The Rookery Café 37 Streatham Common South, London SW16 3BZ

"Lovely cafe with friendly and helpful staff. The coffee is absolutely delicious as are their hot chocolates. They have a great menu with a range of options including plenty of veggie things, and clearly use high quality ingredients. A great place to stop as you wander around the common and Rookery gardens."

"Used to love this place but the regular/more experienced staff (who’d remember the regulars and their names/dogs) appear to have long gone — and the food / coffee prices have skyrocketed to astronomical levels!!! That’s certainly driven down my attendance to once every 2-3 weeks vs 2-3 times every week. Wondering whether you’re tracking your footfall x average spend, and seeing the same trend across your punters, more generally. If so — suggest you try to return to how you were!"

"Perfect spot to relax and enjoy a good cup of coffee, before your walks around the park. On the special occasion it was a raining day."

"Firstly I would like to say how much I enjoy the rookery cafe and have been a very regular user for many many years. The location is fantastic and the food is good quality. Unfortunately lately it’s a shame to see the quality of service sadly deteriorate. You never know wether they will be serving hot food and the excuse is always the same (short staff) and no sincere apologies are ever given. It’s become a case of if you don’t like then go elsewhere which is such a shame because many a great cafe as gone under with this attitude. I really really do hope that the management start to get a real grip on the problem we user’s are experiencing lately and the place can once again become a pleasure to visit. Wishing you all the best sincerely."

"There has been a cafe here for years and years, my grandmother when she was alive used to bring me and my brother here when we stayed with her for the weekend. Then there used to be a 10p machine out the front where you could get a suprise ball with a yo-yo or tin ring inside, there was also a ride along kids machine. The owners used to be Italian and we would order a plate of egg and chips with ketchup squeezed all over the chips in squiggly patterns, they had a counter for ice-creams with lots of flavours and sometimes we would have big chocolate biscuits with chocolate chips in. Some years after my gran died I returned to the cafe to delight in egg and chips once more. There was such happiness to know the place was still there. Then about 4/5 years ago I returned once again but it had changed hands, you could no longer buy egg and chips instead this had been swapped for buckwheat, sourdough and smashed avocado. And the cost had gone up quite considerably. As nice as those things are, they don't have the same fondness and comfort of that Italian cafe on the hill. I visited again recently with my son, we were too late to order any food but did order some hot chocolate at the door (they don't let you inside). It seems that you can order on an app or by card at the door, I am not sure about cash . We ordered an ordinary hot chocolate and a special hot chocolate which comes with whipped cream, marshmallows and sprinkles, as my son is vegetarian he could not have the marshmallows (perhaps the owners could think about catering to the vegetarian/ pescatarian/ vegan diets by buying some non gelatin marshmallows). When the hot chocolates arrived it seems the sprinkles were freeze dried raspberries, not brightly coloured sugar strands, which my son couldn't eat either - so I picked those off for him and he proceeded to get whipped cream and chocolate all over his face! My hot chocolate was the simple one. The outside seating was clean, looked recently done up and kept us dry. The staff were functional more than welcoming, perhaps to be expected at the end of a wet Saturday afternoon, and overall the cafe was a welcome break in the rain but how I missed the nostalgia of my youth and that my son would not have anywhere near the same kind of love I had for the cafe on the hill."