The Travel Café - Islington — Restaurant in London

Simply the loveliest coffee place in the area!! I am a regular (and loyal hehe) customer of theirs. I buy coffee from them at least 2 times a week. You can collect a stamp everytime u purchased a coffee and the 9th is for free!! (I think I've already had 4 free drinks yayy)

The coffee they make is decent for sure. I personally love the taste of their beans.

Another reason why i always come back when there are other choices around the area is that the baristas are always so friendly and welcoming, especially the lady from Czech Republic (should've asked ur name, apologies). She is literally the sweetest barista I've ever met!!! Such great hospitality, full of passion and great energy. She always sparks up great conversations and I just enjoy chatting with her everytime I go there to grab a coffee. You know when someone remembers what u causally said last time and asks about a follow up the next time u go… genuinely feels like a friend of mine, but a friend who makes good coffee.

The environment in the coffee shop is also nice and comforting. They got all these green plants in it and a calming background music. U can buy a cute plant from them, or u can simply enjoy the peace and calmness this place brings to u. Like an escape from the hustle and bustle.

Words cannot describe how much this place means to me when i have been away from home and going through difficulties. I am just truly grateful for ur...

Delicious Matcha Latte, Average Food, Very Poor Service: I was in this cafe for half an hour this morning, and one of just three individual customers served in that time. It took a long time for my order to be taken, 10 minutes from the time I paid until I was served a delicious matcha latte, and 20 minutes until I was served a bland and lukewarm toasted brie, basil and tomato sandwich. When I was served the sandwich I informed the waitress that I need to leave in 10 minutes, so I would need a brown paper bag to take away half of my toasted sandwich. She never came back to me and instead appeared to be focused on doing something on the laptop. Furthermore, I was never given any serviettes or offered any tap water, so when I get melted brie all over me, I had nothing to clean myself up with. When I left the cafe and I was about fifteen metres down the road, the waitress ran out to me to say I hadn't paid for my drink. I then showed her my receipt for £7.65 (for my drink and toasted sandwich), which prompted her to apologise sheepishly. Not impressed. Seriously, EVEN IF she had forgotten to charge me for my drink, after such poor service why bother chasing a customer down the street to demand payment for something she supposedly forgot to...

A word of caution to oat milk drinkers: their oat milk is extremely sweet. My partner got an oat latte and I got an oat matcha latte and I found mine undrinkable because of the sweetness. I expect good cafes to make sure that their alt milks are neutral enough to avoid significantly altering the taste of the drinks (imo, good barista milks like Oatly provide a really good fatty, neutral base). My partner also found the oat latte sweet, and in addition, she found the coffee itself to be a bit too acidic and smoky.

Leaving the rating at 3, since the two drinks with oat milk base are all we have to go off of. The interior was cute and the barista was pleasant. But given the choice of cafes around Holloway and Angel that do decent alt milk drinks, I don’t think...