Monday 12 March 2012

Tapped and Packed


I'd been recommend to visit Tapped and Packed by a few people ever since a shout was put out for more coffee shops for me to try. I was hoping for some closer to home, but these things are never as you want them.
Tapped and Packed have two stores one number 26 and the other 114. Neither of them are on the same street, but you'll have to goto their website to find out where exactly they are. More fun that way.
I had some urgent studying to do for an interview I had the next day. I needed to remember what sights are in which Indian cities, so I thought a trip into busy central London and away from the sereneness of Stoke Newington was the best thing to do. You could see I was slightly stressed and not thinking straight.
I went to 26, which just happens to be literally in front of Koba where we were a few weeks before sampling some fine Korean cuisine.
There is no sigh mentioning Tapped and Packed, just a large 26 glaring out at you like a beacon. For some reason this never hit me, I walked straight passed it, hit the corner and it dawned on me that I was there. Was a million miles away.
It reminds me a lot of Fernandez and Wells but with a slightly less industrial look and feel about it. Tapped and Packed has a few more seats and some nice seats against the side wall with nice mini tables   to the side. Reminded me a little of the Middle East in that way.
I was here to relax and study. Fat chance. The place has a good buzzy vide, with plenty of foot traffic, so i gave up trying to remember which city the Jamal Masjid is in and enjoyed my flat white and a baguette of chicken and a lemon thyme mayonnaise.
The flat white with its wonderful latte artwork, drunk well. Nice smooth roasting of some fine beans made this one of the nicest flat whites I've had in a while.
The lemon, thyme mayonnaise and chicken baguette was nice. It was nothing spectacular, i was a little saddened that it was not warmed or toasted, but the choicken was soft and juicy, the mayo was more lemon than thyme. But it was pretty good. Sorry no photo, as I'd ate most of it before i thought of taking a snap.
They have a wide range of other baguettes and some salads and soups on offer, which all looked pretty good on the eye. But it's the coffee that this place will drag me back time again and again.
On the interview the following day. It went well. Hopefully I impressed them enough to offer me the job. I'll find out next week no doubt when we are in New York.

Tapped and Packed on Urbanspoon

No comments: