Notes

One of the biggest draws of this place is that it’s not a Costa or SB! As a result it gets super busy & if you are more than 2 people you need to hover for a large table or squish into the side wall area. The coffee is quite good, with the emphasis obviously more on quality than the production-​style coffee-​buckets favoured by chains. With that in mind you will be waiting depending on how busy they are.
Though I didn’t eat the lunch menu looked appealing & the evening menu, while more light tapas than meals, did look nice. My chocolate cake was moist & rich.
Unfortunately the thing that annoyed me most about this place was the staff. Two different waiters were rude to my BF during our visit, one snapping at him when he missed the word «lunch» on the chalkboard & tried to order a sandwich at 4pm. They are good at rushing about looking cool, not so much at delivering customer service. For that reason I won’t rush back, but as a beacon of quality in a coffee wasteland I’ll not rule out another visit in the future.

Let me start by saying I was probably already positively predisposed to this place as it is that increasingly rare entity, an independent coffee shop in central London. So I guess I came for the indyness, but stayed for the soft lighting and sophisticated vibes.
I found its atmosphere quite unique as it is both a coffee shop and a wine bar, which gives it a very continental feel.
Although the food menu was small and more in the style of tapas-​y bites rather than full meals, there was still a good selection of sharing platters, snacks and cakes.
Unfortunately I’ve had to dock one star as they serve their teas in take away cups (even if you’re drinking in) which the planet lover in me screamed at… But environmental qualms aside this is definitely a great bet for an after work drink/​bite with a sophisticated edge.

It’s absolutely heaving most of the time, but you can find a spot where you need if you’re patient. They don’t have the best system for finding you, and although I was offered chocolate cake (which I nearly took) and coffee by a bemused waiter who decided that despite the two teapots on my table that we were the obvious targets, it’s a great and easy location.

Great place to have morning coffee in a rainy day :) Enjoyed stopping by on my visit to London. Lots to choose from — tea, coffee, wine.

Near The National Museum this café is a great spot for a well made flat white. I wish I recall the name of the pastry I had but it was amazing. I think this would be a good first date spot for a coffee before heading over to see some art.

First time the steamer broke so no latte. Not a espresso drinker so did not know how to tell if it’s good. 2^nd day managed to try the soy latte and it taste great! Good coffee! :) friendly staff!

Great coffee! Like its sister café on the other side of Covent Garden it does great coffee! Also realised it does Matcha Lattes, which i am a great fan of, but hadnt realises until i had already ordered, so will have to try it next time.
Lovely coffee place but great wine/​drinks little bar for the evening too, interesting offering of variety of wine at decent price.
Worth the visit

Enjoyed Notes so much I went twice in my short visit to London.
Don’t let the respectable looking baristas with normal haircuts fool you. Notes is serving up excellent coffee they roast themselves, and those pre-​professional looking squares behind the counter take pride in their craft.
They have cold-​brews ready in individual glass bottles, and they take their time going for the perfect pour-​over. Subtle hints of coffee culture can be found in the airy space.
A real treat in the middle of tourist central.

Strangely, in a place so much bigger and more spacious than Monmouth, I feel much more crowded… But thankfully the coffee is also crowded… WITH FLAVOUR! Boom! I’m here all week.*
Writing this as I have my second visit since happening upon Notes last week and entering without checking the reviews. Now, I have not yet tried their food, so take this as a review of their coffee and service/​atmosphere, not their offerings for eating.
Both times, my coffee was very smooth, slightly on the warm side (a concession to «high street customers» who I know complain a lot of what they see as «Luke warm» milk-​based coffees.) but not to the point where it’s too hot. The foam on my Flat White (£2.80. Expensive for me, but worth it) was creamy and smooth and not at all frothy, overly dense or stained with burned coffee. The drink itself is surprisingly bold for a «place like this». Often, the tendency is to be quite timid with the beans which ends up with a drinkable and pleasant but ultimately dismissible coffee. This flat white forced me to pay attention, and now I’m a fan! This is based off coffees from two different baristas, which speaks well of their consistency.
Edit: just had their espresso, and it packs the same acidic punch, as I had expected. Beautifully done! Zero bitterness, all zest. Some sweetness coming through as well, nice and complex.
It’s not a place to go for chilling out. Conversations are loud and the ceiling is high. While I’ve shared a table with several different people at Monmouth and not had a lot of physical space, I don’t get a lot of mental space here, I feel crowded most of the time, and I imagine if the place was less busy it’d feel really empty. So a point deducted for that. But this is on a busy street with busy people, so I doubt it’s an issue for most.
As mentioned, the price was… Hm. It’s not cheap, but for the quality of the drink, it’s reasonable! Considering I just paid £3.20 (plus 10% forced service charge!!) for a bad coffee at Tom Tom (review definitely coming up for that one…) I’m definitely okay with it. It’s London I guess.
Would absolutely recommend, and will be coming back, but will bring my headphones.
*not really here all week. I don’t even live in London.

