Coffee Break #2
J.C Pinto — that coffee tastes familiar…
So, there I was, we had just wrapped up a Thursday tutoring session when someone piped up saying,
“Let’s go grab some brunch!”
We exited university, walked up to 1 St. John Maddermarket and into this cute, warm, and overall cozy wooden interior brunch place. Given it was a brunch place, in today’s editions of Coffee Break, there’ll be an extra section reviewing the Garlic Steak Sandwich I had. As discussed in episode 0 though, it will not be affecting my overall review of this cafe.
Criteria 1: Ambience — meet Jamal, the friendly, talkative waiter
As mentioned earlier, the layout of the brunch resto was very cozy. We were a 7-party group that were very nicely accommodated by the staff (not like there wasn’t enough space but we were nice and snug). The general feeling of snugness could have been due to the lower ceiling, but the key description was that it did not feel cramped. Looked like the place could serve quite a few people, I didn’t do a head count this time, but it was definitely bigger than Mon Chai. In addition to the snug interior, it was nice and warm inside which was a very welcome ambience given it was cold and miserable outside (what’s new, welcome to the UK Bevan).
I would say the highlight of the experience was Jamal, the man who served our group that day. His bubbly exterior, and knack for creating conversation was an appreciated aspect of this brunch. A general pet peeve of mine is having to talk to people when it’s not welcome, however, Jamal made you feel comfortable enough to converse with him without making you feel pressured to. Furthermore, and we’ll get to this in the coffee criteria, when I asked him about where they sourced their beans, he answered without issue. In fact, during our conversations, I got a few more recommendations for cafes to try out (I didn’t mention I write reviews, I’m too awkward for that lol).
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Given I went there for brunch, it’s a bit hard to judge the space in terms of noise, however, it didn’t seem like I had to shout or whisper to talk to my friends, so I would say it’s all good from that side. All in all, I would say this ambience was well above average and hence I’m putting it at a solid 7/10. Not only was the interior well decorated and designed, and I could see myself coming in to read a book or study for very long periods of time, the service was interactive, engaging, and overall enhancing to my experience.
Criteria 2: Mocha £4.5 — this tastes… familiar…
Eyebrow test? Passed. Why? Because it tasted so similar to Mon Chai it was weird. After asking Jamal where they sourced their beans from, I learned they had Indian beans on hand, which would make sense why it tasted almost identical to Mon Chai given they’re a Bengali cafe. NOW BEFORE I GET CANCELLED, I DO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND INDIA. I just assumed that they might source the beans from similar geographic regions hence why the flavor profile was similar. In contrast to Mon Chai however, they served it in a glass cup. There’s not much to note in regard to how the coffee tasted as it was basically the same as my previous review, but it had a nice aroma, wasn’t too hot when served, and tasted better than what I’d expect at most cafes. It was more expensive than Mon Chai whilst having a similar level of taste which does mark it down a bit.
Whilst the coffee did taste great, because it was priced around where I’d expect it to be (so around that £4.5–5 range), it lands in the 6/10 area. As mentioned in the last review, the reason why that mocha got a point higher was purely for its price tag, hence why this coffee can’t be rated more. It has the qualities of a great cafe drink, and I would definitely come back to order their coffee again.
Final Judgement — coming back for sure
I definitely need to go back to see how it feels as a place to read and study, I would like to know if it’s too loud to focus given it’s a brunch place. However, basing it off of how it was when I went it shouldn’t be an issue. With a total score of 13/20, it scores higher than Mon Chai and puts it in an above average tier. The ambience and service were the true stars of this establishment with a good tasting coffee to back it all up. It not only gets the “I would visit again” stamp but it also gets an added “I would excitedly visit again” stamp of approval. Hopefully my next visits to other cafes are uphill from here because these past 2 places have generally been pretty good.
Bonus Content: Garlic Steak Sandwich £14.5 — honestly… it’s aight.
When I wrote my notes on this steak sandwich, I described it as “quite good but not amazing” and I think it aptly describes my experience. I myself am not the biggest steak sandwich fan (I mean I eat steak with rice… describes a lot about my carb experience. Honestly, I’d have it with noodles too, bread is definitely lower in my tier list of carbs), so my expectations already weren’t the highest. I can confidently say it didn’t go below my expectations which is a good thing but it definitely didn’t exceed any of them either. The meat itself was a little chewy but I think it was the way they cut the parts. If you cut meat against the grain, you shouldn’t have any problems with chewiness (unless you royally screwed up cooking the steak, but they didn’t). I noticed some parts were cut along the grain which resulted in those parts being chewy. All in all, I gave it a 5.5/10 because while it didn’t taste bad, but I could probably make a similar tasting one at home for a fraction of the price. The extra .5 was because I probably wouldn’t be bothered to add the jalapeño drizzle and other smaller components, so they get extra points for the efforts there. Also, since I moved here, I don’t take it against the restaurants in general, but please salt food more UK thank you :D
Hope you enjoyed more of my crude drawings heehee.
