Combibos Coffee, 93 Gloucester Green
‘The arsehole of Oxford’. ‘Whoever designed it must have been on crack’.
Arguably an eyesore on the city of dreaming spires, Gloucester Green is contaminated by the bus station next door, a great prevalence of pigeons, and an ugly mix of shops. Sitting in the bleak square can feel like you’re trapped in a red brick box. To add to this all, on the particular morning I went to Combibos, my friend and I, before we had even uttered a word of our orders, were told by the lady behind the counter that there was a forty minute wait for food, because ‘the kitchen was very busy’. On what has been said so far, if I were the owners of this coffee shop, I would be worried about even so small a food review as this one is.
Fortunately the owners are the Hanss family. And they know good coffee. The roast they use has been ‘Hanss’ selected for its caffeinated goodness, so even though my partiality to black coffees means I don’t get the chance to appreciate the signature Combibos ‘latte art’, (down to the precise and fresh steaming of milk apparently), I enjoy my coffee a lot.
It also costs a mere £4.50 for said good coffee and a hearty breakfast, to satisfy even the most voracious of appetites. Their pancakes, sprinkled with icing sugar and served with a little pot of maple syrup, are delicious. By the time they arrive, I have finished my coffee but they do an equally good job of keeping my fear of pigeons at bay.
Combibos deserves its acclaim as one of The Independent’s top fifty coffee shops, if not for placating my bird phobia, then certainly for coming up trumps, and delivering something marvellous against the Gloucester Green backdrop.
