Popina Cafe — Restaurant in London

If i could give 0 stars then I would.. Everything about this place was horrendous. Firstly parking in the area is a joke, but regardless I still traveled 40 minutes to get there because they looked great on Instagram. We rushed to get there because their menu says they last serve eggs at 3pm.. But it turns out that the actual kitchen closes at 3pm which is crazy.. We called and ordered the food to eat in and we specifically asked for full English breakfast, eggs benedict and plain scrambled eggs on toast with smashed avacado (for my 11 month old daughter).. They said that's fine and we arrived.. The restaurant was really run down, the mirrora were cracked and broken, very dangerous. The seating is very minimal and uncomfortable, but we didn't care we just wanted to eat. They brought out my friends full English breakfast without baked beans (it shows baked beans on the website) she asked for baked beans and they said they don't have any left, she didn't want it without it.. She told them they should have mentioned that on the phone..she got no apology, nothing.. Then they bring out my food which was a tiny potion (eggs benedict) I didn't complain but didn't touch it yet, they then bring out my daughters scrambled eggs which they literally poured chilli powder all over and all over the avacado.. I specially asked for Plain!! When I explained this, the waiter was not having it.. He was extremely rude and kept saying well the kitchen is closed now.. Im like well I cant feed this to her.. He picks up the plate and takes it back to the kitchen.. He SCRAPES off the CHILLI powder and brings it back to me.. There was chilli all over it still.. I actually couldn't believe how rubbish the service was.. We asked for a refund which we got.. And left.. Absolutely shambolic... DO NOT COME HERE.. its a JOKE...

Waited for 30 mins to get a table - which is fine, the cafe is small. To start off, when I went to make my order the blonde white lady - whose name I do not know ignored me as I stood there to take my order. The online ordering system was down, hence why we were informed to make it at the counter. She saw me standing there in plain sight, she ignored me and instead acknowledged a table beside the counter who still hadn’t decided what they wanted. To make note, we had entered before the table and I had been standing there waiting for a good few minutes. I eventually sat back down in my seat until she was finished, and proceeded to attempt to order but once again she ignored me and continued to pretend to look busy. At this point I was ready to walk out until another lady had been prepared to take my order. Once I had done so, the tea’s were brought over by the first blonde white lady, who never said anything, just dumped the cups and teapot on the table. This woman has no manners nor customer service. She then gave us the wrong order, to which had bacon on, considering my dietary requirements I do not eat bacon to which I made very clear on arrival. I had informed her immediately to which she rolled her eyes and took the plate away. I was then greeted by another waitress who politely bought our correct order. The food was very average, French toast has half decent, I asked for a sandwich with cheese and received a slice of bread with melted cheese, apparently this is “all they had”. This cost £6. Almond croissant tasted stale, was very hard possibly due to be exposed to open air for display. The sausages were appalling, never had anything so vile before. They looked out of date, tasted very dry and had no flavour. I would not recommend this cafe due to overall...

I chose this spot for breakfast after seeing how highly rated it was, but I left with a different opinion.

My party arrived promptly at the opening time, 8 AM, but were told that the kitchen opens up in 10-15 minutes. To me, that sounds like the opening time should be 8:15 AM then, not 8 AM. The place was quite cramped, which didn’t look that way in the pictures if I’m honest. It wasn’t comfortable sitting with the cashier on one side and the coffee machine on the other side of the table. Considering in-door mask wearing is now required in the UK, I was disappointed the servers weren’t wearing them, considering the cashier was coughing constantly.

The food wasn’t as expected either. The granola tasted quite plain and the portion size was excessive, and the shakshuka was piping hot with overdone eggs. It would’ve been nice to be asked how we liked the eggs (medium or well), but we weren’t. The drinks didn’t fare much better. The long black came in a tiny cup and the hot chocolate was made with powdered chocolate (rather than actual melted chocolate you’d find in other places), which impacted its taste.

Hence the 2 stars I’ve given. It wasn’t completely horrible as the service was quick and it wasn’t crowded. However, I had an overall negative experience and hence why cannot...