Sunday 24 February 2013

Boyce da Roca - it rocks

I've been to this place twice now, first visit was ok, second very good.

This place is a bit hipster, which sometimes comes with nonchalant service but this place managed not to fall completely in to that trap.

First thing first, the coffee is very good. A proper flat white, flavour spot on, maybe could have been hotter, but that might have risked damaging the flavour. Milk texture was good. An all round strong performer

I had piece of banana cake/loaf which was yum. Baby Spiller got most of that though.


Gooooooooooood


A couple of the nice touches included water bottles and glasses at all tables, some kids books and toys in the back room, local art on the walls and staff offering to turn on the heater in the back room for me.

There food menu looks good too, some great looking sandwiches on big bread.

One of the things that does bug me about this place is the staff that stand right outside the door smoking, not a welcoming sight. Also, there were times that the staff seemed a bit too interested in catching up on each others antics from the night before.

This place would do reasonably well on a baby friendly scale as there is a decent amount of room  to get a buggy through and as mentioned some toys and books around. I don't think the staff are too fussed about having babies around but they don't make it difficult.


Stuff for the kids

 
The big table, some of the local artwork on the wall, sorry it's a bit fuzzy.

I like this place and will be back. I'd like to give their food a try. They do supper clubs from time to time for those of you without kids who can do such things.

This place would fit well in all sorts of trendy parts of London, a testament to the changes happening in Streatham. Tooting and Streatham appear to be in a battle to the death for the next best thing in SW London, it's great to be a part of it.
 

Gone are the days of ready the paper with a coffee, Sammy the Snail was a pretty good read though.

You can check these guys out on Facebook and Twitter.

Scores:

Coffee
Hot: 9/13
Aroma: 10/13
Flavour: 11/13
Texture: 10/13
Presentation: 9/13

General
Service: 9/13
Food: 9/13
Atmosphere: 9/13


Overall 10/13


Saturday 23 February 2013

Cafe Parisien - got there in the end

Cafe Parisien was one of the cafes I didn't get around to visiting in 2012, I finally got there last weekend.

It was a bit of a chance visit, I wasn't intending on going but had a little time to kill in the area so Baby Spiller and I popped in for a cappuccino.

The cafe isn't anything special, not much more than a greasy spoon although there did look to be a few nice looking salads in the cabinet.

The coffee was as expected. Hot, burnt, strong but bitter flavour. Milk texture was good, better than expected. The coffee did the trick, wouldn't be a preferred choice but then if you're looking for high quality coffee you probably wouldn't be coming here.



The staff were nice and service was good. There appeared to be a few regulars there having their Saturday morning full English and I think this place would be good for that kind of thing.

Anyway, not much more to say really.

Scores:

Coffee
Hot: 10/13
Aroma: 7/13
Flavour: 6/13
Texture: 11/13
Presentation: 10/13

General
Service: 10/13
Food: na/13
Atmosphere: 7/13


Overall 7/13



Monday 11 February 2013

Tota - totally

Tota was a highly anticipated, heavily hyped addition to the Tooting scene.

I really enjoyed the build up, it was great fun to see the development of this place and the excitement build with Tooting residents.

There is of course always a risk with such a build up the expectations are raised and possibly not met.

Before I had a chance to visit Tota myself, I had a report from someone whose opinion I trust who had been to Tota. Their experience was bad, amongst the worst dining experiences they have had. I'm not going to go in to detail, I wasn't there but rest assured those two friends will not be visiting Tota again.

This increased my curiosity so the next day I went in to grab a takeaway coffee. I picked up an almond croissant as well. I was impressed with the fit out, the staff were friendly and the food looked good. First problem was no bags for a take away croissant, they offered a plastic bag but that's not a great look, I'm not that precious though, and let's face it, I was going to stuff the croissant in my face as soon as I was out the door.

The next problem was the coffee, it was weak. That's all, but that's a big deal for me.

My first visit didn't put me off though, I was keen to see if things would improve.

Next visit included a sandwich (halloumi and roast vege - yum) and a smoothie (yum), Mrs Spiller had a flat white which unfortunately was weak.

This place has so much going for it that I took the unusual step of dropping Tota a line with my feedback on the coffee, they responded.

My next visit was just for coffee, everything else about this place had impressed me by this stage and on my third visit the coffee did too. I was so relieved and pleased for Tota.

My only photo comes from this visit. I highly recommend you read ColPorter's blog about the fit out and to see more of the interior of Tota.


I recently visited Tota again. A difference this time being we went at a peak time, they were busy, I was interested to see if being busy was going to challenge the quality of the service. It did not, we received very friendly, accommodating, attentive service and the food was great. Mrs Spiller declared half way through her meal that Tota was her new favourite place. She had bacon buttie (simple but good and reasonably priced) with chai latte (one of the best around). I had eggs Florentine (very tasty, egg slightly over done).

We finished off with delicious carrot cake and a flat white each. Oh dear, the flat whites were terrible. They were weak white americano's at best. It was a real shame but I guess we have to accept this is a restaurant first and foremost and perhaps our coffee expectations are too high.

That said, we really like this place. We're more likely to stick to chai lattes in the future. There is so much to like about this place, I'm not going to dwell on the negative. However, when it comes to the scores on this blog it is so much about the coffee, so without further adieu...

I am basing these scores on our most recent visit which was the visit I intended to use for this review.

Scores:

Coffee
Hot: 10/13
Aroma: 7/13
Flavour: 6/13
Texture: 3/13
Presentation: 3/13

General
Service: 11/13
Food: 11/13
Atmosphere: 12/13


Overall 7/13 (a tricky one, the coffee has really let Tota down. I suspect on a good day the score could be much higher)




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