The Best Coffee in Walton-on-the-Naze?

Something I love to do on holiday is visit coffee shops. I like sitting in new places, drinking a hot drink and watching the world go by.

On a previous trip I attempted to nail down the best coffee in Edinburgh, but this week we are in Walton-on-the-Naze, and I’m using the same, incredibly exacting, methodology to compile my list of coffee shops:

• Vaguely looking on Google Maps
• Wandering around
• Drinking coffee

I’m rating them out of 5 on three key stats: Facilities, Flavour and Funds.

Coffee shop reviews

We were here for a week, and Walton is a pretty small place, so I tried a decent chunk of the places that you’d think of for coffee:

Read the in depth reviews and scores below (Click the names above to jump down to them).

• 1st Place: Good Taste Cafe 4.5
• 2nd Place: Bianca’s Coffee House 4.3
• Joint 3rd:  Naze Tower Cafe 4.2
• Joint 3rd: The Nose Bookshop & Cafe 4.2
• Jo-Jo’s 4.0
• EastCoast5 4.0
• High Street Café 3.8
• Revved Up The Tea Bar 3.7

Good Taste Cafe

24 High Street
GoodTasteCafe.co.uk

This was my first stop, in our journey around the picturesque Walton. Good Taste Cafe is in an interesting corner building with loads of seating inside and out. It’s cheerful and interesting inside, not particular fancy or elegant; just a good solid cafe. Lots of daylight as well, I felt happier just walking in! Free WiFi also; I’d give it a 4.5/5 for Facilities.

The coffee I had was tasty and hot. No fancy foam art, but satisfying and good flavour. I had a mocha, probably should have had a latte too. My son had a milkshake and then chips and seemed extremely satisfied. Flavour gets a 4.5/5.

A milkshake with cream, Mocha from proper espresso machine, Diet Coke and a portion of chips came to exactly £10. Hard to argue with that, especially when they gave us a free extra can because the chips were slightly slow: it’s a 4.5/5 for Funds

Final score: 4.5

Jo-Jo’s

123 High Street
Jo-Jo’s on Facebook

A rather drizzly-yet-warm day led me into Jo-Jo’s, which has a real flurry of colour to it. Tastes may vary—my wife would call this horribly busy—but I think it’s cute and cosy. There’s mini-stall all round the interior selling local honey/art/jewellery from different creators, and a seating area outside which would have been much nicer on a sunny day. Inside had decent tables but no WiFi. I’m giving it a 3/5 for Facilities.

My coffee came from a bean-to-cup machine, but was admittedly very good. I didn’t have any of the food, but there was a decent range on some nice handwritten menus – hot chocolates with candy floss?! Yes please! Flavour gets a 4/5.

This place is exactly what you want for your family. Sandwiches for £3.50? Add on crisps for 50p. My cappuccino was £2.50, which was nearly the cheapest I had in Walton. Funds gets a perfect score of 5/5.

Final score: 4.0

 

Revved Up The Tea Bar

133 High Street
Revved Up on Facebook

This isn’t your standard cafe experience; Revved Up has no interest in being Costa. This place is open until evening, with occasional free live music and a welcome-to-your-local vibe of tattooed locals ready to hang out and play pool. Honestly, I’ve never been anywhere like it. Motorbikes inside, neon bar lights and t-shirts for sale. Plus, from the outside seating you can literally look out straight onto the sea. Absolutely unique Facilities 4/5.

Admittedly the coffee was instant, and came from a hot water urn, but that almost didn’t matter. You don’t come here for a pretentious latte, you come here to hang out. I also got a Kit Kat chunky and dipped it in my coffee whilst I listened to the waves. Decent! The food, otherwise, is pretty much entirely bacon rolls—vegetarians beware! Flavour is a 2/5 I’m afraid.

I got a Kitkat and a coffee for £2.50. They did take card too, with some friendly banter about charging me £2,500 – and then accidentally nearly charged me 25p! This was the most wallet-friendly of the places I visited in town, so a Fund score of 5/5 is well earned!

Final score: 3.7

Bianca’s Coffee House

59 High Street
Bianca’s on Facebook

Bianca’s is a friendly and stylish cafe with high quality coffee and a nice attention to detail. They have a little seating outside, and a comfortable interior with a sofa and comfy chairs round tables. There are various items for sale around the edges but not intrusively so. I enjoyed sitting here for an hour or so; the free WiFi helped. My only criticism was the lack of a toilet—the free loos at the other end of the High Street are fine, but a little bit far. Facilities 4.5/5

My coffee was great. Layered microfoam on the mocha, stylish chocolate dusting, decent size, good temperature. Best coffee I had in Walton: Flavour is a perfect 5/5

Pricing was on the higher end for Walton-on-the-Naze, but still enough to make Bristol, Manchester or Shoreditch look ridiculous. Two large coffees set me back £6.50, and it was well worth the money. Funds are 3.5/5

Final score: 4.3

 

Naze Tower Cafe

The Naze
Naze Tower website

Right at one end of Walton-on-the-Naze is a narrow eight storey tower with a stunning view over the ocean and sand dunes around Walton. There are actually two cafes here, one at the visitor centre in a shiny plastic building with plastic wrapped premade sandwiches that looks clinical and miserable. I didn’t really consider this one, because there’s also a cheerful coffee van, plus a kitchen inside the 17th century tower! Not sure why anyone would visit the tower and then not choose the cafe that lets you sit in the actual thing you’ve visited but people are weird. The tower is unique, beautiful, stuffed with cool art and lets you climb until your legs ache with views for tens of miles in every direction. This one is a 6/5 for Facilities, even though there’s no WiFi, and even worse you can see Clacton from the top.

