Prufrock Coffee

NB if you are looking for the new,Clerkenwell branch of Prufrock, you will find it here - the review below refers only to the Shoreditch original.

East London: stomping ground of the coffee connoisseurs. No-one should pass through Shoreditch without a pilgrimage to Prufrock, the winner of our best cup of coffee award earlier this year.

What's the big fuss? Mainly that the shiny Victoria Arduino espresso machine has been operated by top coffee names, from the 2009 Swedish Barista Champion Mattias Björklund to the UK's first World Barista Champion, Gwylim Davies.

But our most recent visit offered surprisingly disappointing coffee: Square Mile's summer espresso was served in a proper, thick-walled espresso cup, but the flavours were oddly off-kilter. An eyebrow-raising sour note quickly ran off the tongue to a smoky, tobacco-like bitter finish. A dash of sugar redressed the balance slightly. Still, tempered in a flat white, we enjoyed the toasty brown bread and caramelised sugar profiles.

It's not often they get it wrong, and we've had enough great coffees here to know what they're capable of.