Oat milk flat white at Rapha

Wednesday was a good day.

I had lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in years (yeah, London), and we tried Kare Kurry, a Japanese curry place.

This little place used to be called Shoryu go, but closed/reopened/rebranded a bit ago.

We miraculously found a table, but it was freezing cold outside, and due to the place being very small, each time another customer opened the door, a gust of cold wind would hit all the customers (which is why many were wearing scarves and hats and even jackets).

I don’t really like to eat with my jacket on because it’s not comfortable, and also because I fear I’m going to get a big stain on it (and it’s not like washing a t-shirt—you’re going to have to dry clean it).

The food was acceptably satisfying, but I didn’t like that it was served on a disposable plastic tray, even when we were sitting in. It had a distinctive “cafeteria feel”, and I didn’t come there for that, I came for the comforting curry. Which it was, but it is a bit hard to appreciate when your fingers are starting to turn purple (and I’m just exaggerating a tiny bit!).

Picture of Rapha café interiors, depicting a café counter, with a lower fridge housing drinks; the café menu, a TV displaying cycling videos and cycling memorabilia on the walls, and a barista operating a coffee machine
At Rapha’s café

So as soon as we finished our lunch, we moved on to the Rapha café on the opposite side of the street.

One can only dream about Rapha’s technical clothing or perhaps partaking in one of their “clubhouse rides” which go on for kilometers and kilometers on rolling hills around London, carefully sketched out on the shop windows to entice people. But I don’t dress ‘technical’ when I cycle, and I also would not go on those rides with my very commuter-y Brompton bike (it hurts just to think of it). So I had browsed the shop before, and never bought anything. And each time I’ve wanted to try out their café, it’s been either too busy or closed for some special event.

But this was the day…

This was the day that not only would I try a new food place, but also a new café, and most importantly… also a new type of flat white, as my friend suggested I tried the oat milk flat white.

In fact, he was astonished I had never tried that before!

I normally order regular flat whites because of two reasons:

  1. personal taste: I like the amount of drink and composition (coffee vs milk) of a flat white best, compared to capuccinos, lattes, cortados, and etc…
  2. to use as my data point to compare between coffee shops: if you always order the same, you can make comparisons about strength, flavour, aroma, etc
A cup containing an oat milk flat white, over a table with a road map covered with a glass top
Oat milk flat white

So I suppose that’s why it didn’t occur to me to try the oat milk version. But, wow, that was actually really good. The foam seemed slightly (and I mean really, really slightly) thinner than a milk one, with bubbles a touch bigger, and it didn’t taste exactly like dairy tastes, but it was a very pleasant creamy and nutty taste.

The right way of making this comparison would have been with a regular flat white side by side, but we didn’t do that. Instead, I just enjoyed this one and made a note to myself to order it again sometime in the future. Perhaps I need to start a new list: best oat milk flat whites in London!

Rapha Soho
85 Brewer Street
London W1F 9ZN

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