Bean There has traded from 376 Smithdown Road since 2017, established as an independent speciality coffee shop and brunch kitchen at the corner of Penny Lane. It acts as an everyday anchor along South Liverpool’s busiest independent corridor, pairing dialled-in espresso with an ambitious made-to-order kitchen menu.
What Bean There does
The café bridges the gap between a neighbourhood coffee stop and a full-service breakfast kitchen. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrap around the prominent street corner, flooding the pale timber interior with daylight and offering a front-row seat to the steady stream of buses, cyclists and pedestrians passing through the Penny Lane junction. The room is consistently popular with a cross-section of South Liverpool life: young families, remote workers on laptops, dog walkers returning from Greenbank Park, and students from nearby Brookland and Ullet roads.
Speciality coffee and cold drinks
Coffee is roasted by specialist UK craft roasters, pulled through a precision espresso machine and ground fresh for daily batch-brew drip filter. Options cover short piccolos and long blacks to silky oat flat whites and iced lattes. Beyond traditional espresso, the drinks menu includes Japanese ceremonial matcha lattes, spiced chai, turmeric golden milk, and loose-leaf herbal teas.
All-day brunch: Cooked plates, rosti and hashes
The kitchen runs an all-day menu prepared fresh to order, steering well clear of generic catering-pack breakfast items:
- Bean There Full Breakfast: British outdoor-reared pork sausages, smoked back bacon, fried free-range eggs, grilled field mushrooms, house-made smoky baked cannellini beans, and a signature crispy grated potato rosti.
- The Veggie and Vegan Hash: Roasted spiced sweet potato cubes, earthy beetroot, sautéed curly kale, smashed avocado, and poached free-range eggs or scrambled tofu.
- Shakshuka: Free-range eggs baked inside a rich, spiced tomato and roasted red pepper sauce, finished with crumbled feta cheese and warm sourdough soldiers for dipping.
- Lunch Burgers: Hand-pressed beef or spiced halloumi smash burgers served in toasted pretzel buns with seasoned skin-on rosemary fries.
The bakery on Rose Lane
To supply its high pastry demand, the founders expanded in recent years with a dedicated bakery workshop and sister café on Rose Lane in neighbouring Mossley Hill. Freshly proved sourdough loaves, butter croissants, almond pastries, sea-salt chocolate brownies and vegan bakes are delivered to the Smithdown Road counter every morning.
Prices and visiting tips
Pricing matches independent neighbourhood standards in South Liverpool (checked September 2026):
- Espresso and batch filter: £3.00 to £3.50
- Flat whites and milk coffees: £3.50 to £4.10
- Full cooked breakfasts and shakshuka: £9.50 to £12.50
- Breakfast hashes and avocado plates: £8.50 to £11.00
- Pretzel burgers with fries: £10.50 to £13.00
- Fresh counter bakes and pastries: £3.00 to £4.20
Table service is friendly and efficient. Seating operates entirely on a walk-in basis with no advance reservations required. Dogs on leads are warmly welcomed inside, with water bowls provided beside the door.
Around Smithdown Road and Penny Lane
The café stands opposite the famous Penny Lane junction, adjacent to Greenbank Park and within easy walking distance of Sefton Park. The surrounding stretch of Smithdown Road contains an active cluster of independent businesses, including bottle shops, craft bakeries and community book exchanges.
For more local recommendations, read our Smithdown Road area guide and our guide to where to eat in Liverpool by area.
