J+A Café

Yup, I’m a fan. I love the fact that it’s literally 32 steps away from the office. I love that you actually can’t see this from the street (I missed it 2 times the first time I came here). I love the inner courtyard, even now during the winter, because I can only imagine how great this is during summer… I went for the combo soup+sour bread at 6,5£, and it was delicious every time. I had to force myself not to grab my friend’s roast-​chicken sandwich, it really looked amazing.
I went pretty light things, but everytime I see the «stew» on the menu, there’s this little voice in my head that tells me.“choose this”.
Next time for sure!

Christoph and I decided to venture out for lunch today and he introduced me to this beauty! Literally 2 minutes from the office, 5 minute walk from Barbican station, and I’d never noticed it before, the reason being because it’s slightly hidden away but what a great spot to find.
We walked down the ginnel that leads to a quaint courtyard and the home of J+A café, which is spread across two buildings — we were directed into the second building as the first was full and grabbed a table.
The café is open and beautifully lit (even on a grey, dull day) by the large windows. The furniture is simply rustic with a large bar area at the back. A warming atmosphere and filled with works wanting to grab a relaxing lunch.
The staff were attentive and polite and quickly reacted to each order (drinks, food and bill).
I opted for the steak and quinoa salad — it was the same price
(£14) as the chicken salad so why wouldn’t you?! The food came quickly and I was very impressed with the presentation, especially because they were in the middle of their lunch rush and the place was packed.
The steak was cooked to perfection. Beautifully raw (even though I wasn’t asked) and it literally melted in my mouth. The salad was also delicious — served with sweet potato, quinoa kale, tomato and rocket — it was a health-​tastic array of flavours and complemented the steak perfectly. I especially liked the garlic mayo side sauce which accompanied salad, it brought all the flavours together.
I also gave Christoph’s soup of the day (spicy tomato) a try and that was packed full of flavour and very large in size.
I left full (which is rare for me after a salad) and very satisfied.

Niché dans le fond d’une petite allée, le J+A café est un endroit parfait pour un petit déj. Partis un weekend à Londres, mon hom et moi même souhaitions manger un breakfast à l’anglaise avant de repartir et je dois dire que c’est l’établissement rêvé !
Des murs de briques, une jolie déco simple mais efficace, une ambiance cosy et un comptoir hyper gourmand, ça donne envie !
Le personnel est très poli, on nous apporte rapidement notre commande: pancakes et pancakes sucrés, jus de pomme et jus d’orange. La qualité ET la quantité sont présentes, autant vous dire que je n’ai pas réussi à terminer mon assiette de pancakes avec ces deux oeufs brouillés et sa montagne de bacon.
Les prix sont… Londoniens. Compter 8£ l’assiette environ
Mise à part ça, cette adresse vaut vraiment le coup !

Wieder eines dieser Cafés, in denen man am liebsten den ganzen Tag verbringen möchte. Das wäre auch problemlos möglich, denn hier gibt’s von Kaffee und Co., über Kuchen und Süßigkeiten bis hin zu verschiedenen herzhaften Gerichten alles, was das Herz begehrt. Außerdem gibt es noch die benachbarte J+A Bar, in denen man den Abend ausklingen lassen kann. Im Sommer lädt der Innenhof zum Verweilen ein. Man muss sich also quasi gar nicht mehr bewegen.
Mich hat es nun eines Mittags hier her verschlagen, am großen Tisch in der Mitte des Cafés war noch was frei und gibt dem Ganzen diese nachbarschaftliche Flair. Man trifft sich, man isst gemeinsam, man kommt in Kontakt. Die Mittagskarte reicht von Salaten und Sandwiches bis zu Suppen und einigen warmen Gerichten. Allen gemeinsam: ausgewählte Zutaten, schön angerichtet und vor allem reichlich. Für mich gab’s das Chicken Sandwich, dass man erstmal auseinander bauen musste, um es essen zu können. Lecker und wirklich frisch.
Wer dann noch Platz hat, kann sich bei der Kuchenauswahl austoben. Für uns gab’s ein Stück Carrot Cake zum teilen und der war wirklich sagenhaft lecker. Hat mich überzeugt, mich da mal öfter dran zu trauen. Alles in allem ein Ort, an den ich gerne wieder zurück komme.

