Croydon Bakery is a working bakery in Kempton Park where you can order coffee and a pie to eat at the table or take away. The coffee uses dark roasted beans with a smoky intensity and molasses sweetness, served with the option of a gourmet sandwich or daily pancakes. The pies — pepper steak, quiche, cocktail sausage rolls — are baked fresh, and you can also buy them frozen to finish at home.

The bakery makes platters for gatherings, with savoury options like samoosas and cheese puffs, or sweet ones with doughnuts and koeksusters. The counter displays confectionery to have with your coffee, and the kitchen bakes through the day so that what you order has usually come out of the oven recently.

Tables let you sit with your coffee and watch the baking continue; the takeaway counter does a steady trade in pies for the road. The place works as both bakery and café — you can come for a quick coffee and leave with a bag of rolls still warm from the tray.