After seeing lots of impressive pastries on social media, I had been dying to visit this London spot to try their cream cakes – due to a busy tourist itinerary, we also ended up going for the savoury lunch menu.

Dr HH had the chicken Kyiv and thought it was tasty. The chicken had a good texture and there was a crispy coating. Lots of garlic butter oozed out when he cut it open, which was a fun sight, and it provided good flavour. The mash was smooth and the pea puree was pleasant. It was a good tasty dish.

I had mushroom and potato dumplings. This dish was perfectly pleasant, but not amazing. The filling was nice but a little bland for me. The sauce also didn’t add much flavour. The sour cream had the most going on. Still, the textures and presentation were nice.

I hadn’t had a vegan eclair before (I think), so we both ordered the Snickers eclair and it was good fun. The chocolate choux was maybe a little too thick and spongy, but I’m really not a choux connoisseur, so I may be wrong. The chocolate cream was great. The caramel and nuts were coated in thick chocolate. It was really tasty and not too sweet. The whole thing is dusted with gold, somewhat unnecessarily, but the textures were great and it was robustly constructed and easy to eat.

Unfortunately, we didn’t love the hot drinks we ordered. The hot chocolate is available with white, milk, or dark chocolate. Milk was too sweet for me (and I have a very sweet tooth), and was quite unpleasant. Dr HH didn’t love the taste of his latte either. However, we did love the soft drinks we had earlier in the meal.

The cafe was very busy when we were there around 1pm, and the upstairs seating area felt quite cramped. People were enjoying the chintzy decor, but when the cafe was busy it contributed towards the cramped feeling for me. For us it was a nice spot for a fancy pastry and a short stay. It was an extremely Instagrammable spot – whether that’s a good or a bad thing for you!