Milk - Take 1

Right so I never got to Le Petit Bistro in time to do a review but made sure I got to its replacement early. The reason I've titled this blog Milk - Take 1 is that I will give them another chance. Fact is this first attempt was poor. The coffee (flat white and espresso) was bad and the cake wasn't really fit to be sold - it tasted of baking soda.

The cake was hopefully just a bad batch which maybe hadn't been taste tested but it was quite foul.

The coffee had no kick, even Mrs Spiller who doesn't drink much coffee didn't get much flavour in the coffee.

The service was fine, the location is great, I really hope they do well, but I hope they do well and sort out their coffee and cake situation.

One of the reasons we want to go back (other than because we feel they deserve a second chance as they had only been open a few days) is that their cooked breakfasts looked great. We don't normally go in for the greasy breakfast, purely because it's greasy. But the Milk breakfast looked appealing, the food looked fresh and cooked well, not deep fried, there didn't look to be too much grease but plenty of flavour.

So that's all I'll say at this stage, I will give them scores but when we go back I reserve my right to change those scores on the basis that maybe they were having some teething problems.

For the record the order was:
Single espresso
Flat white
Grapefruit, pistachio and rosewater cake

Scores:
Coffee
Hot: 9/13
Aroma: 6/13
Flavour: 4/13
Texture: 9/13
Presentation: 8/13

General
Service: 8/13
Food: 2/13
Atmosphere: 10/13

Overall 6/13.

As an indication of how disappointed we were we ended up going to Dee Light bakery for a flat white and lamington to make us feel better.

I really hope this place does well, I would encourage people to try it out, despite our bad experience, because it's a top location, I think they've got a good vibe and are trying to do something good. Plus I think Hildreth St. needs places like this if it is to become a hub for food and drink in Balham (which in my view is what is should be).

I see swishjunction are reviewing Milk this week so please keep an eye out for their review.

Trinity Stores - An Old Fav

It's been a few weeks since we visited Trinity Stores for this review so sorry it's taken so long to get around to it. Fortunately I have a couple of notes and photos so I haven't forgotten anything.

First of all, I really like Trinity Stores. It has a nice vibe through a well put together food offering and a fit out that matches the menu perfectly. I'm not quite sure how to describe it - I keep thinking 'quaint' but I don't quite think that's the right adjective and don't think it does it justice.

I understant they're under new management, however that doesn't seem to have affected the quality of the place too much - which is a good thing.
Anyway, this place is a favourite for a number of reasons - it's location, it's atmosphere and it's food. It hasn't really got coffee or service down pat yet but they're not too bad.

The order was:
Cappuccino
Espresso
Victoria sponge
Carrot cake

The espresso was good, they're probably not using kick ass beans so I expect the espresso was as good as you could get given the inputs.

The cappuccino, served in a big mug was ok but didn't really have much kick to it. Or no 'teeth' as I saw someone describe a coffee recently. The froth was done quite well, relatively firm but generally speaking not a strong contender. I suspect it's a number of factors that differentiate this from a milk espresso based drink that you would get from the likes of George or Dee Light. Anyway, I don't want to beat up Trinity Stores on their coffee, I've had very good coffee here before, just not on this occassion. there are many other really good things about this place.

The best thing I would say for me is that it does the best Victoria sponge I've ever come across, and today's slice didn't disappoint. The carrot cake was good too.

They tend to have good tunes on at Trinity Stores and I love the vibe of the place, it's a brilliant people watching spot too.

The service gets to me a bit here sometimes, I would say ambivalence is how I would describe it, when you get there it sometimes seems that no one wants to serve you, in fact while we were having our cake and coffee the counter was unattended for a couple of minutes with a couple of punters politely waiting for someone to appear, eventually they did, although they didn't seem to realise their faux pas. Once you have their attention they're generally kind and efficient so not a major gripe.

While not part of this trip Mrs Spiller is a big fan of their salad plate for lunch, and I'm partial to their Scotch eggs.

Scores:
Coffee
Hot: 9/13
Aroma: 7/13
Flavour: 7/13 
Texture: 10/13
Presentation: 8/13

General
Service: 7/13
Food: 12/13
Atmosphere: 12/13

Overall 8/13.

The lowish overall score is based on the coffee, in my view this isn't the place to go for a kick ass coffee with teeth, it is a place to go for a treat though and we will be back again and again for treats.

Coffee Me Up - Don't leave us George

I was up at 5am this morning with Baby Spiller, so when I took him for a walk at a more civilised hour (about 9), I felt I'd earned a good coffee, and I had my mind set on just one place. Coffee Me Up is the business name but George is the man.

Photo of George from his website

I'm not a regular visitor to George, normally when I'm out for a coffee I'm also after some cake and a sit down, maybe read the paper. But I do know from friends and from the couple of coffees I'd had from him that George is special and so is his coffee.

Let's start with the coffee. George uses a hand pulled lever machine (not sure what the tecnhical term is), if you are having trouble imagining what this is it's a bit like one of these. I'm not sure about the details of these machines, does it make a better shot? I'm not sure but it adds so much to the experience, which does make a difference to me.

 George seems to genuinely care about the coffee he makes. I'd ordered a flat white and you can see he is really making sure the espresso shot is good. Then he moves on to the milk, he is like a craftsman who takes great pride in his work. Creating smooth velvety milk which he carefully pours over the shot.

And the result - delicious. In all honesty I do prefer a slightly sharper tasting coffee but this was still one of the best you could get. The flavour was strong, the texture velvety all the way to the end. And what I love about a good coffee is even once you've finished drinking it you can still hold the flavour in your mouth and relive the taste with every breath you take... almost makes me want to break into song...

So the coffee was brilliant.

George is a gentleman too, so comfortable making conversation as he goes about his business. He's clearly got style but isn't too cool for school. I asked him if it is true that he's leaving and yes, he is moving home to Brazil in a couple of months and is looking forward to being back with his family and friends in Brazil. Balham will really miss George. He is a real character, a bit of a celeb really. Whenever I see him in town I always say to Mrs Spiller, "oooh I saw George today at Sainsbury's" or whatever, as if I'd seen some big name celeb.

Anyway, I better tone it down or I'll find myself with a restraining order!

Right, the scores:
Coffee
Hot: 10/13
Aroma: 10/13
Flavour: 11/13  (espresso good, cap average)
Texture: 12/13
Presentation: 9/13

General
Service: 12/13
Food: n/a/13
Atmosphere: 12/13 (it might be on a busy intersection but I felt special being there, you kind of want to show off that you're there getting an amazing coffee from George)

Overall 12/13.

It will be a shame when George leaves. I'm not sure if we might get someone new? Big shoes to fill but I hope someone gives it a go. I will be making sure I go back and see George a couple of times before he leaves.