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Brick Lane
Brick Lane • Things to do • Eat & Drink • Cafés & Casual Eats
Between shops and streets
Coffee on Brick Lane is functional rather than ceremonial. These cafés exist as pauses between markets, shops, and meals — places to sit, regroup, and watch the street pass.
Cafés
Café 1001
Café 1001 is a split-level spot at the Truman Brewery entrance, balancing daytime café/workspace energy with a hi-fi bar upstairs at night. Expect brunch, pastries and sandwiches earlier on, then wood-fired pizza and cocktails as the lights drop. Music is central: vinyl-led selectors play through an analogue set-up, with Radio 1001 archiving guest sets.
Kahaila Cafe
Kahaila has been on Brick Lane since 2012: a café run by the Kahaila charity, built to feel like a steady neighbourhood pause. Expect coffee, cakes and pastries sourced via independent makers and social enterprises, plus a rotating sandwich list with vegetarian and vegan options. The room also doubles as an events and exhibition space, with profits supporting projects including Luminary Bakery and Ella’s Home.
Nude Coffee Roasters
Nude Coffee Roasters has been roasting in East London since 2008. Its Hanbury Street base is both café and working roastery, opened in 2014 with a Loring Smart Roast machine designed to cut energy use by removing the need for an afterburner. Coffees rotate with the seasons and beans are roasted on site and sold for home use alongside espresso and filter.
High Grade Coffee
High Grade Coffee & Roasters is tucked into the Old Truman Brewery at 91 Brick Lane. They roast small batches on site, focusing on 100% arabica, single-origin coffees (SCA-graded), and pour both espresso and filter, with beans also for home brewing. The counter keeps things simple—coffee first—alongside a small line of pastries and plant-based options.
Oat Coffee Brick Lane
OAT Coffee’s Brick Lane outpost sits on the Buxton Street corner behind a bright green, stickered tile frontage. Espresso and filter are the backbone, with matcha and rotating specials alongside. Food skews daytime: brunch plates, toasties and a steady line of cakes and cookies, including vegan and gluten-free options.
Bakeries
Jolene Bakery
Jolene’s Redchurch Street outpost is the smallest of the group: a compact corner window for morning pastries, cakes and loaves, plus coffee and their own house kombucha. The kitchen also turns out a daily run of sandwiches, best grabbed early before the shelves thin out. It’s mostly take-away, with a few outdoor benches for perching.
Pavilion Truman Bakery
Pavilion’s Old Truman Brewery outpost (12 Dray Walk) is a light, airy corner shop built for pastries, coffee and a daytime sandwich run. The bake counter leans slow-fermented breads and laminated goods, with seats inside for quick catch-ups and working lunches, plus benches outside when the weather holds.
Okja Bakery
Okja is a South African-born plant-based bakery with a Spitalfields base on Toynbee Street. Everything is vegan: swirls, croissants and cookies made with their own plant-based butter, plus espresso, iced drinks and matcha. It’s set up for quick takeaway, with a small sit-in nook for a pause between Petticoat Lane and Brick Lane.
Rinkoff Bakery
Founded in 1911 by Hyman Rinkoff, Rinkoff’s is a Jewish family bakery still rooted in East London, baking from Eastern European-influenced recipes alongside newer ideas like the Crodough. There are two nearby retail spots: the Jubilee Street bakery/coffee shop for sandwiches, pastries and cakes, and the Vallance Road deli for filled rolls, loaves and a quick breakfast-bar stop.
Casual Eats
Momlette
Momlette is a Brick Lane-side brunch spot by friends Sonny and Shubo, built around Bengali home flavours folded into café staples. The menu mixes deshi plates with familiar classics—think paratha, masala beans and spiced sausages alongside eggs on toast and Benedict-style dishes. Molasses chai sits comfortably next to coffee, and there are vegan options.
Dark Sugars
Dark Sugars opened on Brick Lane in 2013, after starting out as a truffle stall at Spitalfields and Borough markets. The shop focuses on cacao-first sweets—handmade chocolates, bars and rich hot chocolate—shaped by founder Nyanga’s research and sourcing links to Ghana, including her family farm.
Grounded London
Grounded is a family-oriented halal café shaped by Algerian hospitality, founded by friends Smail and Jamal (who first met in Tizi-Ouzou). After reuniting in London, they began roasting in 2014 and opened their Whitechapel Road café as a coffee-and-brunch spot, with organic-leaning cooking and an in-house approach to what’s on the counter.
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