I needed to meet someone for a working lunch at 1pm on a Friday, which I know can be tricky in Clerkenwell. J+A is big, there are at least three distinct bits, and we sat upstairs which wasn’t rammed.
Service was friendly, and we each ordered a fairly simple lunch option. My quiche with salad was OK, nothing amazing but not terrible. My companion’s potato wasn’t baked to that point with a crispy skin, so was a bit meh.
I think this looks like a great place for coffee and cakes, or for drinks on a sunny evening, but I’m not rushing back for a full meal.

Booked for brunch for 5 on a Saturday. The place was rather busy. We shared a long table with another group of people, which is ok in general but then the table wasn’t that large, we were a bit squeezed, seats were uncomfortable, the order was taken wrong, service was slow. I was a bit embarrassed I brought my guests there.
I would go back for a coffee or a light breakfast during the week may be. But definitely not a proper weekend brunch with more than 2 friends.

5 stars for ambience, 3 for food.
As others have mentioned, sweet spot down an alleyway with restaurant to the left and bar to the right of a cute courtyard with tables, chairs and fairy lights. Rustic, simple décor which is ubiquitous these days. I got the eggs florentine and my friend got the scrambled eggs on toast– both were solid but nothing to write home about. As someone else mentioned, the poached eggs were too well done, which was unfortunate because, in combination with the spare amount of hollandaise, that meant the eggs florentine was pretty dry. Overall though, fresh and decent food which was well-​presented. Looking forward to coming back on a sunny day to sit in the courtyard.

Pros: good coffee great atmosphere nice servers.
Cons: eggs Benedict was uninspired. The sauce tasted non homemade. Pancakes were fine if not a little bland.
We would like to come back for tea or a cocktail and sit outside. Definitely more of a coffee and pastry place than a brunch location.

Best breakfast around! This cute little café is the perfect spot for a delicious weekend breakfast.

This is a hidden gem — food is absolutely delicious, generous portions at reasonable prices! Great buzzy vibe and very friendly staff.

Great place. I have been coming here for years. Its location offers literal hidden charm in a loft style setting. A great place for brunch on the weekend and a great place for lunch during the week. They always have a selection of awesome cakes and the coffee isn’t too bad either. Tucked away in an alley its great in both winter and summer. Very nice indeed.

Had a brunch with around 8 people here and it was really good. Really cool building and atmosphere, service was good, and food was wholesome, tasty. Best of all — not insanely expensive (Almost impossible to find in London).
Had major food envy when my mates ordered the bacon pancakes. Coffee was great too.
Booked for 16 people, about half were hungover and couldn’t come, and the staff were really nice about it and they just easily moved a table away to make it better for us.
Only suggestion to them would be to work on the Bloody Mary! Was ok, but it needs some flavors and I want to taste the vodka…
Will definitely return soon.

Frankly awful. To say the staff are undertrained and indifferent would be massive understatement. Food underwhelming.
First time, and last. I give it another year, tops.

So… It happened I was walking around, looking for another place to have my late coffee on a Sunday afternoon and suddenly, a group of people stepped out of a door that led to an alley that led me to J+A Café.
There are two buildings, one on each side of the alley. One of them is a coffee shop where you can have brunch/​lunch and the other, apparently, is a bar. I just went to the ‘restaurant’ part because all I wanted was some coffee and cake.
The place is really nice, airy and bright, with simple decoration. The staff was lovely, always with a smile on their faces even though it was almost closing time. Always appreciated.
Brunch was over when I arrived, so I didn’t have a chance to try the food. But I did try the cakes and they were wonderful. I had the Chocolate Guinness Cake with Baileys and clotted cream on the side and I just have one word to describe it: MARVELLOUS!
The coffee was also really good. Much better than the one you will get for the same price in any high street chains.

