Once upon a time, there wasn’t much good coffee around Victoria station, particularly in the stretch between it and Westminster, where the Flat Cap Coffee Barrow stood alone for many years. Then came the likes of Iris & June and Rag & Bone Coffee and things started looking up. More recently, the Nova development brought Timmy Green, Crosstown Doughnuts, Sourced Market and Notes. And now, if that wasn’t enough, there’s another crop of newcomers right next to the station, including Press Coffee, Hermanos and the subject of today’s Coffee Spot, Coffee Addict.

There’s not a great deal to Coffee Addict, with just enough room for a couple of tables outside and not much more inside. The main draw is the coffee, from old friends The Roasting Party, the Drake blend on espresso, backed up by batch brew and a small but tempting breakfast/sandwich menu, plus copious amounts of cakes and pastries.

August 2020: I’ve updated my piece on Coffee Addict. This is the original write-up, published in August 2019. For an up-to-date description, please see the updated post, while you can see what’s changed in my Coffee Spot Update.

You can read more of my thoughts after the gallery.

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Coffee Addict opened at the top end of Vauxhall Bridge Road in May this year, just around the corner from Victoria Station and opposite the Apollo Victoria Theatre. It’s run by Nina and Marco, a young couple who used to have a restaurant near Liverpool Street Station (Nina does all the flower decorations that make Coffee Addict so visually appealing). There’s considerable heritage to the site, by the way, since it’s the location of the first Costa Coffee, opened by brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1978. More recently, it operated as the Costa Coffee Boutique before closing in 2016, so it’s nice to see coffee returning to the site!

Coffee Addict is pretty small, with a single, floor-to-ceiling window on the right, glass door on the left. There’s just enough room for two small, round, two-person tables outside in front of the window, which shelter under a large, black awning, useful for keeping off the rain and/or afternoon sun. There’s not much more seating inside, where you’ll find a narrow, four-person table in the window to the right of the door and a four-person bar along the left-hand wall.

The counter is recessed into the back wall, leaving what is in effect a cube-shaped space, with a lovely, high ceiling and an amazing, central light-fitting. The right-hand wall is given over to retail shelves, where you can find bags of coffee from old friends, The Roasting Party. The floral decoration continues inside, with the left-hand wall given over to flowers, while the retail shelves are also lined with flowers.

Given its size, there’s a surprising amount to Coffee Addict, starting with a breakfast/sandwich menu, featuring favourites such as peanut butter and banana toast, sourdough avocado, and cream cheese bagels. This is backed up by a large selection of cakes and pastries which, displayed under the glass-topped counter, pretty much occupy its entire width.

When it comes to coffee, the Drake blend makes an appearance on a fairly standard espresso-based menu, although there’s also a daily batch brew option through the Moccamaster using whatever single-origin or blend takes the fancy that morning. I decided to have a cortado, with the Drake blend, as usual, going superbly well in milk, producing a sweet, smooth coffee. I paired this with a generous slice of the Pear and Almond cake. This too was excellent, a lovely, crumbly cake with a subtle almond flavour.