This family-run café sits right on the lake in Barking Park, and that setting is half the appeal — grab a seat outside on a sunny day and you'd hardly believe you're in east London. Run by Monika Drozd since 2017, it's the kind of unassuming spot that does a bit of everything (coffee, ice cream, pizza, shakes) but does it with genuine warmth. Their cult item is the Zapiekanka — a Polish open-faced baguette toast that you won't find at many cafés around here, and regulars swear by it.
A family-run park café by the lake in Barking, famous for Polish Zapiekanka and sunny-day terrace seating with swans gliding past.
Go on a weekday morning for the most peaceful lakeside experience — sunny weekends get busy with families and the ice cream queue can back up.
Lakeside park café with a Polish twist
You could walk past Barking Park a hundred times and not realise there's a proper little café tucked down by the lake — and that's exactly the kind of place The Big Friendly Coffee is. Opened in 2017 by Monika Drozd, who spotted the opportunity from her job running boats on the lake, it's a family-run operation that punches well above its modest size. The menu is surprisingly broad for a park café: alongside solid coffee and ice cream, they do pizza, shakes, and — the thing that brings people back — Zapiekanka, a Polish halved-baguette toast topped with mushrooms, cheese, and sauces. It's the sort of thing you'd normally hunt for at a street food market in Shoreditch, not a park kiosk in Barking.
The setting is what makes it special, though. On a sunny day, the outdoor seating by the water is genuinely lovely — ducks, swans, and a calm that feels miles from the A13. Reviewers consistently mention the peaceful morning atmosphere and the genuinely friendly staff, which is rarer than it should be. It's not fancy and it's not trying to be. It's a community café that happens to have one of the best backdrops of any coffee spot in the borough. Go on a weekday morning for the most tranquil experience, or brave a sunny weekend when families descend and the ice cream queue gets long.