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| Cafe Moka, Harringay N4 |
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| Cafe Moka, photo copyright Harringay online |
Cafe Moka is owned by Mauritian cook, Kevin Vanthem. The name has an interesting pedigree, being both a tribute to a town in Mauritius and a reference to Moka Bar, one of London's best-known espresso bars in the 1950s. Kevin runs the cafe, ably assisted by his mum and partner. It's only been open a few months, but A is already a regular and gets a warm greeting from Kevin as we walk in.
It's a lovely room - the exposed brick walls and Don Drapery 60s armchairs are stylish if nothing new, but there are individual, thoughtful touches too, like the shelf of books and toys, and a box of blankets for customers braving the early spring chill in Cafe Moka's small courtyard.
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| Brownie with ginger, Cafe Moka Harringay |
A's big talk about the brownies meant I was duty bound to try them and report back to you, dear readers. Cafe Moka's brownie passed with two gold stars and a merit - dense, rich, fudgy in the centre and spiked with ginger. A slice of coffee and walnut cake, covered in slick frosting was equally delicious. Cafe Moka gets bonus points for stocking my favourite (and inexplicably hard to find) chocolate flake tea by Teapigs. Try it - it's malty, chocolatey and a bit amazing. The cafe does breakfasts and lunches too, and sells bread from a local artisan baker to take away.
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| Coffee and walnut cake, Cafe Moka Harringay |
Cafe Moka hosts occasional Mauritian evenings, and is also planning regular art and Scrabble nights. It's charming, friendly and serves delicious brownies - what more could you ask for in a neighbourhood cafe? Thanks A.
Cafe Moka, 5 Wightman Road, Harringay N4 1RQ (no website)
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10 comments:
Glad you liked Moka - and glad you liked the photo. Readers of your blog may be interested in seeing the rest of the photos here. We've added a post about your blog here
At last!! The chocolate flake tea makes an appearance. It's enough to get me there so good call.
Harringay online - thanks for your comment, hope it's ok to use the photo - we visited on a busy saturday so I didn't get a good shot of the room.
Peeps - for some reason it seems to be the hardest to find of all the Teapigs. Chocolate flake tea for all!
Brownies, chocolate walnut cake and Scrabble evenings - brilliant! Perhaps they could start a trend for more cafe's having Scrabble/games evenings. Beetle anyone?
I'm not usually in that area but I will certainly give this one a look if I am!
I have been to Moka and loved it. Next time you're up that way check out Mezzo on Green Lanes for a great breakfast :) Long Live Harringay!
Love that place! So friendly, and indeed a rare source of Teapigs chocolate tea... yummmm.
Would've been a great hide-out, hang out, work spot, and much more, if it wasn't for the obnoxiously rude, and pretentious Kevin?
You see, I recently discovered this quaint looking cafe on Whitman Road as I was cycling past one morning, and have been eager to visit since.
Today, I decided to work from outside my office and invited my neighbor to join me for a coffee at 'Moka'. We were greeted with a smile and when asked for the points, were instructed not to plug in our laptops if we weren't eating lunch. Bizarre treatment of first time customers, but we managed to negotiate an hour.
Seeing that the cafe was half empty, and the five people sitting around were working on their plugged-in laptops and sipping on what looked like cold coffee, we opted to stay a tad longer . At that point my friend felt hungry and ordered lunch. Despite that we were rudely asked to unplug our laptops and when we mentioned that we've just ordered lunch and others were also sitting with just ONE coffee and plugged in laptops!, the not-so-gentleman snapped, and went on a rant accusing us of “sipping on one coffee” and proceeded to tell us that unlike the other customers, we were not regulars!
Whoever is running this place, if it was the “gentleman” serving us, clearly does not know the first thing about customer service, or basic human decency. We are your potential “regular” locals, sir!
Not anymore!
Hi anonymous - how strange, I found them friendly in there and my friend who is a regular has got to know the owners and they are super friendly. If what you say is correct, then that's a real shame, on the other hand people lingering for hours over laptops is a real problem for cafe owners and turnover.
Thanks for your comment.
Ah i just did a whole North London feature and this would have been perfect for best coffee gem! alas. Can't wait to visit though! Love the blog
http://breakfastbrunchbakeries.blogspot.co.uk/
Holly x
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