Vanilla Tree

Excellent service and great value, high quality espresso, so good I ordered a second! Plus Orange polenta cake yum

Tolles Café! Hatte hier einen absolut genialen Reuben Bagel. Bagel und Salt Beef sind frisch und selbstgemacht. Dazu ein hervorragender Smoothie 😍

I visited The Vanilla Tree recently and had a deeply disappointing experience. After sitting down to revise while waiting for a friend, we were approached by a staff member named Charlie who, after informing us that the kitchen was closing, made a comment along the lines of, “So you’re not buying anything, just using our Wi-Fi and drinking our water… bit weird.” He repeated “bit weird” in a way that felt mocking and targeted. My friend, who has a medical condition involving low iron and often feels faint, had only taken a small glass of water to stay hydrated. We were polite, quiet, and not disruptive. The comment felt completely unnecessary and humiliating — especially as no one else in the café was spoken to in this way. We were also the only visibly brown people present. My friend left the café in tears. She felt embarrassed, singled out, and disrespected. I raised this privately with the owners, hoping for an honest apology or at least an acknowledgement of the emotional harm caused. Unfortunately, the response I received was defensive and dismissive. They insisted the staff member was polite and that the matter was now “resolved,” despite the clear distress it caused. It’s incredibly disheartening to be treated like this, and then to have your experience invalidated when raised with maturity and respect. I won’t be returning, and I encourage others — especially those from minority backgrounds — to be mindful of how welcome they may feel here.

I’ve been working in the area and have mainly been going in for coffee and maybe a bit of cake. The coffee is good and the cakes have been lovely, however today I ordered the Reuben bagel and it was amazing. So good it made me want to write a review. Honestly the only downside is I’ve left it so long to order one of their bagels.

Nice place. Need to visit a few more times to properly review it. (It's a tough life! 😀)

Friendly service, bagel was decent but not the best I’ve had and more expensive than the others I’ve had in London even. The dessert was nice and moist with a nice jam centre.

Very nice cafe - coffee was good