The London Coffee Series – M1LK

Hello, welcome back to edition two of The London Coffee Series! For this weeks post I decided to venture a bit further south at the recommendation of some coffee loving pals, I got myself on the tube nice and early Sunday morning and headed out to a lovely little neighbourhood called Balham. What will you find in Balham you might ask? Well you will find the brilliant M1LK (no that ‘1’ is not a typo), a popular and very cool little cafe located seconds from Balham station. Following my Citymapper map (this little beauty is a gold! If you live in London and don’t have it… get it!) to what I believed was the correct spot left me a little bit confused for a moment, as you can see from the photo the signage for M1LK isn’t exactly in your face so I did have to take a double look before I realised this was it!

Stepping through the door I immediately knew I was going to be quite happy spending my morning here, this was my kind of cafe. Big beautiful windows cover most of the wall area, filling the space with natural light and allowing an indoor/outdoor flow. The first standout of the room to me was the beautiful wooden counter, which holds a selection of delicious looking cakes and biscuits. Behind the counter coloured shelves are stacked with glass jars, beakers and a few other quirky bits and bobs (including some framed butterflies, which I’m sure look lovely to normal people without an unusual fear of butterflies like myself). The white brick wall also makes me swoon of course, a white brick wall can always pull me in.

Now let’s get onto the reason we’re here right, the coffee. I, of course, ordered a latte and chose to take my seat at the bench top table located next to the largest window. A few other tables and chairs are dotted about the room, and outside are another 3 or 4 picnic type tables – perfect for a sunny morning brunch. My latte arrived pretty quickly and after taking a few photos I was ready to take my first sip, and it did not disappoint! I gotta say I think this place could possibly be up there in my top 3 best coffees I’ve had in London (so far!). So good in fact that I ordered a second one, partly because I wasn’t quite ready to leave yet and I didn’t want to hog table space and partly because I really just wanted an excuse to have another good coffee!

Being the early bird that I am I had arrived not long after the 9am opening time, it seems this was a good time to get there as the crowds started rolling in filling up the tables at around 10.30 and by 11 there was a substantial queue forming outside. Most people seemed like locals, young couples and friends out for brunch with the odd family spending some quality time together. This place also serves a pretty decent looking brunch and this seemed to be the star of the show here (obviously I’m more interested in the coffee though). I didn’t try any of the food myself but it looked like a good way to start off your day, I may have to make another visit yet.

xx