Cafe East

Instagram is (undoubtedly) now the best way for a restaurant to increase its footfall. Get a few good pics on the gram, a couple pages with a big following giving your food the thumbs up and people will be flocking at your doors!

And this is exactly the case of how (I think) Cafe East has quickly grown into a popular spot for Halal Foodies.

The presentation of their food and the vibrant colours from all the fruits is enough to make anyone want to visit this cafe to give it a try. But will you be hindered at all in your decision to visit if I tell you you’ll have to queue outside?

I visited on a Saturday evening, roughly 4pm (their opening hours are 9am-5pm) and had to queue for about 20 minutes outside in the freezing cold. *sigh* the things you have to do as a food-blogger.

Location-wise, the cafe is a 15 minute walk away from Mile End Station. So you’ll also need to factor that into your journey time if you’re not driving.

The cafe is ABSOLUTELY tiny. I’m talking you can probably fit a maximum of 40 customers inside at once, and even this is at the cost of having tables squashed together. Luckily we visited close to closing time, so after being seated at a table basically joined to the table next to us, we asked to be moved to another table which was empty with no one else next to it. (This decision was partly also driven by the fact that our neighbours had bacon on their plate, a smell I’m not too fond of).

Ok so this is probably a good point to mention – the Cafe serves both Halal and Non-Halal meat. There’s a (H) next to options on the menu that can be made Halal, so be sure to clarify to the waiter/waitress that you follow a Halal diet. Staff confirmed that there is no cross-contamination, and the Halal food is cooked completely separately, which is why food can sometimes take a while to come out.

The food:

Now to the important part – the food itself! I went for the ‘Beast from the East’ (2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 hash browns, bacon, sausage, mushroom, tomatoes and baked beans). The price for this was £13.90 which undoubtedly is quite expensive for breakfast.

But more surprising when my friend opted for the ‘French Meets English’ which consists of French Toast with berries, bananas & maple syrup, 2 eggs, sausages, bacon, sausage, tomatoes & baked beans, and all of this costs £8.90. Slightly confused at why my meal was a whole £5 more expensive when the only difference was that I had pancakes whereas my friend had French toast (?!).

Anyhow – asides from the rather confusing price list – I really enjoyed the meal! It’s definitely a meal that you have to take a picture of before eating because of how well presented all of their dishes are. There was a group of girls sitting on the table next to us, and they literally dug into their food as soon as it came – no pictures whatsoever. People like that still exist in 2018?! Beyond me.

None of the individual items were spectacular. All parts were pretty basic, as in the beans tasted no more amazing than beans do when I make them at home, same for the eggs, hash brown, etc. But for me it’s the presentation that really impressed me, and the mix of breakfast items with sweet (pancakes/waffles/French toast) and then fruit, all on the same plate. Something I haven’t seen done elsewhere, but no doubt a lot of other cafes will be taking notes!

The drinks were good, my only comment would be that they were a little pricey for how much you get. The glass that my drink was served in was tiny, and it costed over £3.

Overall I’d definitely recommend a visit if you don’t mind queuing for a short while before getting seated. The food is average-ly priced, slightly swaying towards the more expensive end. But if you’re a keen foodie who likes to snap their food then this is definitely a spot you need to visit!

Again – reminder that not ALL of their meat is Halal, so please be sure to ask for the Halal version of whatever you order.