Meaning
In informal British English, a caff is a café, especially an unpretentious café or small inexpensive place serving simple food and drinks.
How it is used
Cambridge Dictionary records caff as UK informal for café. Collins independently describes a caff as a British informal café serving simple food such as fried eggs, bacon, and sausages, and also records it more broadly as a slang word for café. In real usage, not every place called a caff has the same menu or traditional style.
Examples
- “We had breakfast at a little caff near the station.”
- “Let's find a caff and get a cup of tea.”
- “He knows a good caff that does a cooked breakfast.”
Pronunciation
/kæf/ · KAF
Tone and register
Informal and familiar. Depending on context, caff can affectionately suggest a simple, no-frills café, but it can sound more casual than café when describing a business formally.
Visitor guidance
Visitors can understand caff as an informal British pronunciation-based word for café. It often suggests a straightforward local café rather than a formal restaurant, but do not use the word to make assumptions about quality, cleanliness, price, ownership, or clientele. Menus, allergens, opening hours, prices, and accessibility vary by business and need current information.
Cultural context
Caff belongs in a practical British-language guide because it appears in conversation about breakfast, tea, quick meals, transport stops, and neighbourhood food. The spelling captures a familiar spoken form of café and is especially associated with simple everyday eating places, while café remains the neutral general term.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.