Monmouth Coffee Company

The original Monmouth Street shop, the one the whole company took its name from, tucked into a narrow Covent Garden alley since 1978, long before 'specialty coffee' was a phrase anyone used. The street itself sits in Seven Dials, a small warren of seven converging roads at the edge of Covent Garden that's kept more of its old London character than the tourist heavy piazza a few minutes' walk away, and Monmouth has been part of that character for nearly five decades. Still run with the market trader directness that history implies: no oat milk menu theatrics, no latte art competitions, just good beans sold straight.

Monmouth roasts its own coffee at a site in Bermondsey and sells it whole or ground at the counter. Closed Sundays is a rule the shop has never bothered to soften for tourists. Dogs are welcome too.