Coffee & Co at The Maltings opened in Llantarnam at the start of February. I had no idea it had opened until two messages arrived in my inbox a few weeks ago.
One said: “Worth popping by, it’s done out beautifully with a great menu and seating area…I can HIGHLY recommend the banana bread and oat latte!” and a second said, “it’s lush and independent.”
Lush! I love that word and haven’t heard it in years, so this was one message that caught my attention.
The cafe is part of the small shopping centre at The Maltings, and its next door neighbours are Llantarnam Vets, an independent practice that opened last year, and a Tesco Express store. So the score is: Independent businesses 2 Nationwide chain with over 2,700 stores 1 🙂
I popped in today shortly before the lunchtime rush. And it was a (nice) rush with a buzzy, chatty atmosphere across the tables around us.
We went for the Banana Bread- a slice of banana topped with yoghurt, granola, berries and drizzled with honey’ (£6.50), and Poached Eggs- two poached eggs served on buttered sourdough (£7).
Lattes
Our food was served with two extra hot Lattes (£3.50) each. The rest of the menu was packed with lots of options for breakfast/ brunch, toasties, paninis, salads and jacket potatoes.
The weather was nice and several customers chose to sit outside in a covered area.
Warm lighting
The interior has a cosy feel with warm lighting in all the right spots- that complement the large glass walls that let natural light flood in.
My wife is used to my random Cwmbran Life requests. I went to the toilet just before we left. My phone was left on the table. I felt the toilet was worthy of a photo, so I asked her to pop in and take a photo for me. I didn’t want to stand up and walk through a packed cafe to the toilet I had left seconds earlier. Fair play, she took a cracking photo and also complimented the lovely loo.
The cafe is a dog-driendly. The cafe, vet and supermarket all share a free car park
Great food, great customer service, great drinks and a great toilet. Lush.