Really cozy and cute place. I discovered it by chance on a Sunday afternoon after having lunch. I just wanted to have coffee and cake and I found J+A. Perfect place. The brunch time was over but they had an amazing cake selection. I chose the Guinness Cake with Guinness Liquor on the side. MOUTH-​WATERING. So good with my cappuccino.

I used to work very close to this cute little place and I couldn’t stop going back for lunch! Everything about this café screams awesome: the décor, the staff, the atmosphere, and most importantly, the FOOD.
I always get the yummy sandwich specials but they have a great selection of pastas and rice dishes which you can first check out by the cashier (it helps to make a choice). And because their incredible desserts are also always on display, I can’t help to get a delicious slice every time. Apparently all their food is sourced from their own gardens, hence why everything tastes so good.
And lastly the staff… they are all very friendly and it seems they love working at JA Café. Well, I love eating at JA Café! Will miss working close to this place.

Niché entre 2 immeubles, c’est un peu le quai 9 ¾: dur à trouver mais ça vaut le coup.
Et cela donne un charme indéniable au lieu, avec sa terrasse cachée du reste du monde!
Parfait pour un petit goûter/​thé entre amis.

Alert: this is a very wonderful bar in the evenings. Can you say gimlet? Did you know this? I did not… I stumbled upon it by happenstance and feel the world should know.
Repeat: THIS IS A BAR in the evenings. After the brunch and lunch items are stowed away and the sun starts to fade, guests can still pop into the alley and into the beautifully paned and glass paneled building that houses the spirts, beers and wines…
In addition to a fantastic bar staff.
You might even find yourself treated to one of the best Cucumber Gimlets in London… dare I say, the world. Followed by a Sloe Berry (sloe gin + french sparkling, oo la la) you’ll be tottering off to dinner a bit worse for the wear, but surely much more bubbly and full of gin-​inspired hubris.
Oh, wait. Yes, that was me last night.
I’ve enjoyed a lunch, brunch, breakfast on occasion at J&A and have always been quite happy. Tucked away (as others mention), nice simple food that is hearty and well thought out. Friendly service.
Their bar area is greatly underrepresented — and thus, I felt it was my civic Unilocal duty to inform the masses. If you are seeking libations in Clerkenwell, do not skip over J&A thinking it just to be a daytime café. The magic truly comes out to play at night.
I shall return, as should you. It’s not crowded, but I can’t say it will stay that way for long — I have to imagine anyone that pops in for a cocktail (in the most proper of stemware, no less… swoon) and finds this gem nestled between the alleys (and not brimming with drunks) takes a deep breath and promises «I’ll surely be back.»
There’s a BAR here. A good one. In case you didn’t catch it…

You’d never find the J&A Café. Don’t even try, you won’t find it.
Ok, do try, because it’s worth it, and you will find it, because it’s two medium sized buildings tucked down a decorated alleyway. So once you know what you’re looking for, you’ll see it easily. But it’s one of those spots that you have to accidentally run into while exploring London or be told it’s there or you’d never go.
So I’m telling you it’s there, now go.
This is a fantastic lunch café. You know it’s good because when we got the menu, we all went, «Oooooh god,» and had no idea what to order. The choices were too much and all of them too delicious looking. I got the steak sandwich and it was damn near perfect. Tender steak, delicious break, hot and crisp chips. Yes. The quiche was filled with peas and came with a side of peas, so that was a little strange, but it was still tasty. And the mushroom pie was hot and flaky. Yes.
We were seated at a long communal tablewhich was a little tight in the smallish space. Every time someone walked behind me, they ended up pushing into my back. Not so much fun. I eventually had to sit forward so I didn’t get shoved every few seconds. Ah well.
It’s not cheap but it’s not expensive either. A middle of the road café with above average food. Go out of your way and stop here.

