Randomness Guide to London Menu

Small cafe/coffee bar opposite Brockley Station. It opened in late 2009 on the site formerly occupied by Dandelion Blue.

Note: Browns was refurbished in early 2013 (see photo). Our previous comments on the layout — "The ground floor is small and crammed with seating, with even a sofa at the far end. The basement is a little less cramped, housing just three booths with low tables, each with room for 5-6 people to sit around." — are now probably out of date.

Kake and Sarah visited on a Monday evening in November 2011 (note however that as of February 2012 they are no longer open in the evening). When we arrived shortly after 5pm there were already several people in, a fair few of them with laptops. The upstairs was mostly full but there was still some room in the basement. The resident pug was wandering around during our visit, which made Sarah rather happy. Music was playing, not too loud.

We had a few glasses of wine (served in water glasses) as well as a bread/cheese/meat platter photo and a couple of extra-large sausage rolls photo. It was all good quality, the cheese was a very generous portion, and they were happy to give us a refill on the bread. They told us that they source their cheese from a place in Peckham and their bread from Tottenham, and they make their own butter (it was indeed good butter).

Accessibility: Can't remember if there's a step to get in, but in any case it's pretty cramped on the ground floor (NB this may have changed following the refurb). The toilet, along with some of the seating, is in the basement down a flight of stairs with a handrail that only goes partway down.

See also:

• Time Out review (Charmaine Mok)
• London Stuff review
• Pinch Of Salt review
• This, That And T'Other review
• Too Much Coffee forum thread
• Bean Hunter comments
• Qype comments
• Yelp comments