Stoke
Newington is not an area I'm familiar with. Ben and I were en route to another
destination, but while driving down the High Street our attention was grabbed
by the presence of some enticing looking cafes, so we decided to stop and check
out the situation.
There were
a few viable options in the vicinity for caking, so this won't be the last post
about the area (it's very exciting to discover a new locale!). On this occasion
we agreed to sample the offerings at Lazy Social.
There is a
lot to like about Lazy Social. The name, for one. What a great name for a cafe,
right? Who doesn't want to go to a cafe to be (1) lazy and (2) social.
The decor
is nicely done as well, from the external facade to the inside which features a
bike rack (decorative as well as functional), wooden flooring and old wooden
school tables and chairs.
 |
This bike
may have been purely ornamental
|
The internal space is of a good size - I think they could even fit in a few more seats if they rearranged the layout.
A decent
range of cakes are attractively displayed on an open counter top at the rear of
the cafe, alongside a gigantic coffee machine.
The
service, however, was a little odd.
- There were quite a few staff members milling around the counter not doing a lot.
- My cake was handed to me on a plate at the counter after we placed our order, so I had to take it to our table myself. Ben awkwardly hung around waiting for his cake to be handed to him, until he was told to go sit down and they brought it out later.
- Cutlery is self-service.
| A teaspoon with which to stir my tea would have been nice (rather than a wooden stick). |
The cakes
were not really up to scratch to be honest. They were OK, but lacked any wow
factor. The coffee was ranked similarly. The milk for my tea was served in a
small paper cup, similar to ones used to give urine samples - it felt a little
cheap.
I'm not
sure how long this cafe has been open, but it feels like they have their
training wheels on. I hope they get up to speed soon, because I believe this
place has a lot of potential and I wish them all the best.
I'm on the
fence with this one.
