Saturday 7 July 2012

Lavish Habit - The Lav or The Habit?

I remember when the Lavish Habit site was an off license (Threshers I think), ideally placed for picking up a bottle when you’d forgotten to take one to Tagine for dinner. I was very pleased when shortly after the bottle shop had gone under a café was slated to move in.

When Lavish Habit opened it was clear it was perfectly suited to Balham. What does this mean? I’m not exactly sure but it was a great mix of clothes, gifts and furniture of the sort that Balhamites would buy. The café serving Monmouth coffee would appeal to locals who like to discuss Monmouth as if it’s the only decent coffee in London. The fit out was top draw, really well done and well thought out, a credit to those that developed this place.

I’ve been a number of times, and to tell the truth I haven’t been impressed. WHAT?! I hear you say, what more could they possibly do, great setting, atmosphere, coffee, food, what else is there? I’ll tell you, and it’s something that is so often missing from London hospitality – service. I’ve had two instances of my ordered coffee not turning up without further prompting and a farcical incident where I stood, waiting to order at the counter, three people stood behind the counter, chatting amongst themselves, I think it was one of the owners who eventually appeared from the kitchen to save the day. More recently I’ve noticed that when bringing drinks to the table the staff appear terrified that they are going to spill the drink and I’ve come to wonder whether the staff are not trained or interested in a job in hospitality but that they’re doing it while waiting for something else. They aren’t outright rude, just incompetent.

However, that said, I do go back, so it can’t be that bad, like I say it’s not rude and I almost feel sorry for them.

So that is the context in which I went in to this review.

This trip was with Mrs Spiller and Baby Spiller, I had a weekday off work so there was plenty of space so we were able to get a nice table, with space for the pram by the window. The order was two flat whites, a Bakewell tart/slice and a flapjack.

Let’s start with the service, it was good. Still slightly nervous staff but, we were seen promptly and the table service was fine. It probably helped that it was quiet but on this occasion I had no complaints so that was a great start.

The coffee was good, and to be fair it usually is. I’ve never had a bad coffee at Lavish Habit and this was another good one. Great flavour as you would expect from Monmouth, real bite, which I love. The texture probably could have been better, it wasn’t creamy like you get from people that really know how to work the milk but that didn’t detract much from my enjoyment.

The slices were both great. Really good, the flapjack was particularly nice as it wasn’t too buttery or greasy, but still enough butter for it to be a bit naughty.

So all in all a great visit, I do like this place, the service annoys me from time to time but a lot of thought has gone in to this place and I think it will deservedly do very well.

With the name Lavish Habit, I figured the short name could either be “The Lav” – if the place was no good or “The Habit” if it could potentially become a habit, the fact that I’ve been there so often I think it’s clear this is The Habit that is hard to break, even with variable service!
Sorry I didn't take any photos but there are a lot of photos of this place all over the web, it's very photogenic. Some spots to find photos (and some good bogs) include:
Scores

Coffee
Hot: 10/13
Aroma: 11/13
Flavour: 11/13
Texture: 7/13
Presentation: 8/13

General
Service: 8/13
Food: 11/13

Atmosphere: 10/13


Overall 10/13.