Shepherdess Cafe — Restaurant in London

Sitting on the corner of City Road and Shepherdess Walk, The Shepherdess offers hearty food and service reminiscent of traditional British cafes. It provides a sit down service or takeaway. It also offers free WiFi which can be unreliable at times. The only factor to consider is that at busy times and given the open kitchen, the entire place can smell of bacon. With the surrounding area changing it is a welcoming cozy place with wide tall windows, efficient services and a menu consisting of all day breakfast options, staples such as lasagna and a big choice of sandwiches.

The corner location and wide windows provide an airy feel to what is a relatively small floor place. It features 8 booth style tables next to the windows and three larger tables that accommodate up to eight people each. During the winter months the heaters are on all day providing a nice escape from the cold outside. Having ordered the porridge with honey and a side of bacon I was surprised by both the size of the portion and the quality. Considering the Pret down the road sells 300 grams of porridge for £3.50, the portion at The Shepherdess is well over 500 grams for the same price. I would suggest that the Builders Breakfast for 5.90 including eggs, bacon, sausage, chips and beans is their best selling item. The Shepherdess is a great option for those looking for a dinner \ cafe experience with large portions of hearty food and efficient...

(came back again today, still great little place, managed to get a photo up this time!!)

Had a bit of time to kill prior to a meeting, so I decided to go for breakfast as I'd been up early and not eaten, and my tummy was rumbling quite loudly in protest.

Most of the food places weren't open yet as I wandered along the City Road (as it was about 0930), so was pleasantly surprised to spot this cafe was open.

Staff greeted me immediately as I walked in the door.

Piggy little me went all in for a Cop The Lot (which I most certainly did with two eggs, two bacon slices, a sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans & black pudding - yum!), all washed down with a lovely mug of strong tea.

Food was fresh out (as in not left sitting under heat lamps) , and the presentation was immaculate.

I did especially like the sausage (no Richmonds here).

The customer service was excellent and rapid with attentive staff, and tables were quickly bussed after customers exited, and left immaculately clean.

It's not the cheapest cafe around (and it kind of does it a disservice to describe it as a 'greasy spoon' as well), but it's worth a punt if you're in the mood for a hearty full English breakfast if you're ever...

Shepherdess Café a good, old-fashioned, proper London caff.

One of a few genuinely local places that has survived this area's ghastly gentrification and which hasn't yet increased its prices to crazy levels just to fleece the influx of yeh-yeh suburban middle-classes who now swarm about the area calling themselves 'hipsters' (and who really do deserve to be shafted royally).

Instead Shepherdess Cafe offers familiar English café food, breakfasts and lunches for a reasonable price and with reasonable portions and it still attracts proper local people and not too many of these new Hoxton horrors.

You can still sit and hear cockneys talking to one another without having some grating media screech or the lengthy dialogues about property prices.

This a small haven just a stone's throw from the unpleasantness of the hipsters up the road.

The staff at Shepherdess Café are always friendly and attentive too and for the monent it's surprisingly good value for money.

Hopefully it will remain a local place for local people for a long...