Cable Cafe – Bar

Love this bar! Great cocktails and selection of bottled beers. Very chilled atmosphere.

Funny I’ve done a massive amount of studying in coffee shops in the US and London and always found the staff (outside of a friendly quick order) throwing the shape of hate but I don’t get that here so maybe my expectations are lower than the bad reviews but I quite like the staff.
Great tunes too, surprised they played Callier’s Ordinary Joe, but I guess it’s more UK… and can’t believe I’d never heard DP’s Here You Come Again (best ever?)
Coffee seems good/​better than a lot of places, I prefer high altitude black honey beans but these seem dece.
Very charming, close to me, good for working/​studying (outlets, wifi). Will be a regular.

after dinner i went here to finish off my anniversary evening with my bf (whose review can be found in the hidden reviews section, for whatever reason). it was a completely empty café/​bar on a wednesday evening, but the décor and music was really lovely. i was really taken with it and took decorating notes for my future dream home.
we ordered two whiskey drinks from the lone surly hipster barman at first — which were decent. nothing to write home about but for the price i wasn’t complaining. then as the bar picked up to have a whopping 4 or 5 people in it, we decided to order two coffees (mostly to sober up a bit, to be honest). i was excited by the fact that they roasted their beans onsite and the espresso machine looked legit. my partner ordered for us and then as soon as he walked away to the toilets, the surly hipster barman scoffed and said to his friend how ‘weird’ it was that we ordered two alcoholic drinks and then two coffees. he made sure to say this loud enough that i could hear at the other side of the room. absolutely uncalled for and a total let down for the end of the night. so we walked out.
first, if it’s so ‘weird’ that people might want coffee at your (ahem) bar/​café, then stop serving it after a certain hour. not rocket science, is it?
second, talking smack on customers is idiotic for business at best.
third, i don’t know if there was some secret surly hipster bartender code that we broke, but if you were so offended by us not ordering more alcoholic drinks, then perhaps you should make better ones.
i live in east london, where hipster joints like this are a dime a dozen. yet none of those places would ever think to behave in this manner. i think the cable café is just lucky that it doesn’t currently have much competition in the area.

Love this place. Cosy, pretentious, well made G&T’s and good live music on Tuesdays. And you can bring in a takeaway (as long as you take your rubbish). Great little bar.

As an American with a thing for cafes, I found home. I was staying nearby and stumbled across this walking to the tube — the inside was very inviting and whoever works here knows how to dim lights properly.
The place serves alcohol, but it never loses its café charm (even when it closes every day at 11pm!). Cozy mix of people getting work done, studying, and socializing.
Also, despite the snarky comment above try-​hard jazz music, it’s so nice to find a café that doesn’t play the Fleet Foxes and Two Door Cinema Club pandora station on repeat.
Will be back, no matter what side of the river I’m staying.

I like this place but it’s painfully try hard.
Un plastered brick walls, jazz music and intentionally mismatched furniture… bit much maybe.
It’s a nice atmosphere though and there’s a good selection of drinks here. It’s also literally the only nice bar in Oval so it has that going for it. THERE IS NO OTHER REASON TO COME TO OVAL… maybe cricket.

Quirky little café which serves great coffee and refreshments. Has a great selection of bottled beers and cold beverages.

What was going to be a 5-​star review tanked due to strangely rude service. I’m staying nearby and like to pop in from time to time for a quick beer on my way home, usually alone. Having worked at many a fine drinking establishment in NYC you get to know regulars, or get a feel for how to treat someone at your bar. Sitting alone? How about a few friendly words, engage your customer, especially one who has been in before and TIPS. Is it me or did Mr. Waxed Mustache Hipster scoff at me for sitting idly by myself enjoying a brew. I get it, service is not the same in the UK, but still. Left a bad taste. That said, this is a charming place that plays the best music (great old jazz) and has a nice vibe.

BYOF!
This review need only be 4 words long: BRING YOUR OWN FOOD.
…but I will elaborate, a little.
This cosy, narrow ex-​chip shop off Brixton Road is Oval’s «disgustingly trendy new local — cant believe its bringing people south of river”*. No more furtive eating whilst you try to hide that home-​constructed sandwich under the table you forgot to eat at lunch time when the waiter walks past, or pretending you only want a starter to save your pennies on the cost of dining out, or leaving those three servings of lasagne sitting in the fridge at home… Come hither, get a bottle of wine or bucket of beers from the bar, snag a table beneath heavy velvet curtains and an intentionally unplastered brick wall behind the bar, bring all your friends and your leftovers/​freshly fashioned dishes/​home baked brownies/​cheese and chocolate treats from your recent Swiss adventure, or lets face it, bags of snacks from the convenience store next door and enjoy an intimate night in,… I mean out.
The bar staff are so chilled, I was a bit nervous at our contribution of no less than 800 split pistachio shells strewn over our tables and floor, which by the end of the night were swimming in our beer fatalities with gruyère rinds and shards of baguette debris… but they were, well yes, very chilled. What a fantastic little hangout, enjoy. And I hope the concept catches on elsewhere, dare I say, North of the river too…
_​
*quote stolen from Chris K; Oval resident and bemoaner of the general north-​London partisan bias extant in our generally all-​but-​one residing-​above-​the-​river cohort.