Bertie and Boo's

http://www.bertieandboo.com/
162 BAlham High Road SW12 9BW
020 8772 9987

Voted second in the Best Neighbourhood Coffee shop of the year awards.
Incredibly popular amongst the young families of the area and caters for young mums with small preschool children. With the door guarded by a blue paper mache giraffe and a child driven car parked on the decking. Bertie and Boo’s is a lively spot for a coffee. Run by a magician brother and sister team, it brags an impressive assortment of cup cakes, and muffins. Everything is locally made, including the painted teapots on display and for sale. Focaccias and sandwiches, and children’s meals are available and made fresh.
Coffee unfortunately is rather average, a long black is not quite strong enough and unfortunately rarely has a nice crema that can sit and stay around for a while. The latte can leave that “old coffee” after taste. Still, a take out (of any variety) is only one pound which is great for those quick morning dashes, when you can’t quite get your eyes open.
The décor is growing a little confused over time, as there are magic mirrors in one end of the café and antique books and brightly coloured tea pots cluttering the shelves. I like elements, but whether they fit together??? My favourite thing about Bertie and Boo’s (apart from free internet) is the old wooden school desks they have rescued and recycled as tables….great fun.
Bertie’s is a godsend if you are looking for a child friendly café where the staff don’t care if he smears chocolate cookie all over the table and spills juice all over the floor and then screams bloody murder for half an hour! Still if you are single, childless and haven’t developed your domestic deafness yet, give it a bit of a wide birth and remember that there is one pound take out coffee and the common is in walking distance!
B&B’s won neighbourhood café of the year! Congrats guys! You can see why, it is an asset to Balham, but it don’t make me want to dance naked in the street… if you know what I mean.