18 best desserts in London: The puddings you must save room for
For those with a sweet tooth, London has a candy store of dessert options ranging from luxurious gelaterias and fine patisseries to gourmet creperies and low-key waffle stalls. But what if you’re looking for something a bit more exciting than a slice of cake? Well, these are the places to go to for the very best desserts in London.
1. Fried Horlicks ice-cream bun at BAO
The steamed buns that made Taiwanese restaurant group BAO famous are, even in their regular state, so fluffy that you would expect to find candy floss in their family tree. Said fluffiness is even more satisfying under a crispy crust, achieved here because the bread is dunked in a hot fryer before being split and filled with an almost impossibly round, silky, malty scoop of Horlicks ice cream.
Address: BAO Soho, Fitzrovia, Borough, Shoreditch
Website: baolondon.com
Price: £5
2. Baked Alaska at The Ivy
Even in celebrity haunts is it rare that you’re genuinely excited to see the waiter setting fire to your food, and unsurprisingly The Ivy does it with admirable panache. The cherry and vanilla ice cream centre is kept chilly by its meringue coat, even after the whole thing has been drizzled with kirsch and ignited. Beautiful blue flames warm the liqueur-soaked morello cherries set around it.
Address: 1-5 West Street, London WC2H 9NQ
Website: the-ivy.co.uk
Price: £18 for two
3. Knafa from Juma Kitchen
The Borough Market stall may be best known for its kubba – handmade Iraqi stuffed dumplings – but its traditional Middle Eastern dessert offering is the unexpected dish all cheese lovers need to try. The Knafa combines baked cream and soft cheese with toasted kataifi (similar to shredded filo) pastry, which is then topped with syrupy blossom water, rose and pistachios. The result treads a wonderful balancing act between sweet and salting, gooey and crunchy. Served warm, it’s an absolute winning dish in winter.
Address: Unit 53, Borough Market Kitchens, Winchester Walk, SE1 9AG
Website: www.jumakitchen.com
Price: £6.50 for two to share
4. Eccles cake and Lancashire cheese at St John
A syrup of fragrant spiced currants oozes out of this round, crisp little cake, which just begs to be cracked into. Served with a neat wedge of creamy, salty cheese, this dish is a perfect little capsule cheeseboard. The Lancastrian bake is traditionally made with lard-based pastry but the St John version uses puff for an extra-light finish (the chefs probably use up the lard supply for every other dish on the menu).
Address: 26 St John Street, Barbican, London EC1M 4AY
Website: stjohnrestaurant.com
Price: £95. Darlish Baklava ice-cream sandwich at Berenjak
File this one under edible portmanteaus that were meant to be, because a simple vanilla ice cream was, it turns out, the extra layer that baklava had always been ready for. The sticky sheets of pastry and savoury pistachios are the grown-up version of a waffle cone and come with a sprinkling of chopped hazelnuts all made by Persian ice-cream pros Darlish. A luxury ice-cream sundae with the added bonus of some quite beautiful architecture.
Address: 27 Romilly Street, Soho, London W1D 5AL
Website: berenjaklondon.com
Price: £8
6. Sticky toffee pudding at Hawksmoor
This restaurant group may have made its name in the steak business but always plan for the dessert menu when you're at Hawksmoor. The surprisingly light dome of date sponge is drenched in a toffee sauce that is quite clearly very bad for you. You won't care. In fact, you'll want to drink it. And as if that buttery, treacly flavour wasn't enough, there's a delicate quenelle of clotted cream to really cement the indulgent feel.
Address: Available in all Hawksmoor restaurants.
Website: thehawksmoor.com
Price: £8.756. Deep-filled apple pie at Chicken Shop
It doesn’t matter that your grandma’s apple pie won last year’s village bake-off; this one is better. It’s stuffed full of fruit that is soft but still chunky, sharp but definitely sweet, juicy but not wet, and encased in buttery, magically crisp shortcrust pastry. Choose a drizzle of cream or a melty scoop of vanilla to go alongside; either way you’re going to want a second serving.
Address: Available at all Chicken Shop restaurants
Website: chickenshop.com
Price: £5.75
Patricia Niven8. Feta and honey cheesecake at Honey & Spice
Do not be alarmed by the presence of feta in this utterly wonderful version of the oft-overlooked cheesecake, a pudding that even at its most basic is a treat. Honey & Spice’s creamy topping is whipped until the dairy is nearly a mousse, and the feta brings savouriness but with only a hint of actual cheese. It’s piled onto a nest of kadaif pastry – the kind that looks like vermicelli – and the whole thing is adorned with blueberries, almonds, fresh oregano and a drizzle of honey.
Address: 52 Warren St, London W1T 5NJ
Website: honeyandco.co.uk
Price: £8.509. Soft-serve ice cream from Sons + Daughters
This coffee shop with extra-added sandwiches also has a soft-serve machine, and the flavours are as if Mr Whippy did a stage at the Fat Duck. How about focaccia-vanilla with rosemary-waffle sprinkles, or peanut butter and jelly with croissant crunch? If you’re really lucky, they chefs will have made a batch using their homemade miso milk, topped it with puffed wild rice and drizzled it with maple syrup.
Address: Unit 119a Coal Drops Yard, London N1C 4DQ
Website: sonsanddaughterslondon.com
Price: £3
Tsun Yue10. PBJ from Pophams
Any baking enthusiast knows that croissants and their temperamental buttery layers reflect the absolute pinnacle of ability. The team at Pophams have become masters of challenging pastry. One weekend special in particular is worth making a pilgrimage for: a little muffin-shaped swirl of precise lamination that contains the Elvis-defeating triumvirate of peanut butter, jam and sliced banana.
