Scooter Caffe

Scooter Caffe
132 Lower Marsh
SE1 7AE

8.30am – 11pm Mon-Thu + Sun and until 1am Fri + Sat

A quirky little coffee shop tucked away behind Waterloo Station. This area of London is a little deprived of decent coffee, so I was excited to try it out and see if I could add it my Coffee Snob coffee map.

I’d heard great things about the caffe, but to be honest I was a little disappointed. The coffee was really good – a nice hot latte. I’m a Flat White drinker these days, so was a little taken aback that they don’t serve them. (I’m no barista, but it always perplexes me that some coffee shops don’t like to go ‘off menu’ – if you are passionate about coffee then I’d love to think a barista would embrace this ever popular choice, or at the least, give it a go!) Anyway, I digress. Perhaps I had caught them on a bad day,  but I just didn’t feel the vibe. I didn’t feel particularly welcomed on arrival at the counter – and I really don’t like it when I’m not given any hints to the coffee purchase / collection protocol! A quick – thanks, take a seat we’ll bring it to you, or your coffee will be ready at the end of the counter… perhaps my bad as I can just as easily ask, but I had asked about seating downstairs, and at no point was I told that I’d need to pop back upstairs to collect my coffee – so, after 15mins it dawned on me, that this was the case. But even when I came upstairs, no latte. So I ordered again, and decided to sit upstairs.

So after this slightly rocky start, I settled down at a cosy table and had a good look around – the decor is really cool – an eclectic mix of vintage and mis matched furniture and collected items. I had my laptop with me and intended to do a bit of work. Sadly this involved the internet, which, at the caffe was super slow – surprising as there were a fair few students in there. Table was a bit small, but nice working atmosphere, with several groups propped up with books and laptops.

In conclusion, I definitely need to go back and give it another go. I’m sad that I didn’t  have a similar experience to those in the great reviews of the Scooter Caffe – but perhaps, as I say, an off day for both of us?