When I first saw Qima Café on Instagram about a year ago, I knew that I was going to add it to my list of places to go in London. However, during my last visit in September 2023, it completely escaped my mind and only a few days afterwards I realized that I had missed my opportunity – Aargh!
So, on this occasion, earlier this month, my daughter who managed to visit the café even before me, made sure I didn’t miss the opportunity. In fact we almost missed out on it again and after attempt three, we finally made it on a Sunday morning.
In short, Qima Café is part of Qima coffee, an ethical coffee sourcing coffee business that challenges itself to source hard to find and very special coffees working with over 7,000 coffee farmers (that’s a lot and a serious commitment). I presume they created a café so that people could experience their passion to source and also serve great coffees.
I was intrigued to find a café with a bit of queue on a Sunday morning even in London, which often means two things – it’s a popular spot for tourists looking to tick it off their bucket or Instagram list and a cherished spot for locals. Nevertheless, I can’t say that I fit within those categories, as I had read about Qima about a year ago and was fascinated by their attachment to Yemeni coffee. In addition, my friend from Dubai (Mokha not Mocha), a Yemeni coffee grower encouraged me to visit Qima as they had previously worked together. So, you see this time I had to make it.
Although it was another rainy and cold Summer day in London, people were sitting outside under the canopy with their raincoats and umbrellas. As we tried to make our way inside, we could see that not only was there a queue but no seats inside. We tried to look for seats downstairs but as we made our way back upstairs to street level, my daughter’s determination was rewarded. As I queued up to place our orders for coffee, I noticed that most people in the queue were actually not planning to sit down but were ordering their famous pastries by the bucket load (English idiom for lots), but nevertheless we still had to queue as there’s only one for sit down and take out. A side note, pastries at Qima cafe are also quite famous.
Graced by Black Eagle silver espresso machine and décor that reminds one of an Arabian hut with sandy, desert tones, you instantly fell comfy and cosy especially with the seats decked with cushions too. They have a long list of different types of coffee on their menu including cascara, cold brew, filter and tea. I ordered a flat white and my daughter couldn’t resist their famous cinnamon bun or was it a roll?
After drinking my delicious coffee, I walked around and fell for the temptation to buy one of their coffees, which are so nicely packaged in these most keep bottles. I went for the Ecuador, but they also had two Yemeni coffees on offer too. Although I was tempted, I knew it was out of my budget on this occasion – holidays can be expensive as you know.
In short, if you have a bit of time to spare on your next trip to London – take the underground to Warren Street on the Victoria and Northern lines and it is literally a 2-3 minute walk to this must visit coffee shop in London, situated on 21 Warren Street.
