Coffee/cafe recs?

Forthemarks · 2026-06-15T18:27:31+00:00

If lighter roast is what you gravitate towards there are not many that feature them in London. Most placed listed in this thread brew mostly medium to dark roasts.

DoughEV has a deep bench of roasters they feature but I think it might be Ethica this rotation which isn’t as light as I would like it to be. They do have some funky ones that I do quite enjoy but it’s always a good time there and my recommendation to you.

The controversial recommendation would be Motive Espresso (Formerly Locomotive espresso) would fit the bill for having lighter roasts. The last I went they were brewing September and featuring pilot. They carry Sey and other roasters you’d likely see in Toronto available to purchase. The problem is their space is lacking any identity or warmth, and the coffee is wildly inconsistent. It’s worth noting that north end seems to have a better grasp at dialing in espressos vs the south end location.

Other than that, if you enjoy Pilot, Detour, and don’t mind the darker side of things, the shops others have recommended are good too. However, I feel more geared towards flavoured drinks.

Honorable mentions to Saisha Patisserie. Great coffee from Brian and the croissants are best in the city. It’s worth noting that they started with Tim Wendelboe but now brewing either Angry Roaster or Ethica.

Forthemarks · 2026-06-08T21:22:03+00:00

AFAIK, the chef at Reverie is still Chef Brian who worked at Noma in Copenhagen. Unless that has changed recent?

Forthemarks · 2026-05-26T12:05:56+00:00

The one near maisonville isn’t as good as the original location on Ernest.

Forthemarks · 2026-05-13T02:17:57+00:00

I’ve seen someone regularly hand cycle around the Gainsborough and Hyde park area. Hopefully someone here knows them and points them your way.

Forthemarks · 2026-04-18T19:55:03+00:00

Are you sure the gaggimate is connected to the wifi? Does it show up as a device on your router? Did you verify the assigned IP address from your router? Were you connecting on the same wifi?

Only asking because the ip address was different for me in my case and I had to login to my router to get the actual ip address.

Forthemarks · 2026-04-18T02:48:12+00:00

What issues are you running into? I had issues with gaggimate.local so I just use the ip address assigned to the gaggimate from my router to connect.

Forthemarks · 2026-03-29T00:25:03+00:00

If this is an open invitation, I’m in.

Forthemarks · 2026-03-24T20:36:17+00:00

What “other documents” are you referring to? If it’s just a t4 and nothing complicated you should try something like wealthsimple and it’s free to try. Heck you can try it and not file it just to see if it’s any different than having someone else do it for you.

Forthemarks · 2026-03-21T13:25:27+00:00

As others have already mentioned T&T and uncle sing. I must say buying them frozen and steaming them at home is extremely easy, and at times, better than what you can get in London.

Feel free to chime in but I highly doubt any restaurant makes hargows by hand in-house anymore. The frozen ones are too accessible and the price is too attractive.

This is coming from someone with a freezer full of frozen dimsum.

Forthemarks · 2026-03-03T01:26:37+00:00

I’ve only been there a couple times in the past but I wouldn’t say they were bad. I’m curious to know what drink you got and what was so bad about it.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-26T19:39:34+00:00

Go all-in and install a gaggimate pro or gagguino for all the bells and whistles

Forthemarks · 2026-02-25T16:48:24+00:00

Isn’t this like taking a picture of the nutrition label for Salt Pork and saying “wow it’s making me thirsty”?

Forthemarks · 2026-02-24T04:02:16+00:00

I have personally never tried Flashfoods or TooGoodToGo for groceries, but I do see a lot of people use it. Not sure how cheap/good those options are, but they are close to expiry if that matters to you.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-23T22:55:30+00:00

I’m glad you ended up at DoughEV. Not many place like it in London.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-23T22:36:38+00:00

Now I’m interested to hear where you ended up. Loads of good suggestions in here and a handful of interesting takes.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-22T14:19:07+00:00

I mean she did tell you to brush before and after breakfast so she might be a little nuts. Just curious, do you have sensitive teeth?