Amazing hidden café near farringdon, it’s through a tiny little alcove and the café is split on two sides. But it’s quite a well known secret because by the time we got there, they had nearly run out of everything I wanted to order. (But Hurrah, they found the last pie for me– I was seriously lucky last week!)
The hot chocolate came with a monster marshmallow. None of this mini stuff, and IT WAS amazing, I’m sure it would be more amazing if i left it in the hot choc for longer…
We also ordered steak sandwich and the quiche. The quiche was super pea-​y (I dont know how else to describe it, but the expensive peas, not the frozen ones. amazing flavour!) And my pie was excellent, it came with a mountain of mash that I didn’t end up finishing because I think I would’ve died from pastry and potato overload, there wasn’t alot of meat in the pie, which is my complaint.
It’s fresh food, and the prices reflect the area, so it’s not cheap but it’s a solid option for lunch/​work lunch. It’s got nice open spaces and a communal table too.

Don’t get me wrong, I REALLY, REALLY like J+A Café. I really do. (Really). I just happened to experience a collection of minor annoyances when there (and afterward, which I won’t get into too much detail about… but I will say that there were a lot of fruit-​flavoured antacids involved). Sadly, these minutia added up and collectively discoloured my time at J+A.
The spot itself is beyond adorable — while its presence is indicated by a small sign flanking the excessively shop-​and-​café-​laden Clerkenwell Road, J+A Café is actually recessed within a small courtyard slightly behind street-​level. This courtyard, furthermore, is everything you’d want a little, indie, hippie, summery courtyard to be, with red, white, and blue bunting hanging above the walkway, fairy lights streaming in the same fashion, and appropriately shabby-​chic, slightly rusted, coloured steel patio furniture along each side of the yard. However, as it was daytime, and it was a lovely 3 degrees outside, we could not sit in said area.
Entry into J+A is a tiny bit confusing, as it is split into two buildings, if you will — on the right, the bar, and on the left, the restaurant and café. Both were packed when we approached (and it was about 2pm… I suppose it is 5 o’clock somewhere), so it was difficult to tell which one to enter. We ultimately opted for the left door, and ended up in a very woodsy, earthy-​looking room, complete with wooden ‘community’-style tables and benches, flower pots and watering cans abound, and a huge chalkboard with the specials of the day written on them. The café itself isn’t very large, so a server spotted us immediately and sat us at the only open table.
So, here is where my small annoyances start. I’ll list them here.
1) I ordered the garden pea and goats cheese quiche, which came with a regular, mixed greens salad and a ‘special’ salad (either the seasonal veg of the day, a quinoa, cous-​cous, or barley type of grain salad, a brown rice salad, or potato salad). However, I was really craving soup, and asked the server whether I could get a side of soup, instead of the salads, with my quiche.
2) No. I would have to get an entire, £6.50 serving of soup, in addition to the £10 quiche with salads that I didn’t really want in the first place. This was apparently due to the till not being able to accept side orders of soup. Okay, fair enough, I guess. I didn’t want to eat a full portion of soup on top of a full meal, so I just let it go. I had asked the server what her favourite side dish was, and she said the brown rice dish; I wasn’t really feeling that, so I ordered the veg of the day as my side salad (which happened to be braised cabbage)…or so I thought.
3) We were, admittedly, in a hurry, so it didn’t help matters that the food took a little longer than average to come out — about 25 – 30 minutes. I think we ended up waiting longer for our food to be cooked than we spent eating it.
4) When my quiche (finally) came, the plate had both the brown rice and braised cabbage on it. Why, I will never understand. I did not ask for the rice. And… we were still charged for the rice. Which, again, I did not ask for. Since it was just a single portion, and already covered in braised cabbage juices, I figured I’d just shut up and let it go (a recurring theme, it seems).
5) Remember when I mentioned that the bar and café are separate from one another? Turns out, the kitchen is also located where the bar stands… across the courtyard. One wouldn’t think that a 10 second walk outside would affect the temperature of food much… but the entire top half of my quiche was cold, as was the rice.
6) Garden pea quiche, to me, means a quiche WITH garden peas in it. Not a ladle-​full of garden peas with a bit of egg thrown in there to hold it together, and crust on the bottom. It was all pea, no quiche. It’s a good thing I don’t mind peas, but not as a main dish… I don’t know. I guess I ordered the wrong thing.
7) Since the restaurant space is small, as I’ve mentioned, every time a server happened to walk by our table, my bag and coat kept getting knocked off the part of the bench I had placed them on top of. This happened throughout our meal.
8) As our meal was coming to an end (which was another prolonged event, as it took ages to get the bill), I ordered a soya latte to go. When it came, I was given a bowl of sugar cubes, but no spoon. After some internal debate as to whether I was that desperate for some sugar on top of the caffeine boost (the answer is always ‘yes’), I ended up using my finger as a stir-​stick. Only after I had done this did the server notice and ask me if I wanted a spoon…
I’m prepared to give J+A Café another chance because I’m a real sucker for a great ambience, and fairy lights. However, I will be ordering something else, and I will bring my own spoon just in case…