Wine, tea or coffee? Notes has them all! We opted for a couple of glasses of wine to cool us down and relax us after an hour or so of wandering inside the National Portrait Gallery. Notes is just across the street, a few minutes walk from the museum and we found it via the Unilocal app on my phone.
We walked in, perused their wine menu, and since I couldn’t decide, I just asked the barista for a recommendation for a white wine. (Can you tell I’m missing Paris already?) He gave me a recommendation and my husband and I ordered the same thing. We paid and he told us to find a seat and he will bring our glasses to us. We chose to sit toward the back which was nice and bright thanks to the skylight above. They have a large communal table, as well as smaller intimate tables, and a wall of wine bottles on display in this area.
They do sell food here too (both savory and sweet stuff), but we did not order any. At that point in the afternoon we just wanted to enjoy our wine and decide what to do next. Even though they did not have wifi, I was able to connect to a Hotspot there through my AT&T International Passport app, so we were able to find a place for dinner that’s close by.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive place to have coffee, wine, tea, and food around the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery area, this place is a good option. They have lots of tables and choices for your dining pleasure!

Stopped here for lunch and a drink after visiting the Portrait Gallery. It’s a nice café with a good amount of seating. The service was friendly and quick. I had a toasted mozzarella and sun-​dried tomato sandwich. It was delicious. Crispy, warm and filling. I also had a pot of mint tea made with fresh mint leaves. It was excellent. I would definitely recommend this place to friends.

Sweet little coffee shop in the heart of the tourist district. The coffee is pretty good and better than most coffee shops.
There is plenty of seating inside, friendly and courteous staff and a mixture of locals, students and tourists.

What are we looking for when we step off the street and into a coffeeshop? Good coffee, obviously. Service that makes you feel welcome, yes please. A nice ambiance and atmosphere, yeah why not? This place has all these but still is quite forgettable. It’s great coffee, friendly service, décor is maybe a bit bland — maybe that’s it, not enough personality.
If you’re after something to fill you up or pick you up, then you won’t be disappointed. You just won’t rush to tell your friends about it either.

Lovely café in the centre of town but when i went on Sunday it was over-​crowded, slow service and over-​priced. £3 for a cup of tea?
It’s good to know there’s somewhere fairly good for a coffee in the centre though.

Updating my previous review and unfortunately it is not an improvement. Notes have had a development into a more and more busy place which seems to really impact the quality and service they provide. Upon my last 4 visits i have been able to order what I want once and all the remaining times they have claimed that they are too busy to prepare coffee (handbrew). If that is the case perhaps better to remove things from the menu instead. Quality has went downhill as well so while the espresso based coffees are still good the one hand brew I got was pretty and and the batch brew makes no one happy. They still have some decent pastries and salads but this used to be one of my go to places but I am now more or less using it as a back-​up in case my main options in the center are not open or full.
The wine part of the business is still good but I do miss the previous high quality coffee.

