Cafe Ila

london's specialty coffee scene has a habit of concentrating its energy in zones one and two, which means anything east of stratford tends to get overlooked unless you know where to look. cafe ila on fencepiece road in ilford is one of those places worth knowing about. it sits in ig6, which isn't a postcode that gets written up in the broadsheets, and that's probably fine by everyone who's already found it. the local reputation here has been built quietly and held, which counts for something in a city where coffee shops open and close on roughly the same timeline as pop-up fashion brands. if you're heading out from central london, the elizabeth line makes ilford far more reachable than it once felt. a weekday morning coffee on fencepiece road is a decent reason to make the trip.