Warsaw - a surprise

I know this is meant to be a blog about London but I am in Warsaw this week and I had a coffee experience that made me think about London so I felt it was appropriate for this forum (I am so good at post justification).  So - a chain coffee shop (called iCoffee - love it) in a shopping mall in Warsaw is not the place you would expect to get good coffee right?  Well I did - and not just good, really good.  This place had all the elements of a typical chain store so I expected the usual milky, burnt coffee crap - then I caught sight of the La Marzocco machine and a coffee sitting on the counter that the barista had just finished making - a perfect leaf in the frothed milk that would have done my favourite London coffee shops proud.  My hopes were raised but it's not about the milk, it's about the coffee underneath so it was with some trepidation that I took the first sip of my latte - creamy, strong, full flavoured, just the right temperature - a winner!  So my next thought is - if this branch of this local coffee chain in a mall in Warsaw could get it so right, why do all the thousands of branches of global coffee chains in a major city like London get it so wrong?  This place still did the syruppy, whipped cream on top confections that some people seem to love - so there was something for everyone, but they still managed to do their core product, the cafe latte, really well and in that they are streets ahead of the majority of London "coffee" shops.