Pavilion Mentmore Studios

Pavilion Mentmore Studios is a cafe with excellent, gooey cheese toasties and near-perfect pastries, but inside it can feel as cold as the grey industrial estate it sits on. The smell of coffee and the bright blue and yellow seats outside are a siren song for bleary-eyed east Londoners. This Leyton spot does a flaky almond croissant worth rolling out of bed for, granola with the ideal ratio of chunky nuts to toasted, rolled oats, and delicious toasties with hits of mustard and sprinklings of spring onion. On the weekends, the simple bench seating fills up with lycra-clad cyclists cradling their Bianchis and runners in weighted vests. But the lack of artwork on the stark white walls, concrete floors, and always-open door, tips this from industrial cool to being a bit uncomfortable.