Sacred

This is my first time marking a place down for cleanliness (though Coffee Monkey’s weird ketchup smell came close).
Ok, so this branch of Sacred is in a mall, but it’s a nice mall. The only way to keep that corporate ambiance bearable is to really embrace the beautiful cleanliness that literally shows off your investment.
Instead, we got crumbs all over the counter where my friend and I sat, and no one even paying attention as I reached over to the service side to get napkins for wiping the surface.
Ultimately not a huge deal, but it is when there’s nothing else to love about the ambiance or look of the place (including the food – normally I’m a cake junkie, but it looked like these cakes had been sitting in the case for a while).
My decaf flat white was good, and it was a quiet place to sit for a while, so Sacred gets bumped up to three stars.

Wow. Chain this may be (if in the UK, a small one), but the flat white I had here was excellent: smooth, faintly sweet and at a good temperature. Quite pricey too — £2.70 for a regular flat white or latte and £3.10 for a large one of either — putting Sacred’s offerings at the high end of coffee prices (Nude Espresso-​based flat whites at Bush Hall Dining Rooms 10 minutes walk away are almost a pound less). To be fair though, they’re well-​crafted (check the latte art) and are not much more expensive than those at the other chains in Westfield (Nero, Starbucks) but considerably better.

Sacred isn’t a huge operation in the UK, but there are a few of them dotted here and there. They’re not the epitome of independent coffee shops, neither are they an operationally impeccable run of the mill franchise. They sit somewhere in between all of that and manage to hold their own because I would still choose to go to Sacred.
Cons: It’s a franchise, they don’t really invest in a big store, seating is always going to be limited.
Now that’s out of the way let me sing its praises: I wouldn’t go too far out of my way for sacred, but I’m always happy when I get to choose between Sacred and one of it’s giant competitors, I will always choose Sacred. Their coffee is creamy and baristas well trained. Most of them are from Oz /​NZ funnily enough. The coffee is far supreme to your SB /​Costa /​Nero. They also have a great choice of other drinks and everything I’ve sampled is good. They do alcohol too!
I like Sacred and I’m glad it’s in my life. It’ll never make history, but they deserve a rapid expansion plan so people can enjoy «better» coffee instead of drinking bland tasteless coffee which is nicely packaged.

I come here regularly for good coffee. I’m a bit of a coffee snob and take the extra hike from work to come here. The options around me are Starbucks and Costa and Sacred coffee is alot better. It reminds me of the coffee I get back in Melbourne. It’s nice and strong and not too hot or cold. I usually end up finishing it before I get back to the office!

Sacred is such lovely coffee and drinks. It’s one of my husband’s favorite London coffee places, so if we’re in Westfield, we like to stop at this location. While it’s just a kiosk, they offer the same great service and drinks as their storefront coffeeshops.

Only miss out on 5 stars as it’s in the mall so atmosphere isn’t great. Coffee on the other hand is sublime! After getting used to high street chain coffee, this was a real treat. Good range of baked goods too and reasonable prices especially considering the quality of the coffee.

FORGET what you’ve been told about what a Flat White is, and head to Sacred (any of them, not just this one) and find out for yourself.

Sacred Café is in a very busy spot in Westfield but its good to people watch!
I had a hot chocolate here and it was the nicest hot chocolate I’ve had in ages! Look forward to returning!

Best coffee in Westfield and some of the best in Shepherd’s Bush/​Notting Hill. My only criticism is that they use Cravendale milk.
Food is best purchased elsewhere, although the Anzac biscuits are pretty good.

mass produced chain coffee, quite shoddy music, terrible customer service

As compared with the ubiquitous chains, Sacred is actually a 5-​star coffee joint. By this, I mean that they serve espresso in which one can actually distinguish different flavours and textures.
Their flat white is good, too. They are undoubtedly serious about coffee, and this has been one of my favourite places for a pick-​me-​up when out-​and-​about in W12.
This small kiosk of a café at the opposite end of Westfield’s Atrium to Starbucks (Sacred was there first!) is one of the only places in W12 I relish visiting — and I do so very often.
How can the Starbucks punters not see the kiosk at the other end where the coffee is real, the baristas are actual human beings and the customers don’t all look like they have given up on life?
I digress; a comparison with Starbucks is like comparing apples with pears.
Sacred serves the best flat white in W12 (although that’s not saying much), and has very friendly staff.
Most importantly, in this day and age of chain cafes, it’s so important that the independent businesses succeed on the consistency of their output. This is something the chains do well (albeit consistently bad, it’s at least predictable). I know I have been served too many bad coffees at what I had thought were decent independent cafes or coffee shops only to have my objections met with snide responses like «it’s espresso sir. It is supposed to be extremely strong and bitter». Oh, you mean bitter with a hint of rubber seal, undertones of limescale and old beans with a strong burnt taste? Frankly it’s enough to make you want to give up on independent places and take your business back to a chain where at least they will remake the drink when it’s bad. Note, only in the UK is this such an issue.
Not Sacred. I have been drinking at Sacred since 2008, I have found the consistency of the quality of espresso to be exceptional, and I have complained about a drink only once. Towards the end of my ‘use’ of Starbucks many years ago I could barely leave without complaining about something. So that’s clearly good.
95% of my flat whites are crafted with very impressive latte art and taste as heavenly as they look. The other 5% are pretty damned good.
Heavenly — this leads me onto my next point. I like the subtle branding, very Roman Catholic Ironic with the statue of Mary in the middle of the kiosk, following a theme of the worship of coffee.
And what a joy to see a non-​global, independent business being given a central stage in the most extravagant shopping mall in London.
I have only two gripes with Sacred. The first is that they don’t serve espresso in heated porcelain. What a shame. Secondly the food offerings are not good, with the exception of the brilliant antzac biscuits and home baked cookies. Croissants aren’t great, and paninis are served with a horrid smelling microwaved relish: avoid.
Five stars, if the espresso came in porcelain.
If you like your espresso over-​extracted, then further ruined with copious amounts of burnt milk poured over the top, then topped off with a ridiculous amount of foam to hide the murkey grey-​brown mixture lying beneath, definitely give this place a miss and try Starbucks across the way ;)

I make sure to get their coffee every time I am at Westfield, I already did a few times and I absolutely love it every time! The first time I discovered it was through Time Out recommendation for the best coffees in London, and I have to agree! It is one of the best coffees I have ever tried, in my view it competes Costa and Nero Café (my favourites in London) and the seatings at the spacious atrium of Westfield gives a lovely and fresh atmosphere. The staff is very friendly too! I definitely recommend it! Have a go and enjoy :-)

Like the previous reviewer, I tried this place on the recommendation of friends.
Yes, it’s good, but it doesn’t knock Monmouth off the top spot, in my humble opinion.
My NZ friends begrudingly agree :)

I was slightly defensive when I visited Sacred because I went with a group of New Zealand friends, who kept on saying that the coffee here was much better than anything you normally get in the UK. Not true I said, however I had to admit that the coffee was very very good. The atmosphere was also great — much better than Starbucks etc, which can seem slightly tired. Definitly recommended!