When Lavish Habit opened it was clear it was perfectly
suited to Balham. What does this mean? I’m not exactly sure but it was a great
mix of clothes, gifts and furniture of the sort that Balhamites would buy. The
café serving Monmouth coffee would appeal to locals who like to discuss
Monmouth as if it’s the only decent coffee in London. The fit out was top draw,
really well done and well thought out, a credit to those that developed this
place.
I’ve been a number of times, and to tell the truth I haven’t
been impressed. WHAT?! I hear you say, what more could they possibly do, great
setting, atmosphere, coffee, food, what else is there? I’ll tell you, and it’s
something that is so often missing from London hospitality – service. I’ve had
two instances of my ordered coffee not turning up without further prompting and
a farcical incident where I stood, waiting to order at the counter, three
people stood behind the counter, chatting amongst themselves, I think it was
one of the owners who eventually appeared from the kitchen to save the day.
More recently I’ve noticed that when bringing drinks to the table the staff
appear terrified that they are going to spill the drink and I’ve come to wonder
whether the staff are not trained or interested in a job in hospitality but
that they’re doing it while waiting for something else. They aren’t outright
rude, just incompetent.
However, that said, I do go back, so it can’t be that bad,
like I say it’s not rude and I almost feel sorry for them.
So that is the context in which I went in to this review.
This trip was with Mrs Spiller and Baby Spiller, I had a
weekday off work so there was plenty of space so we were able to get a nice
table, with space for the pram by the window. The order was two flat whites, a
Bakewell tart/slice and a flapjack.
Let’s start with the service, it was good. Still slightly
nervous staff but, we were seen promptly and the table service was fine. It
probably helped that it was quiet but on this occasion I had no complaints so
that was a great start.
The coffee was good, and to be fair it usually is. I’ve
never had a bad coffee at Lavish Habit and this was another good one. Great
flavour as you would expect from Monmouth, real bite, which I love. The texture
probably could have been better, it wasn’t creamy like you get from people that
really know how to work the milk but that didn’t detract much from my enjoyment.
The slices were both great. Really good, the flapjack was
particularly nice as it wasn’t too buttery or greasy, but still enough butter
for it to be a bit naughty.
So all in all a great visit, I do like this place, the
service annoys me from time to time but a lot of thought has gone in to this
place and I think it will deservedly do very well.
With the name Lavish Habit, I figured the short name could
either be “The Lav” – if the place was no good or “The Habit” if it could
potentially become a habit, the fact that I’ve been there so often I think it’s
clear this is The Habit that is hard to break, even with variable service!
Sorry I didn't take any photos but there are a lot of photos of this place all over the web, it's very photogenic. Some spots to find photos (and some good bogs) include:
Scores
Coffee
Hot: 10/13
Aroma: 11/13
Flavour: 11/13
Texture: 7/13
Presentation: 8/13
General
Service: 8/13
Food: 11/13
Atmosphere: 10/13
Overall 10/13.
Coffee
Hot: 10/13
Aroma: 11/13
Flavour: 11/13
Texture: 7/13
Presentation: 8/13
General
Service: 8/13
Food: 11/13
Atmosphere: 10/13
Overall 10/13.