Sharing the Top 8 must-eat pastries and desserts for first-timers in London.
If you follow us on Instagram, you may recollect that we shared a series of pictures from our trip to London, England. It was a short trip and we wanted to make sure that we squeezed in as many places to eat as possible during this trip. Needless to say, that included some unique pastries and desserts that we don’t get to eat on a regular basis.
In a city like London, where there are numerous bakeries and ice cream outlets, it was extremely hard to narrow down to just a few spots but, the following places stood out to us and left us craving for more.
Ube Ice Cream from Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream
Mamasons is London’s first filipino ice cream parlor and their flavor inspirations come from ice creams sold in the streets of Manila. The flavors are rare and a true ode to Filipino flavors. Apart from ice cream, they also carry ube donuts, brownies, and pies. They have two locations and we’re sure no matter which one you pick, you can’t go wrong with their ice creams!
Pastéis de Nata from Café de Nata
Pastéis de Nata, also known as Pastel de Nata is probably one of the most unique things we ate in London. Café de Nata specializes in these Portuguese custard tarts, offering traditional tarts and a variety of seasonal tarts. They bake them fresh every day, and throughout the day. We had a chance to meet the bakers behind the counter and they mentioned that these custard tarts have been around since the 1800’s. We got the traditional custard and a raspberry one, and they both were SO good! This is one of the pastries that you can pick on-the-go and enjoy.
Tip: Cafe de Nata has three locations. We went to the one in SoHo. If you want to beat the queue, go in the afternoon.
Biskie from Cutter & Squidge
Imagine a cross between a cake and a cookie, and you end up getting a Biskie. The Biskie is filled with cream, jam, caramel, berries, or some chocolates. The flavors are rotational and seasonal, and they also carry limited-edition flavors. Cutter & Squidge also specialize in all things cakes and they pride themselves in using only natural ingredients. They also have afternoon tea and offer a baking masterclass. We would love to try more of their sweet treats during our future trips to London.
Choux Pastry from Maître Choux
Maître Choux is a true shrine for choux pastry, and by that we mean everything about it looked and tasted simply divine! It is the first and only choux pastry specialist patisserie in the world. (source: https://www.maitrechoux.com). We were most hyped to try out this place even before our trip, thanks to all the second-hand choux pastry knowledge we got via baking shows. We visited Maître Choux for breakfast and did full justice to trying as many eclairs and choux as possible. The mastermind behind the creations at Maître Choux is Joakim Prat, a Three Michelin star experienced chef.
Maître Choux also has savory choux pastries in its offerings that are as unique and eye-popping as its sweet counterparts.
99 Flake
You cannot go to London and not have a 99 Flake during your first trip! 99, as it is commonly known is a very iconic British mainstay. It’s a vanilla soft serve on an ice cream cone inserted with a Cadbury Flake Chocolate. A simple creation like this can never go out of style and truly represents the UK, so don’t miss out on this!
Doughnut from Bread Ahead
Bread Ahead is a bakery and baking school, specializing in all things bread! Their food stalls and stores are at multiple locations. We visited one of their food stalls at Borough Market and we knew that we wanted to try their doughnuts the moment we saw trays of freshly baked doughnuts. It is easily one of the best doughnuts we have tasted in terms of flavor combination. If bread-making is your forte, you should check out one of their baking courses.
Goats’ Milk Ice Cream from Greedy Goat
We were taking a stroll around Borough Market and came across the Greedy Goat ice cream cart. It’s not everyday that we come across goats’ milk ice cream. Intrigued, we immediately wanted to give it a try despite the fact that we had just had lunch, followed by a couple of desserts already (gluttony did not spare us)! The couple who ran the stall were so friendly and explained all about goats’ milk ice cream. After tasting a few samples, we settled for the banana fosters ice cream. This ice cream is definitely very unique, rich, smooth, and creamy, exactly how you would expect ice creams to be.
Gelato from Gelupo
We really weren’t looking to find gelato places in London, and you do get gelatos in a lot of places in the US but, this place was so good that we had to include it on our list. They offer gelatos and sorbet, that includes flavors ranging from fig leaf to ricotta and sour cherry! The sorbets are vegan and they also carry seasonal summer flavors, some of which are even boozy.
We hope you get to try out these places and enjoy them as much as we did, if not more! If you know of any other places that you feel we must try, do let us know in the comments!
