Tina, We Salute You

Wonderful little coffee shop with nice people and great food. The kitchen closes at 3 pm though! They have every kind of breakfast you could want!

Crazy name, down to earth food and service.

Pleasant local cafe serving an unpretentious line in breakfasts, coffees & teas.

Chanced upon it when staying with a friend round the corner & it's the sort of place which, if my lifestyle required it, I'd frequent regularly if it was on my doorstep.

OH TINA! You have saved me.

I am in the midst of moving house. This involves: no WiFi at home, and massive amounts of trawling up and down and around Dalston to source wonderful items of household joy such as toilet brushes, bins and doormats.

Rest assured, i am generally not having fun.

However, prompted by the same sign that Mei L. saw, I popped by for a coffee and a quick snark of their internets. I've been here for 2 hours, had three (very, very good) lattes and watched their current exhibiting artist painting his mural on the stark white interior of the cafe. It's looking good to say the least, and the outlook for the afternoon is considerably improved.

The people running this little oasis are super friendly, and seem to have endless conversation, which is good in an area when anything vaguely stylish seems to be overrun by those with their finger so on the pulse that maybe their own hearts have stopped beating.

Tina is peeking around the corner with a cheeky look on her face, as some Rai oozes out of the stereo. I'm eyeing up their serrano ham sandwich and most certainly will have one of their brownies. Oh, they've changed their tunes to Joni Mitchell now. Hmph.

I would also play some scrabble with someone, but i'm sat next to a 5 year old with a serious addiction to hot chocolate. It might get messy. Mei - when you're next about I challenge you to a connect 4 duel!

The only drawback to this ace place is that coming with laptop means that you're restricted to sitting inside, and it sure is sweaty in here... which has sadly stripped one star off my review. I still salute you though Tina.

Good, but not amazing.

I'm judging based on a brief visit and one coffee, but there's so much competition in the cafe arena in this area that I won't be back right away. The latte that my wife and I split was not cheap (£2.80, I think) and tasted decent, but a tad bitter. Hard to say if it was over-roasted or over-extracted, but I wasn't blown away.

The people were nice and the place is cute and light, with the requisite outdoor tables for nice weather, but we sat at a slightly weird high table thing that had some sharp edges and forced me to sit sideways because there's no place to put your knees.

To be clear, these are not major complaints, but like I said, it's all relative, and the fierce competition from places like Mouse and de Lotz, Haggerston Espresso Room, Reilly Rocket, etc., mean that I might not be back here for a while.

Last two weeks this place get zero stars.

They can't get your meal right. They don't have more than half of items on menu. And food just became like another greasy spoon.

Not returning

I stumbled upon this little gem of a coffee/tea/homemade cakes and sandwiches shop thanks to a cute little sign on Kingsland Road. The hand drawn board directed me around a block or so to this absolutely adorable cafe called Tina, We Salute You.

Since I'm basically a dirty whore for free Wi-Fi, I went five times in one week (and would have been there six times, except they're closed on Mondays). As a result, I have tried a great deal of their tasty menu.

Drinks: They've got delicious coffee, locally roasted in the East End somewhere. I have had their excellent flat white (my new favorite drink discovery since getting to London), a fresh mint tea full of big green sprigs of, you guessed it, fresh mint, and a big fancy pot of tea. Yes, I was told they had a fancy pot, and they did not disappoint. Shiny, mother-of-pearl, gleaming, old school, vintage, grandmotherly, and full of piping hot English Breakfast.

Food: DELICIOUS homemade flapjacks (for you Americans, this is not a pancake, it's more like a granola bar, plus sweet caramelly toffee deliciousness for a little indulgence). Very tasty sandwiches like the ploughmans with thick cut brown bread, excellent mature cheddar, onion jam and rocket. They've also got a good hummus sandwich and serrano ham and a few other tasty varieties. I also had a great homemade almond croissant.

Other delightful aspects of Tina:
1. The cafe is named for a saucy little minx featured in a painting on the wall. Apparently she's by a fairly famous artist from back in the day. Very sexy and very salute-able (yes I made that word up).
2. The decor is great - bright white walls that make the place feel open, big windows for eyeing the passerby, cool bubbly cartoon murals in happy colors(one being drawn while we were there), and these funny little pastel pompom thingies hanging from the lights that make me feel like I'm in a happy acid-induced wonderland.
3. Instead of making you keep track of a small and extremely lose-able piece of paper as a frequent buyer, it's all drawn on the wall. Every time you order a drink, you get to write a star next to your name with a permanent marker. Not only is this very handy, it makes me feel like I belong somewhere, dammit.
4. They play good music from an iPod, including one of my favorite
albums ever, Baduizm by Erykah Badu.
5. They have good magazines and board games! If anyone wants to have a Scrabble game sometime over a flat white, you know where to find me.
6. The guys there are super super nice and let you hang out on your computer, like the dirty Wi-Fi whore you are.

Conclusion: Go! Eat! Drink! Surf the Internet! Play Scrabble with me! See you there.

One of my favourite places for coffee. The only downside for me is that I live *just* too far away to make this a regular haunt. Consequently, I tend to only come here in the summer when the walk is pleasant and nice. When I arrive, this coffee shop's popularity is there for the world to see as people drink their coffee beverages on seats on the pavement outside and inside at communal tables.

The coffee is first class - made with love and care and square mile beans. The cakes are good as well. If you do sit inside, you get to admire the decor which is done by artists and is rotated regularly. What is not to like?

I'll second the previous reviewer's, uh, review. Tina is a wonderful place with great windows, a large communal table, wonderful people and a surprisingly gifted kitchen.

I'm always wary of overstaying my wifi welcome, but the gents at Tina only came round to chat me up...not stare me down. Well done!

I can see why Tina's is so revered. The coffee is good (using Alchemy rather than Square Mile advertised in the window), the wifi is free, service friendly and the interior arty. As the only quirky establishment in an otherwise barren retail landscape of betting shops and off-licences, it's no surprise if hipsters fall on to this place in their droves. Macbooks, natural fabrics and cycling paraphernalia were in much evidence when I dropped by.

But it's far from perfect. My £6.50 bought me a rather stingy two (not the usual three) pancakes, and while the accompanying berries and maple syrup were most welcome, it was clear that the pancakes themselves were store bought rather than freshly made, confirmed by the staff. Speaking as a pancake lover I can say that's a real rarity in London, something I've only encountered twice before. Quite honestly it'd be better if they sold no pancakes at all. As it was these left a sickly, artificial taste in my mouth.

I'd be four starring Tina's if it were only about the coffee. The terrible pancakes bring it down to three.

A wonderful neighbourhood cafe. Excellent coffee, snacks and an elegant interior. Now I just have to find more reasons to go to Hackney.

Price - £4 with a flat white and crunchie topped cupcake