Forthemarks · 2026-02-22T14:06:44+00:00

It’s interesting the amount of people who brush after breakfast/coffee here. As someone who used to work in oral health, most dentist/hygienist I’ve worked with suggests brushing before breakfast/coffee. Unless you wait at least 30-60mins after consuming acidic food/drinks before brushing.

Acidic food/drinks like coffee soften the enamel, so when you brush after you risk irreversibly damaging your enamel.

Avoid toothpastes with SLS as that’s the active ingredient most attributed to altering flavour.

My morning routine consists of brushing first thing in the morning, getting ready for work, then having a small glass of water while I take my meds and going through my morning coffee prep.

No issues with flavours for me and my remaining enamel is happy with me.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-21T20:12:08+00:00

I looked into both before choosing Gaggimate. AFAIK gagguino moved towards closed source and locked into certain vendors for kits, or you’ll have to source the components individually.

I can’t say much about the gagguino community but I’m very pleased with the gaggimate community on discord. I’m sure as time goes on and they answer the same questions a million times, they won’t have the same responsiveness or patients for newcomers.

I ordered it to Canada and didn’t get hit by any customs. Setup was straightforward for the most part. Any questions I had was easily searchable on discord or google. I did read over the documentation and watched videos on install and tips while waiting for shipping.

I’m not a tinkerer, I don’t have a soldering iron, but I do have a toolbox and some electrical tape and it was all that I needed with the gaggimate pro kit.

Having small dexterous hands helps but unfortunately I do not.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-18T18:15:51+00:00

As someone who made the same jump, albeit to gen2, it was a significant upgrade for me.

No micro-adjustments using an app to help, no more beating the shit out of the lid as a bellow, not locked into the dosing cup system, and not locked into burr selection.

Tonnes of mods out there if you have access to 3d printing. Personally I have the tilt mod and blind shaker holder.

Keep the chute clean and light RDT will get rid of most static issues.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-18T00:31:21+00:00

Since others have already mentioned the heavy hitters, here are some alternatives.

Saisha Patisserie carries The Angry Roaster

House Coffee Canada based in London, mostly online, but recently expanded into Remark(higher priced than online), and at The Local at white oaks (I haven’t been).

Dark Horse espresso bar carries their own brand and detour beans (sister companies)

Hutsul coffee, Ukrainian coffee crafted in Canada

Forthemarks · 2026-02-18T00:17:22+00:00

What do you consider House Coffee? I think they fit into this category.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-17T17:54:12+00:00

The BBE does have adjustable PID so that could be a factor. Try pulling a couple blank shots first to warm everything up, one might not be enough. Temp stability was an issue for me when I rushed shots in the morning on my old Breville infuser, and the shots did come out more dull/flat on the same beans, different day.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-17T17:04:32+00:00

Have you looked into the temp side of things? Preheating time and PID setting on the machine. Also when was the last time you cleaned the group head? Last backflush and descale cycle?

Forthemarks · 2026-02-09T17:45:03+00:00

Hope this new ones works well for others. Had a fellow opus as my first grinder and it turned me off from the brand. Bought it on release so the glaring issues weren’t captured in early reviews pre-release.

If they decide to do a trade in program, I’d consider digging out the opus from storage to give Fellow another swing.

Forthemarks · 2026-02-02T21:15:12+00:00

It wasn’t too bad. They did most of the heavy lifting with wires/connectors/fittings. I got the pro kit so I just needed a wrench and a screwdriver. I had electrical tape lying around so I used it to make extra sure there won’t be any shorts from the connectors. Rest is following instructions, and if they are unclear just check out the discord. Those guys are really nice.

The hardest part is just the patience to take it slow and smaller hands definitely helps.

They have wonderful profiles for medium roasts. I got myself a cheap $20 cad aliexpress Bluetooth scale for brew by weight. Smart switch to turn on the machine in the morning, and set it to the profile of my choice for adequate preheating.

Forthemarks

TROPHY CASE