Other Café, Balls Pond Road

This delightful wee café is a welcome addition to the Dalston scene. It was opened less than a year ago and in the last three months they have extended to the downstairs. The Proprietor is a friendly Sardinian who takes great pride in the quality of the food he serves and the space he has created. The main part of the cafe is quaint and cosy but be sure to take a peek downstairs, which is every bit the east London take on a traditional drawing room, I particularly love the coloured glass fire.

This place is probably more exciting for a tea lover than a coffee connoisseur; choose from countless varieties of herbal and black teas. The Assam is particularly lovely, but I haven’t sampled many of the others yet. If you are in the mood to try something a bit different, the gunpowder green tea is worth a shot (no pun intended) ;)

The real joy of this café however is without a doubt the excellent food. The eggs florentine and eggs benedict are absolutely delicious, perfect hollandaise sauce if I may say so, easily the best I have tasted. I think people prattle on too much about the perfect Hollandaise, but if that’s what tickles your fancy, give breakfast at Other a try.

They also do incredible cheesecake, please take my word for it and give it a go. However if you feel like pushing the boat out and going for something a bit quirky to match your gunpowder tea, I recently let myself be coerced into trying beer and walnut cake, it sounded frankly unappetising, but was actually spot on, perfectly moist with well matched, experimental flavours. This place is a treat, the perfect venue to while away a rainy day J