This was a lovely stop on a chilly afternoon walk. I enjoyed a delicious cappuccino and a «Blondie» brownie, which I have to say was one of the best I have ever had. The café was crowded, and I had to sit at the coffee bar instead of at a table, but it was a welcome respite from the chilly outdoors. The barista was very friendly and welcoming, even though it was so busy in there. I will definitely go back next time I am in the area. I knocked the review down one star only because of the experience of sitting at the «bar». I was jostled quite a bit by people passing by, and felt a bit «in the way». Some way of encouraging lone people to share the big tables might help with that. But otherwise — awesome. Don’t hesitate to try it! The nibbles are simply wonderful.

Notes is one of those famous, well regarded shops among coffee aficionados, but unusually it doesn’t disappoint, as so many high profile places have before.
The place has so much going for it: a great location right next to Trafalgar Square (but not occupied by many tourists), a very good cup of coffee (tho’ not exceptional), super nice, super efficient staff who work well as a team and know what they’re doing and, surprisingly unusual, actually want to do it and do it well!
The layout is pretty much perfect text book coffee shop. It’s roomy with a mix of attractively designed tables. There are plenty of two person tables around the edge and a number of communal tables down the centre. The twin tables are close enough together to adapt for a group of 4 or six people if the larger tables are full.
When I went in it was busy given the time of day (around 3.30) but not packed so my perfect table was there waiting just for me! The only downer during the visit was lack of wifi, which seems to be increasingly common and rather unfortunate, as my experience is many ‘pay’ for their free wifi access by buying a drink and food. They perhaps wouldn’t go in otherwise!
Ok, another downer was the lack of padding at the back of the wall seats and their narrowness. It made it hard to get comfy as your back is forced against the wood back fixed to the wall.
As mentioned, the staff were polite and friendly so that scores them an extra point. The cake was very nice but not mega. The coffee was Rwandan, a favoured country of origin, and a tad on the acidic side for my taste, but good. I think they roast their own now, but not 100% sure. Prices are OK given their location and it make you think how Birmingham shops get away with similar prices and actually less quality in the main — outrageous IMO!
Definitely A place I’d go back to if I was around about the area. It was a place I’d like to spend more time in and watch the world go round. Shame about the wifi!

I came here on a first date a few weeks ago, and when he suggested somewhere right next to Trafalgar Square, I admit my heart sank. ‘What a tourist trap it’ll be!’ I thought to myself, ‘If only he’d used Unilocal to find somewhere more interesting!’
But Notes was a lovely surprise — so busy that we had to wait 10mins for a table but actually more studenty/​trendy than touristy. I liked the communal wooden tables and arty light fittings, and it goes a vital step further than your local independent coffee shop by serving booze too! Win.
I’ll have to come back to try the coffee but there looked like enough different types of brew to keep the connoisseurs happy. We got there as the early evening drinks crew started drifting in so went straight for the wine list. It’s table service in the evenings and our waitress was smiley and attentive (up until we wanted the bill, then we lost her for a while).
I’ll admit to being slightly distracted from my date by things to look at — firstly the fun mix of people, working on laptops, reading a book or the paper, or catching up with friends. Secondly, the awesome skylight in the ceiling. And thirdly the fact that they were screening an old Bill Murray film that I couldn’t remember the name of. Oh yeah, don’t ask me why but they also randomly sell DVDs (the cabinet under the TV screen will prove I’m not kidding!).
Not sure I’d stick around for food in this setting but a fun place to chat over a couple of glasses of white wine, and a quirky cool date alternative to dark loud cocktail bars (though I do enjoy some of those too). I was impressed enough to steal it as a future first date suggestion myself, though actually given the chance of awkwardly bumping into that guy again, maybe I’ll keep it for mates!

Exceptional espresso, just small for a double, and the server was a little brusque and uppity — but then again, it was quite crowded, and apparently not a place you just pop in for a quick cup on the go. Rather it’s table service only — at least after 6 pm on a Friday.

Meh. I really, really like the atmosphere of this place, so we came back after a previous pleasant visit. To my surprise, espresso this time was lukewarm and with an acid taste beyond what is acceptable.
A real pity, this was a 4 stars place first time I came. I’ll give it another chance because the ambience is very nice.