Café Royal launches dessert restaurant

The drinks business predicted the rise of dessert focused venues last year, and now the Café Royal in Piccadilly has launched a fully fledged dessert restaurant.

As reported by Hot Dinners, the site within the five-star London hotel will be open from 6pm every night with desserts made by patissiere Sarah Barber. A selection of savoury bites like salmon tarts and avocado will be available at the beginning of the evening and then guests are free to dive into the desserts.

The apogee of the menu comes in the form of Sarah in Wonderland, a five-course tasting menu featuring the likes of the Milky Way, made with goat’s cheese, wild honey and beetroot snow; and chicken foie with quince and brioche.

Also on offer is the Queen of Hearts, made with raspberries, Champagne and roses; the Mad Hatter featuring kirsch and cherries; and Eat Me, Drink Me, formed of Snickers and a chocolate malt shake.

The Childhood Memories menu has a selection of nostagic dishes like rhubarb & custard and a twist on Jaffa Cakes, while guests can choose four dishes from the Pick ‘n’ Mix menu.

The desserts come with suggested wine pairings, such as Prosecco with the Milky Way; Henriques y Henriques Madeira with the Jaffa Cake; and Château Roumieu Sauternes with Eat Me, Drink Me.

The restaurant opens on 3 March, with dessert menus available between 6pm and 10:30pm.

This isn’t the first dessert focused venue in the capital. Early in the trend was the Pudding Bar in Soho, which popped up in 2014 serving the likes of Eton Mess, Earl Grey panna cotta and S’more cheesecake matched to Tokaji, Sauternes, and Pedro Ximénez.

Hot on its heels came Basement Sate in Soho. Devised by Provence-born pastry chef Dorian Picard, desserts are created to pair with the tasting notes of the cocktails on pour in order to enhance their flavours, with the likes of seaweed, salted caramel and beetroot all making an appearance.