave, all roasted in Caravan's King's Cross HQ. I've been on a bit of an Ethiopian coffee kick lately (I blame the unseasonably warm weather in London, which has since dissipated) and the Deri Kochoha washed coffee sounded lovely, so I ordered it as a Kalita pourover.


The coffee didn't disappoint — Caravan coffee rarely does. The gorgeous floral and black-tea notes of the Deri Kochoha came through beautifully, particularly as the coffee cooled. The presentation was as spot-on as always too with a rather lovely ceramic cup and the usual scientific flask serving as a carafe.



After flipping and flopping among several of the brunch menu options, I eventually settled on the avocado toast with a poached egg. So far, so standard...except that my subconscious had other plans and I ended up ordering my second choice, the red quinoa and buckwheat grain bowl with sweet potato, tenderstem broccoli and soft-boiled egg in a miso-tahini dressing (£10). And my accidental order turned out to be a great success. (I'm sure the avocado toast would also have been great but even I like to diversify my brunch portfolio at times.) Combining various textures and flavours, the grain bowl was delicious and filling, keeping my hunger at bay until afternoon brunch at least. The toasts and granola/yoghurt bowls are excellent smaller dishes if your appetite is still waking up.


The service was very good too — the wait staff were all friendly, welcoming and efficient. Meanwhile, Caravan will soon open its fourth restaurant at the Bloomberg Arcade in the City. I hope it won't take me another year to check out that one!

Caravan Bankside. 30 Great Guildford Street, London, SE1 0HS (Tube: Borough). Website. Twitter. Instagram.