The Black Penny

I have eaten everything on the menu in this place and everything is excellent.
The Hunter and Gatherer breakfasts are just really tasty. Great baked beans. But everything else on the plate is really well cooked as well. The coffee will knock your socks off. It’s really strong and that’s not a bad thing for me anyway.
Nice staff, great food, good location.

Awesome breakfast and my boyfriend was delighted by the coffee (my hot chocolate was very nice as well). :)

Who knew London had a spot like this in an area like this.
You may walk by The Black Penny thinking it’s another pub, but in fact, it’s anything but (even though on the outside, it does kind of resemble it.)
On the inside though, you’ll find a library like spot with amazing coffee, free wifi and relaxed environment. I was very happy to sit and have a meeting here and then do a little bit of work.
Also, a nice cappucino which is always a win.
I’ll be back, no question.

This is such a cute little café which you’d easily miss being slightly set back on the street but it’s definitely worth a visit.
The main café seating area is designed like a library, so it’s perfect for meetings, working independently or just having a chilled brekkie or lunch!
The staff were overly attentive and friendly and greeted everyone with a smile.
Sadly they were out of hot chocolate so just a water for me but the coffee was apparently good and the food looked fresh and very appetising — the breakfast in particular! I saw a lot of creamy looking scrambled egg, yes please!
They also sell sandwiches for the on the go grab!

I was recommended to visit this coffee shop by a friend who raved about the delicious food, however, sadly my experience was not good. I was absolutely disappointed with the poor service of the floor staff who were unprofessional, and in dire need of training. Sadly, I did not stay to try the food, but who cares, the staff most certainly did not.

Stumbled upon this awesome place for lunch on our first day in London while walking to the Covent garden.
After traveling all night from the U. S, this place was a quaint, healthy, breath of fresh air. When you walk in you pass by all of the delicious looking pastries and freshly made salads. The tables are in the back in a little library-​type room.
We were welcomed with water infused with cucumber and I think mint (or was it basil)? We then ordered cold brew iced coffees that came in cute little bottles with the date brewed on a hang tag.
The best part about this place is that they offer a variety of salads and protein choices and you choose 1 protein and 3 salads! It comes all together on a beautiful plate. I had baked salmon with Dijon mustard as my protein and then the following salads: butter bean salad with roasted pumpkin and feta, fennel with pomegranate seeds, and apple, chicory and blue cheese. I’m def forgetting some ingredients but everything was fabulous! Wish we had a place like this in Baltimore.

Highly recommend this place for a lazy Sunday brunch but honestly you have to be in the mood for chilled. Everything about this place was so laid back. On arrival staff were friendly but we waited a while to be sat. We waited a while to be given a menu. And then we waited FOURTY FIVE MINUTES to get our food. To be fair the staff apologised and offered a free drink — I think our food order had got put to the back of a queue — and I was perfectly happy to catch up with my girl friends so it was no real issue (I was absolutely starving though).
Inside is nicely decorated and they have a few tables out the front which get the sun about midday.
I highly recommend the french toast with ricotta and apple compote along with a long mac. A few dishes I saw other customers get which looked fab included the chorizo and baked beans and the halloumi and eggs!

Great little café, I was very impressed! I really liked the large shared table in the back, would be excellent for a group outing.
The food and coffee were both great, and their BBQ sauce blew my mind. A little pricey, but really great value for central London.

Back in London for a few weeks. Lots changed but lots remains the same. One of the better developments is the opening of this lovely establishment. Unique amongst speciality coffee shops in the area in that it opens up early at weekends (7.30am on Saturday and Sunday) which makes it great for both those who are early risers as well as people in jet lag mode (eg me!)
Over the course of a couple of visits I have explored the coffee menu (well made with a couple of choices of beans) and delved into the food options. The bircher muesli was amongst the best I have had in London and comes complete with a choice of different fruit/​nut/​seed toppings. Even better were the slow cooked baked beans I had today which comes on toast with goats cheese and chorizo. The chorizo had melted into the beans, making this a glorious breakfast treat.
Easily the best option on the Holborn side of Covent Garden and one of my favourite spots in the capital.

Black Penny celebrated their opening day with a 1p coffee/​lunch deal today, so being that I’m in town visiting (and have time to queue), I waited around 40ish minutes to get my meal. So the cool thing about this place is that they have a head chef, so for a decent price, you’re actually getting a very quality 5-​star meal out of it! I haven’t checked out their event space downstairs (called the Seminar Pit) but at that means that there will be fun stuff going on at this place (meet ups, intimate concerts??), plus you get to have booze down there too. Coming from Vancouver where the drinking laws are pretty tight, this is a plus in my books.
I was looking forward to a few things, mainly the duck sandwich, but with the big promo, I didn’t get a chance to scope out the whole menu, plus a number of things ran out. What was visible to me when I got there were an assortment of salads, quiches and chicken thigh curry (plus pastries cakes and brownies which weren’t part of the deal). There is an assorted salad box deal for £7.50 (which seemed to be the main thing available to everyone), and I think that’s a great deal for what you’re getting.
By the time I was being served, there were only 2 salads left, hummus, aubergine dip, and a bit of curry, most of the salads and quiche were gone. The black quinoa and bean/​asparagus salad was really refreshing, and tasted even better with the zingy and smokey aubergine dip. I wasn’t too fond of the chicory salad, but that’s only because I don’t really like chicory. However, my next favourite was the chicken curry, it also had squash, bean sprouts and other nice veg in there. I liked that they used chicken thigh because it’s so much more tender than plain chicken breast. Even though I had the last of what was available, the kind servers gave me a card to come back for a free meal another time, which was really generous of them. I still would have come back to check this place out again even without the free voucher!
I definitely recommend this place for breakfast /​lunch, lots of healthy options that’s actually not boring!!!