I have been to a lot of cafes in London. Not in a "10 best brunch spots in Hackney" listicle way — I mean genuinely, over the last decade, I have made a habit of trying every independent that opens within walking distance of wherever I happen to be. A few hundred is a fair count. I drink filter coffee almost exclusively, mostly batch brew, and I am the kind of customer who asks what the bean is before ordering.
Of all of them, the one I keep going back to is Hermanos Colombian Coffee Roasters. They are, in my view, the best independent coffee operator in the country right now.
Who they are
Hermanos was founded by two Colombian brothers — Santiago and Victor Gamboa — and their friend Adnan Millwala. The name is Spanish for "brothers". Everything they roast is Colombian and most of it is direct-trade through farms the Gamboa family has personal relationships with. That is not a marketing line; you can ask the staff which finca a particular batch came from and they will know.
They have nine London locations as of 2026: Portobello Road (Notting Hill), King's Cross St Pancras, Columbia Road, Victoria Station, Stratford, Walthamstow, Whitechapel, Barnes, Walworth, and Aldgate. The Portobello Road shop is the one I treat as home base — 127 Portobello Road, just up from the market, with a pink shopfront and a small bench outside that catches late-morning sun.
What they have actually won
I am not normally one for citing awards on a cafe recommendation, because most coffee awards are vendor-paid. The London Coffee Festival ones are not. In 2025, Hermanos won both Best Independent Coffee Shop and Best Coffee Shop Operator (10–50 locations) — a rare double. The Independent rated them Best Overall Coffee Subscription in 2026. Vogue, Forbes, and Time Out have all featured them. I am noting these not because they should change your mind — try the coffee first — but because they line up with what I have been telling friends for two years anyway.
Why I rank them above everyone else
Three reasons, in this order.
First, the batch brew changes daily. Most "specialty" cafes pour the same single-origin filter for two weeks before swapping. Hermanos rotates the bean every day, sometimes twice a day, between specific Colombian fincas. If you go on a Tuesday and a Friday in the same week you will get two genuinely different cups — different region, different processing, different cup score. For someone who actually drinks the coffee rather than ordering it as a prop, this is the single thing I value most.
Second, the consistency across nine sites is unusual. Independent chains usually peak at two or three locations and then quality erodes. Hermanos has held the line. The flat white at Walthamstow is the same flat white as Portobello. The staff training is real, the grinder calibration is checked, and they care about the same things in zone 4 as they do in zone 1.
Third, the room itself. The Portobello shop in particular has the right balance of bustle and quiet — busy enough that you can sit there for two hours with a laptop without feeling watched, calm enough that you can read. It is the rare cafe in central London where the music is at the right volume and the lighting is warm enough to read on a grey day.
What to order
Order the batch brew. Whatever they have on. Ask the barista which one is on today; they will tell you the region and the processing method without making it a performance. If you are new to filter coffee or you do not love a "fruity" cup, tell them and they will point you at a more chocolatey washed Colombian.
My current favourite is the Delfina — a Colombian single-origin they have been rotating through these last few weeks. Soft, balanced, more cocoa than citrus, the kind of cup that does not punish you on the second mug. By the time you read this they will probably be on something else; that is the point.
If you want milk, the cortado is the move. The flat white is also great. Skip the filter-coffee-as-iced-latte construction; that is not what they are best at.
A small note for cafe owners reading this
Most of the people who find this post will find it because they are looking for a good cafe in London. Some of you will find it because you run a cafe and you noticed I write about coffee. If you run a cafe and your website looks like a 2014 Squarespace template — or you have a great product and nobody local can find you on Google — that is what I do for a living through Seahawk Media. I am not pitching here; I will not put a CTA at the bottom. But the email is on the homepage if you want it.
If you are visiting London
Go to Hermanos Portobello on a weekday morning before 11am. Order the batch brew. Sit at the bench outside if the sun is up, the corner table inside if it is not. The Notting Hill walk after — through Westbourne Grove, down Ledbury Road — is one of the nicest twenty minutes in zone 1.
I will be there most Tuesdays around 10:30. The cup in front of me is almost always the batch brew.