The 5 Best Desserts in London

It’s taken me two weeks, but I have finally managed to compile a list of the most luscious desserts, which I feel, hit the spot aptly. As UnderTheDoormat’s resident sugar lover, I hope that I’ve managed to include something on this list for dessert lovers across the country.

5. SAID café: Sauce-doused Brownie with Hot Chocolate or (very convincing) Chocolate Tea

Usually for most, waiting in line for half an hour in the dead of winter for a drink would not be an appeasing thought – even for hot chocolate. Then again, most people have not tried the hot chocolate served at Said Café, which is undoubtedly a distinct exception to this rule. Served in a SAID Special Sauce-doused cup, it would be enough to satiate any sweet craving.

For serious chocophiles out there, there is also an option of having the hot chocolate served in a chocolate cup, complete with a chocolate spoon. If hot chocolate isn’t your thing, then I would highly recommend the chocolate tea – it has everything you love about chocolate, but leaves you without the sickly feeling afterwards.

4. Maxwell’s Bar and Grill: Salted Caramel Freakshake

If your sugar cravings are voracious, then this is a dessert which will not fail to satiate you for a good month after having consumed it. Served in over 20 different flavours, and estimated at 3000 calories per shake, this dairy overload is lavishly topped with everything from pretzels, donuts, whole chocolate brownies and Pokémon figurines.

Easily the most gluttonous selection on our list, this is guaranteed to be a milkshake nothing like anything you have tried before.

3. The Manor: Blackberries, Soya Milk Sorbet and Yoghurt Snow

At Clapham’s The Manor, cultured yoghurt and seasonal botanicals – shiso, blackberry leaf, sorrel, fennel, anise hyssop and whatnot – are given the nitro treatment, freeze-dried into sharp little nobbles and fragrant shards.

The painterly plate is completed with blackberry mousse, soya milk sorbet and plumes of chilly smoke. Just take care with your tongue: the threat of ice burn is real.

2. Som Saa: Grilled Banana

Like us, Som Saa were launched by a crowd-funding campaign, and exceeded their target in less than three days. Why? Because this is North-Eastern Thai restaurant serves food in its most culturally-unadulterated state.

If you’re tired of seeing the same dessert items everywhere and enjoy trying new things, then this one is for you. Their silky palm sugar ice cream (think burnt toffee and salt), matched with grilled unripe banana is an unequivocal match for anyone’s taste buds.

1. Flesh & Buns: Green Tea S’mores

Nestled in the trendy snickets of Soho, it would be safe to say that Flesh & Buns is a restaurant which knows how to do food well. So when I heard that they serve their own Japanese rendition of a classic American staple, I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about, and what I found did not disappoint.

The green tea flavoured white chocolate sandwiched between marshmallows and crackers, is an ideal way to finish a heavy meal – not too sickly, but just enough to satisfy. Probably the most sophisticated dessert on our list, it’s a must-try.