Riverside Terrace Cafe

Location: You are in tourist no-man’s land between bridges so RTC is a bit of a reasonably priced spacious oasis to grab a coffee or a beer if you are strolling down the Southbank.
Ambiance: There is quite a bit of seating and an outdoor deck with a decent view of the north bank.
Food: I had a decent coffee and a pretty good shortbread.
Recommendation: A cheaper alternative to any of the restaurants on the ground floor.

A simple spot to pull over and grab a bite while playing tourist on the riverfront. House-​made soup was nice and more satisfying than the ready-​made sandwiches appeared, and it came with a great chunk of bread on the side. Also, this location has a rare occurrence of totally open (no password or registration required) and free Wi-​Fi available, something traveling Americans are used to back home.

Fantastic location for a summer evening drink — great view (we were lucky and got a red sky sunset the other day), laid back and surprisingly uncrowded (though it was a Monday). There is a lot of seating, and the staff are friendly.
Only downside — drinks from the outside bar are breathtakingly expensive. 7 quid for a (plastic) glass of wine. Ouch.

Nice little café. I had a nut and honey tart and a latte and the wife had a hot chocolate and a cranberry cake. Service was fast and efficient and the food was yummy. Drinks were on the small side, but everything was good value, so its not a big deal. Great location too.

This place is very stylish in a simple, contemporary way.
Everything is fresh and seems to be made on the premises. All the lunch choices look so nice it’s hard to choose. I saw other people having the same problem.
Today I had a salmon sandwich on Focaccia bread and the salmon was fresh and succulent and the bread top notch and tasty.
My cappucino was also very good… in a paper cup.
This is one of the best places to snack along the South Bank and I’ll keep coming back.

This part of the Royal Festival Hall is one of the best places in London to work. It has wi-​fi, and charming views of the Thames. The café may be expensive, but the prices are worth it, when you can sit and work quietly in such a pleasant environment.
Many people I know work there. I have too. I even know people who have conducted language lessons there.

London’s Southbank is the perhaps the cultural centre of the city and as one might expect it is full of people marching up from the Houses of Parliament to Tate. About halfway along, just to the left of Waterloo bridge, is the Royal Festival Hall, which hosts a range of cultural events. On the Hall’s glass-​fronted ground floor is a café, where the service is fast if a little brusque. The café appears is a member of the London based Company of Cooks chain, which serves the usual hot drinks and a small range of expensive, but high-​quality soups and sandwiches. The café seating runs from the front of the building to a third of the way in and, whilst there are usually newspapers lying around, wherever you sit you are granted a view across the Thames, and often the opportunity to listen in on interesting conversation, or some pretentious students at the very least. The café seating extends outside onto a terrace where the light is good and there are occasionally temporary sculptures. Further toward the edge of the terrace there are photogenic views across the Thames and of the thoroughfare below. Wherever you sit it is a wonderful place to watch the world go by, and worth a visit if you find yourself in the immediate area.

This is exactly what it’s name says. a café with a big terrace, by the riverside, on the South Bank. I came across it by accident while I was looking for something else, and desperate for a coffee!
It serves lovely simple home-​cooked food, scrummy sandwiches and soup and stews of the day, all made from fresh ingredients. It’s not particularly cheap, but not outrageous either, and the mocha coffee was great. One of the best things is the location. there’s a big terrace with great views of the river — lots of space to watch the world go by. I was ‘entertained’ by two rival trumpeters on either side of the bridge, which was actually quite funny. it ended up as something like that scene from a film I can’t remember, with the banjo players!
It’s quite an arty crowd there; I met a street poet and a musician. makes for interesting conversations.