The best bakeries in London, from Bread Ahead to Toklas

Where just a few years ago, bakeries were confined to chains, and most things came with lashings of sugar, since 2020 or so London has begun to take its patesserie very seriously indeed. There’s been some kind of bread revolution, and cakes now represent a chance for artistry.

So, from superlative choux to doughnuts to die for, take a look at our pick of the places serving up the very best baked goods in the capital.

Birley Bakery

This new Chelsea Green patisserie serves the same exquisite baked goods as at owner Robin Birley’s Mayfair clubs 5 Hertford Street and Oswald’s but without the bother of a hefty membership fee. French-accented goodies come courtesy of star baker Vincent Zanardi: tarte Tropézienne heady with the fragrance of orange blossom water, mini lemon meringue pies as snowy-white as the Alps and jewel boxes of wafer-thin chocolate oblongs, plus savoury options of quiche Loraine and vegan sausage rolls. Dog-friendly, too, though you’ll need to bring your own biccies.

Toklas

Toklas comes courtesy of art world power duo Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the founders of the Frieze Art fair; as well as the excellent Italian restaurant there’s an eat-in bakery onsite too. The culinary theme carries over with slices of terrific strecci, the Roman-style pizza topped with good things like leek and crème fraiche, but it’s not all so Italian: there’s also bread baked fresh each day (sourdough, porridge loaf), lemon cheesecake or lime pie, brioche filled with rice pudding and superior-quality ham and cheese sandwiches.

Cédric Grolet at The Berkeley

This swish import from former World’s Best Pastry chef and Insta celebrity Cédric Grolet blurs the boundaries between patisserie, restaurant and chef’s table. A seven-course pastry tasting menu (£135) is served at a horseshoe counter at the swish Berkeley hotel; the view inside is of the chefs crafting their miniature masterpieces, outside, the trees of Hyde Park swaying on the other side of Knightsbridge. With only one sublime savoury course amid all the sweetness, think of this as a fine-dining alterative to afternoon tea. There’s a patisserie, too, for takeaway.

Pophams

This café-cum-bakery began life as the perfect Islington local and now extends to two more outposts in London Fields and Victoria Park plus a homeware shop for anyone wishing to replicate the experience at home with the most covetable crockery for takeaway baked goods. Social media has played a big part in Pophams’ success — take a bow, the insanely photogenic maple-bacon croissant — but everything tastes as good as it looks, from the cardamom buns to creative sarnies such as miso mackerel and specials like the Welsh rarebit Danish.

Lily Vanilli

If your idea of cake fits a Marie Antoinette-shaped mould then the improbably pretty creations of Bethnal Green baker Lily Vanilli (real name Lily Jones) will almost certainly be your tasse du thé. Pastel-coloured cupcakes would not look out of place in New York’s Magnolia Bakery; wedding cakes are another speciality, but almost everything looks suitable for a big day, with cakes swagged and garlanded with more rococo ornamentation than a baroque church. The cosy courtyard café is only open from Thursday to Sunday, when a bouquet of flowers from nearby Columbia Road market would make the perfect Insta accessory to a slice of cake here.

Dunns Bakery

This is an old-school baker like they used to make (Dunns opened in Crouch End in 1820) and is a slice of British baking history: current owner Chris Freeman is a fifth-generation baker and former Master of the Worshipful Company of Bakers. Novelty cakes come shaped like London buses, beautifully iced celebration cakes are wrapped up with a neatly tied bow, cream cakes cry out for the full ceremony of a cake fork while the sausage rolls are so meaty and flaky they qualify as an entirely different species to Gregg’s.

Bread Ahead

There are many tempting things to stuff in one’s cakehole at the eight London outposts of Bread Ahead — pastries and pizza, bread and cakes — but really, everyone is here for what might possibly be London’s best doughnuts, sugar-encrusted on the crunchy outside, thick and doughy within and filled with all manner of yumminess: raspberry jam for the purists, vanilla custard for the sweet-toothed and passionfruit and meringue for something more off-piste.

Old Post Office Bakery

This humble old-school bakery is a local Clapham gem and one of the first to go all-organic in south London. The date and walnut bread is that perfect balance of sweet and savoury that makes it great for a grab-and-go breakfast, or, on a sunny weekend, pick up a couple of hot pain au chocolat and eat them as you amble along to the common.

Chinatown Bakery

Next time you’re going to a Leicester Square cinema, forget about a bucket of popcorn and queue instead for half a dozen taiyaki, the freshly made fish-shaped waffles dispensed in sweet-shop paper bags from the kiosk of this Chinatown bakery; by the time the trailer starts, the piping-hot custard filling should be just-about cool enough to eat. Alternatively, pick up something to take home: gooey egg tarts, barbecued pork puffs in a glossy pastry crust or a swirly pandan Swiss roll.