W1 London / Things to do

The Best Coffee Shops in W1: Seven Cafés in Fitzrovia, Soho, Marylebone and Mayfair

The best coffee shops in W1 fall into two camps. Fitzrovia and Marylebone have the modern speciality cafés, where the beans are roasted in small batches and the baristas compete for titles. Soho has the institutions: an espresso bar that has barely changed since 1949, a coffee merchant that has traded from the same shop since 1887 and a patisserie older than both. This list picks seven, from a flat white on the way to work to a late espresso after the theatre. Addresses and opening details were checked against each café's own website, or a current listing where the café has none, in October 2026.

The seven at a glance

Coffee shops in Fitzrovia

Kaffeine

Kaffeine is an independently owned café and espresso bar inspired by the coffee culture of Australia and New Zealand, with two branches five minutes' walk from Oxford Circus: the original at 66 Great Titchfield Street and a second at 15 Eastcastle Street. It is the café most often named when Londoners argue about the best flat white in the West End. Food comes from a weekly changing menu, and both branches open from 7.30am on weekdays and close at 5pm, so it is a breakfast and lunch place rather than an afternoon one. It also runs barista classes for home brewers.

Attendant

Attendant began in Fitzrovia, inside a restored Victorian public convenience below the pavement. It is one of the most distinctive cafés in central London, and it roasts its own coffee and serves food alongside it. Attendant now also has a Mayfair café on Duke Street, just off Oxford Street, with seating indoors and out, which is the easier choice if you are shopping.

Kiss the Hippo

Kiss the Hippo is a London roaster that buys organic and direct trade coffee, and its baristas won the UK Barista Championship in 2018, 2019 and 2020. It has grown fast and now has cafés in Marylebone, Soho, Mayfair and Fitzrovia, among others, which makes it the most dependable speciality option across W1. Check its website for the branch nearest you before setting out.

Coffee in Marylebone: The Monocle Café

The Monocle Café at 18 Chiltern Street is run by the global affairs and design magazine, whose shop is a few doors up at number 34. It is small, calm and carefully designed, in keeping with the magazine, and it serves food as well as coffee. Chiltern Street itself, lined with independent shops, is worth the walk. Our Marylebone guide covers the rest of the village.

Coffee in Soho: three institutions

Bar Italia

Bar Italia at 22 Frith Street was opened in 1949 by the Polledri family, who still run it. Its neon sign and clock, its counter and its pavement tables have barely changed in decades, and it opens from early in the morning until the small hours, which makes it the classic place for an espresso after the theatre or a night out. The building has its own claim to fame: on 26 January 1926 John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in the rooms upstairs, and a blue plaque above the door marks it. Our hidden history of Soho has more of the street's stories.

Algerian Coffee Stores

Algerian Coffee Stores has traded from 52 Old Compton Street since 1887, and the shop still sells coffee and tea by weight, along with teapots and brewing kit. It is first a place to buy beans, with a long list of single origins and house blends, but it also serves coffee to take away. It is open from 10am, and until 7pm later in the week.

Maison Bertaux

Maison Bertaux on Greek Street has been making cakes in Soho since 1871, which makes it older than anything else on this list. Its coffee is not the point; its cakes are, and the old-fashioned rooms are part of the appeal. Go for coffee and cake in the afternoon, not for a speciality brew.

How to choose

• For the best flat white: Kaffeine or Kiss the Hippo.
• For something to show visitors: Attendant in Fitzrovia, or Bar Italia.
• For a late coffee: Bar Italia; most speciality cafés close by 5pm or 6pm.
• For beans to take home: Algerian Coffee Stores.
• For cake: Maison Bertaux.
• For a quiet hour with a magazine: The Monocle Café.

Expect to pay around £4 for a flat white at a speciality café in W1. Most of the speciality places are busiest from 8am to 9.30am and at lunchtime, and quietest mid-afternoon. If you are filling a wet day, our guide to things to do in W1 when it rains pairs well with a long coffee, and the best bookshops in W1 are all within a short walk of these cafés. For more on the postcode, go back to the W1 London homepage.