Qima Café and Pâtisserie - Fitzrovia — Restaurant in London

I randomly found out about this place earlier last year while I was messing around on Google maps. I knew it's a rather new place in town so I thought I could wait a while before trying it out even though I have walked past it million times. Finally the day has come for me to try it with a friend after lunching near Paddington on a Saturday afternoon. We got there around 3pm and it's absolutely packed both outside and inside, even the room downstairs they have in the basement!

We got lucky as their new batch of pastries had just come out and I went ham and got each of their pastry variety to go - Yemeni honey croissant, pistachio butterfly, almond croissant, pain au chocolat and pain suisse. The most amazing thing happened when they offered me the pain au chocolat for free because I bought so many pastries and I was so delighted by this kind gesture.

We shared the yuzu and basil tart together which was a really pleasant surprise as we hadn't expected the two ingredients to go so well together! It's such a nice combination together with tart crust we finished it in a matter of a few minutes. I then had the pain au chocolat when I got home after reheating it in my air fryer and OMG it's extremely flaky and buttery! It's probably the best pain au chocolat I have ever had in London not even exaggerating, not to mention it's free! The next few days I finished the pastries one by one after reheating them in my air fryer. I thought the honey croissant was alright, a little too bready as croissant dough even though it's nice to be just slightly sweet and not too much. Pain suisse was once again so flaky and chocolatey, not too much and not too sweet. Almond croissant was very well-made, super flaky and not too much almond paste which I enjoyed thoroughly. However, pistachio butterfly was probably the biggest letdown out of all of the pastries. It's got very little pistachio cream on top and I also expected more filling in between the layers but it's insufficient.

Service was fantastic given my nice encounter and I really liked the chill vibes inside the café. I would absolutely come back again and become a regular customer. They have so many different pastries and they all...

Qima is a really unique and high quality cafe. After walking past it several times, I finally tried it and I'm glad I did! When you go in, you are greeted with an overwhelming array of pastries and a long menu. I got the qshir latte, which is what they reccommended; it is kind of like a dirty chai and it was really good. The pastries all look beautiful, but there are so many it is hard to choose! The pistachio croissant, which is filled with pistachio cream, was good; the pistachio flavour was subtle, but there, and fortunately it was not too sweet. There were many other croissants including one shaped like a bow, which I have made a note to try. I also tried a canele, which unfortunately was not to my taste; they have a lot of flavours of canele, and I was very excited about the pumpkin spice one, but the pumpkin flavour was non-existent and the outside of the canele was waxy and flavourless. (The reduced star is because of the canele, but I acknowledge that I may have just had a bad one and/or they may be to other people's taste.)

The place is very small and cramped and when I was there too many people ordered in (more than there were tables for), so we had to squeeze, which was awkward. It was not a nice place to sit, although it seems like they were trying to create a nice atmosphere for people to enjoy their coffee (rthere was just no space). The price was on par with other London locations (and cheaper than some of the places around). The staff was excellent-- patient with my questions and helpful at giving recommendations.

All in all, In an area teeming with coffee shops, I don't think Qima would be my top choice and I would not go out of my way for it, but I enjoyed it when I went and I would definitely go again to try...

Went here this evening after my friend raved about this yemeni cafe so we had to check it out. First impression the cafe is a beautifully curated space. I was initially excited to try adeni tea as since I knew it was yemeni owned but unfortunately they didn’t have it YET* (I hope) but the owner was absolutely welcoming and told us it would hopefully soon be introduced into the menu. If you’re a coffee lover I would definitely recommend as they source the beans from different places. I ended up trying this passion iced fruit drink I forget the name but it was absolutely amazing! and the almond croissant was the BEST i’ve had in my life, we were told they make it in house and also they drizzle this yemeni honey on top but the filling inside was delicious. the owner was very welcoming and honestly overall experience really made me feel compelled to leave a review as it’s not every day you find a cafe where the place is aesthetically pleasing, food is delicious and the owner is amazing. Wish i got his name as he was gone by the time we were finished but want to thank you for our experience. wish your business all the success! We will definitely be back and can’t wait until they hopefully incorporate the adeni tea into their menu as I know it will...