Cedric Grolet At The Berkeley (London)

As a tourist visiting London and pastry connoisseur, I had to stop by Cedric Grolet's boutique after always seeing him on Insta. The place itself was beautiful, with wonderful service and lovely presentation. However, I felt the pastries were underwhelming and my cousin and I, who also was looking forward to it so much, were both disappointed. The pastries themselves are beautiful to look at, and you could taste the freshness of the compote and fruits used to make them, but it did taste too sweet and didn't feel refined enough, and delicate enough for what it represented. Like, I've had a carrot cake from a hotel pastry stand in Mecca years ago that I still can't forget, the Mini Patisserie Set from Harrods is a delightful experience, but sadly as much as I wanted to be, I wasn't impressed with the pastries at Cedric Grolet. I even made a second visit to try different ones from my first visit, but was still underwhelmed.

The atmosphere is amazing, very relaxing, calm, beautiful. The staff are polite and considerate, they explain everything they serve. The drinks are very good, I loved their lavender coffee and all teas are amazing, too. However, I did not like the desserts. They were extremely sweet. Every bite contributed to more and more sweetness, as if they poured a whole bag of sugar in them, especially the biscuits. I only liked the apple desserted with vision of a whole small apple. This one was very nice. The other issue is that in order to sit there, you must take a set menu with all desserts. You cannot choose to share one or two big ones, but must have a taste by a set menu. I hated this idea, as in the end, I wasnt even able to finish all desserts both due to getting full and due to the sweetness. I went there with my fiance and we wanted to also try one of their croassants, but they were outside of the set menu and, honestly, I did not want to spend even more money for more desserts... It would be good to lower the sweetness and offer more variety of the seating arrangements so that two people can each try one dessert and leave... They had three small sandwiches in the beginning of the set menu that I really loved though.

A Great Place to Try ONCE This place rocks; they know it, so find ways to have it stand OUT without their attitude. Get NORMA's section and you'll have a real down-to-earth NOT snobby experience. Food: great food, and great pastries, though CG does everything as a variation-on-theme: it's all the same outside with the same cream inside--only the fruit changes. there's NOTHING chocolate on the afternoon tea menu which is a HUGE disappointment. Service: Norma is an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10; the Italian doorman was kind and thoughtful, escorting me everywhere as they do at the Berkeley, but he noticed even that I had issues with the bathroom door and came to assist...now THAT's an attentive Italian!; when Manuel comes out of the kitchen with fresh hot madelines this is the highlight of the tea service for all!--plus there's his SMILE! Ambience: lots of kids, sometimes music comes and goes, the vibe is mixed: lots of guys in shorts and flip-flops; the bathroom clear-flush is a cute touch, despite the water waster; please have staff clean the leaves of the very very dusty/dirty cactus leaves Note: if you do this service in Paris, the selections from the tea are MUCH more varied and different in nature, not all variations on the same theme (read: "fruit") + a cookie as it was here.

Where do I even begin? Stepping into this beautifully adorned restaurant feels like entering a world built entirely around indulgence. The first thing you see is a gleaming row of cakes, each one shining under the lights as if posing for its own portrait. Tantalising is the only word for it. I’d reserved a table in the main dining area, which has a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere. The staff are impressively knowledgeable, every waiter seems to know the flavour profile of each cake by heart, and even the servers behind the counter carry themselves with a kind of pride, as though they’re personally invested in the creation of these masterpieces. I brought my sister here for a birthday treat as she was gutted that she couldn't get into Cédric"s flagship restaurant café in Paris. The queues were just too long! Yes, it’s very expensive, but worth every penny. We weren’t overly taken with the pain au chocolat, though the lamination was undeniably incredible but OMG the Vanilla Waffle Tart was something else entirely.🫨 A true original. A creation in its own league.🤑 This place will stay with me for a long time.