Coffee shops · 1 min readNew coffee shops in London: how to find the good ones
New openings are the most interesting and least reliable coffee in any city. Here is how to read one before you queue.
London gains and loses coffee shops constantly. A new opening is worth a visit when it signals something — a roaster expanding, an experienced barista going out on their own — and worth skipping when it is a fit-out with an espresso machine in it.
The openings worth paying attention to
- A roaster opening its own site. The coffee will be as fresh as it ever gets and the staff will know it well.
- An established head barista opening independently — usually the best coffee-to-price ratio in any city.
- A second site from a shop you already rate, which is a much safer bet than a first site from anyone.
Give a new shop three weeks
Opening week is the worst time to judge anywhere. Grinders need dialling in against a new water supply, staff are learning the machine, and the queue is longer than it will ever be again. If a shop is still inconsistent a month in, that is information.
What new shops usually charge
New independents tend to open at or slightly below the local going rate and drift up within a year. Openings in areas without much existing competition price higher; openings on streets that already have three good shops price sharply. Neither tells you much about the coffee.
How we cover them
We add shops to the directory once we have checked the basics — address, hours and drink prices — and record the date we last verified them, so you can see how current the information is. Shops we have not verified are not published.