Elbow Room

Nika Jazaee refuses to give Elbows Cafe the cold shoulder.

The brown and beige exterior of the family-owned Elbows Café next to Hackney’s Victoria Park makes you think of coffee. So one grey Sunday my friend Alina and I found ourselves stepping inside for one.

The seats outside Elbows make it stand out from its neighbours, and although from the street it looks quite small, once you get in and past the counter, the cafe opens up into a bright area lined with big windows that look out onto a garden.

Elbows has a good choice of homemade cakes and other food, from which we chose a blueberry cheesecake. It arrived looking like heaven on a plate: stuffed with fresh fruits and tasting so good that I could have devoted an entire review to it.

The latte and americano were average, and the milk was a bit over heated, making the latte too hot. But on the plus side that meant we could enjoy the cosy atmosphere of this little family café for a bit longer before the coffee got cold.

The prices were possibly a tiny bit lower than people are growing to expect in gentrified Hackney. One latte and one americano together with the heavenly cheesecake came to eight pounds.

Our verdict? 4 out of 5 tomatoes.

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