My coffee was tasty, even if it was served in a disposable cup. They’ve got a proper machine in the coffee van; we also had jacket potatoes, sandwiches and cake. The food was adequate, if unremarkable; they score a 3.5/5 for Flavour.

The price is hard to be clear on. Yes, the coffee was slightly pricey, and the food was absolutely overpriced, but for buying anything at all we got access to the first two floors of the tower for free, set in the grounds of an idyllic and utterly unique location. Plus, it was still cheaper than food and entrance to a standard National Trust rip-off would have been, so… Funds gets a 3/5.

Final score: 4.2

EastCoast5

Old Pier Street
EastCoastFive.co.uk

This is the most high-end of all the cafes we visited in Walton-on-the-Naze. You could call it fancy, pretentious or classy depending on your mood at the time. It certainly felt like walking into a high end wine bar, and we were taken to a table where we were able to peruse separate food and drink menus, whilst chilled muzak played in the background. Seating is available outside, and there is free WiFi—hard to find anything to fault here: Facilities are a 5/5.

I had a coconut matcha latte; again, something that’s hard to find anywhere else, with a delicious slice of cheesecake. My daughter enjoyed her fruit-and-cream-garnished milkshake, althought her slice of blondie was a little sophisticated for her taste. Flavour scored 4.5/5

It fell down a bit on value, as the most expensive place we ate. A hot drink, two cakes and a milkshake came to £19.90, pretty much double what we paid for a similar amount of food at Good Taste Cafe. £12 for a sandwich is a bit rich for my blood: Value is a 2.5/5.

Final score: 4

The Nose Bookshop & Cafe

28 Newgate Street
TheNose.org

I love bookshops, and I love places that encourage you to sit, read and relax. My experience in The Nose ticked all of those boxes. Yes, it’s one of those places that’s got strange opening times, and there was a hint of damp that tickled the nose, but it’s also chock-full of books I want to read—and a typewriter I wrote a haiku on (I like haikus)! There’s free WiFi too, which you get the code for from a handwritten postcard they hand out. It’s aimed to be an all-purpose creative space for the community—we played a roleplay game here for a couple of hours and they were very supportive. Authentically idiosyncratic Facilities score a 4/5.

My iced coffee was very nice, and exactly what I needed on a day this hot. My son’s cold chocolate was a little grainy; he didn’t complain, but wasn’t exactly wowed either. No food on the menu, but thought given to vegans and vegetarians with milk options; Flavour scores a 3.5/5.

This was one of the cheapest places we tried, and most drinks clocked in at £2.50 or lower. Given the vibe here is “please come and spend as long as you want in our comfy chairs and read books”, I’d say the value for money was top notch: Funds 5/5.

Final score: 4.2

 

High Street Café

51 High Street
High Street Café on TripAdvisor

I think this is the most traditional “greasy spoon” cafe in Walton. Open early, closes mid-afternoon, hand written specials menu and classic range of fry  up breakfasts; I was surprised there was no one already inside wearing hi-vis on their way to a construction site somewhere—I don’t mean that as an insult; builders know a good caff when they find one. (During the course of my review a group of builders wearing hi-vis walked in, proving me right!). Accessing the toilet through the kitchen was fun too, if a bit weird. My only issue, as a vegetarian, is that the place absolutely reeked of frying bacon the entire time I was there. A plus for some, not for me though! Facilities get a 3/5

Coffee came from a Rijo machine and was nice enough, but unfortunately my brother had oat milk for his coffee and it came in a little jug, already separated. Possibly a little gone off? Not ideal. Flavour, sadly, only hits 3/5

Pricing was good, both on meals and drinks. My coffees were £2.60, nearly the cheapest I paid for a real coffee anywhere in Walton, and the cooked meals were just about cheaper than anywhere else we visited. Funds score here is a 5/5!

Final score: 3.8

 

Conclusion

I loved my time in Walton, and I’d happily visit any of these places again. We’ve got a podium finish for this one!

In 1st place, for overall experience, value and food, our winner is Good Taste Cafe!

Coming up 2nd, but providing the absolute best coffee for the money, I’d recommend Bianca’s.

Finally, joint 3rd goes to the breathtaking views and wonderfully unique building, The Naze Tower Cafe and the unique and enticing creative project of The Nose!