Address: 19 Prebend Street, London N1 8PF
Website: pophamsbakery.com
Price: Available at weekends only – £3.80
11. The Incomparable lemon meringue pie at Gloria
Everything about this OTT Italian restaurant is a statement, from the candy-striped uniforms to the bare-chested chap on the pizza boxes, but the lemon meringue pie is definitely the dish with most oomph. At 5’9 (inches, not feet, regrettably), it is instantly the talk of the table – a pudding with presence. The crisp pastry/tart curd/fluffy meringue combination makes it easy to finish despite its daunting stature.
Address: 54-56 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3QR
Website: bigmammagroup.com
Price: £6
12. Brown butter and honey tart at The Marksman
So legendary is this unassuming-looking custard tart that devoted diners reserve a slice of it before they have even arrived at the restaurant, and you must make sure you do the same. The browned butter makes the smooth filling subtly nutty and the almost lasagne-sheet-thin pastry is a deep brown, adding just a touch of bitterness to the equation. A wobbly wedge of wonder.
Address: 254 Hackney Road, London E2 7SJ
Website: marksmanpublichouse.com
Price: £9
Nic Crilly-Hargrave13. Halo Halo at Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream Chinatown
Set in Chinatown’s dessert alley, Mamasons specialises in hot and cold ube-based ice cream desserts. The purple yam doesn’t taste particularly distinctive but it does give everything a lilac hue, which, as you might imagine, is incredibly popular with Instagrammers. Lots of Filipinos come here too for a taste of home, like the heavenly sweet Halo Halo (mix mix in Tagalog). A dessert and drink in one, it has everything from ube ice cream and dulce de leche to cornflakes and jackfruit that you have to mix in to enjoy.
Address: 32 Newport Court, London WC2H 7PQ
Website: dirtyicecream.co.uk
Price: £6.50
Justin De Souza14. Cédric Grolet at The Berkeley
French pastry chef Cedric Grolet is renowned for his trompe l'oeil desserts; the incredibly realistic treats – resembling a fruit or a flower – cuts open to reveal layers of complex flavour inspired by the object in question. At his first outpost outside of France, the menu changes every Monday, and the counter is where you can try everything while being pampered like a VIP. The dessert experience is easily the most expensive pudding around. But that’s not surprising given a single daisy tart is composed of a dangerously fragile shell made using seven layers of filo pastry – each one hand-brushed with honey butter before baking – that’s filled with vanilla pastry cream (similar to custard), two different styles of choux pastry buttons and piped chantilly cream.
Address: Wilton Place, London SW1X 7RL
Website: the-berkeley.co.uk
Price: £135
Justine Trickett15. Brownie cookie sandwich at Chin Chin Dessert Club
The London ice cream market is seriously crowded so you have to be pretty special to make a mark. Chin Chin did it by virtue of being the only place you could get nitro ice cream – well, there and Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, which costs quite a bit more. By using liquid nitrogen to chill down the ice cream mix, the result is much smoother because it freezes so fast that there isn’t enough time for ice crystals to form. Making the most of this extra smooth ice cream is their Dessert Club in Soho where it’s paired with all sorts of hot and cold divinely indulgent extras.
Address: 54 Greek Street, London W1D 3DS
Website: chinchinicecream.com
Prices: £5.4516. Kaya toast at Candy Cafe
A bit of a hidden gem, the seriously lowkey Candy Cafe is actually one of the oldest businesses in Chinatown. Thanks to the fact that it’s tucked away above street level, with a discreet entrance, you’re much more likely to find locals hanging out here than tourists. There are desserts from all over Asia, and it’s one of the few places in London where you can try specialties like kaya toast, a homemade coconut spread with lashings of butter; and mango pudding lo – sago pearls in a mango sauce, with soya pudding (similar to tofu custard) and fresh mango.
Address: First Floor, 3 Macclesfield Street, London W1D 6AU
Website: candycafe.co.uk
Price: under £10
Tristan Seward17. Sweet Afternoon Bubbles menu at Cakes & Bubbles
Cakes & Bubbles is undoubtedly one of the most gastronomic afternoon tea experiences you’ll have. Designed by Albert Adrià, a pioneering chef of molecular cuisine, the menu features a handful of cakes and puds that you can have with tea and coffee or Champagne. To try petit tasters of just about everything, go for the Sweet Afternoon Bubbles menu. The highlight is the golden egg, which comes filled with creme caramel and passionfruit gel. The downside of scoffing something that’s as fun and inventive as it is delicious is that it’s over before the bubbles in your Veuve Clicquot have had time to dissipate.
Address: Hotel Café Royal, 70 Regent Street, London, W1B 4DY
Website: cakesandbubbles.co.uk
Price: £3218. Nutella and strawberry pancake at Hefaure
There’s always a queue out of the door for the light and fluffy souffle pancakes at Hefaure. These Japanese treats look like wobbly crème caramels but dip a spoon in and you’ll discover it’s closer to a mousse. There are a handful of flavours to choose from but you can’t go wrong with Nutella and strawberry. Note that although there’s seating downstairs, you’ll have to pay an additional £1.60 – much better to take your tray to the free benches just around the corner in Chinatown.
Address: 108 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 5EH
Website: hefaure.co.uk
Price: £7.50
Nic Crilly-Hargrave19. Shiratama Dango at Tsujiri Chinatown
Right next to Mamasons is Japanese dessert shop Tsujiri. It's similarly aesthetic. On the menu are soft serve ice cream sundaes, Basque cheesecakes and gourmet drinks like bubble tea, frappe and floats. Everything features traditional Japanese flavours – think matcha tea, sesame and red bean. For something a little different, get the Shiratama Dango, a trio of mochi skewers doused in kinako (toasted soy flour), sesame and red bean sauce.
Address: 33 Newport Court, London WC2H 7PQ
Website: tsujiri.co.uk
Price: £6