School chairs, school tables, school pipes, school doors… but it’s not a school, it’s a lovely, bustling café hidden down a little lane, with delicious food and friendly staff! Love!
HUGE baked potatoes with generous fillings, delicious sandwiches and a whole array of ever-​changing specials make J+A Café a lunchtime-​must, not to mention the vast selection of cakes, cookies, brownies and other sweet treats decorating the counter-​space.
We were sat up on the first floor which was empty when we arrived just after 12pm and packed to the rafters when we left an hour or so later. I had the club sandwich — chicken, bacon, salad, avocado etc. on fresh white bread. I’m not sure if they bake the bread in-​house but I wouldn’t be surprised, it was deliciously doughy.
Although being absolutely stuffed after the huge sarnie, which came with a scattering of vegetable crisps, I couldn’t help but partake in sharing a slice of Chocolate and Guiness Cake with Josephine B and Kevin L. With a generous layer of icing, a splodge of cream on the side with a dash of Baileys over the top, I enjoyed the cake very much. It had an interesting texture, hard to put into words, perhaps slightly stodgier than your average cake, yet I loved the almost bitter taste of Guiness paired with the sweetness of chocolate. It wasn’t sickly but quite rich and I don’t think I could have managed a whole slice to myself!
Still…never say never!

Wonderful little find this.
A courtyard accessed from 2 sides by small narrow lanes, furnished with cobble together garden furniture means that this place offers a rare opportunity to sit outside without hearing any road noise in the middle of Farringdon.
There is a small section that is covered by a makeshift ‘awning’ type thing but I suppose if it did rain, you’d quickly want to move inside — which is not at all a bad thing as the place is nicely done out with an industrial looking twist, very homely.
Service was impeccable and always punctuated with a smile — I’d like to think the lovely ladies serving there were just smiling at me but honestly, I just think they are nice friendly people and good at their job (I’ll just live in my bubble for a little while longer)
I had the sandwich of the day, fried chorizo, cheddar and home made pesto, damn it was great! Proper sandwich too, with doorstop bread slices that were not at all regularly shaped, looked a lot like a heavy-​fisted boxer had squashed and cut the bread actually, marvelous.

When you find your way to this hidden café off Clerkenwell Road, you’ll feel as if you’ve stumbled upon a secret. Expect it to be buzzing with digital types on their coffee breaks and the odd yummy mummy with a posh pram.
I thought it slightly strange that their take on a full English, the J+A Breakfast, did not include baked beans. Nonetheless it was a fine meal and with the addition of jam for my toast I was well satiated.
Those enamored of exposed brick, menus on blackboards and industrial flooring will feel right at home here. There’s plenty of light streaming in and the vibe is congenial.
I’m quite keen to return to J&A Café for lunch. Who’s coming with?