Let us speak as frankly as is possible with a mouth full of custard – anyone who claims that they’re “not really a dessert person” is either fibbing, a diabetic or clearly hasn’t ventured deep enough into London’s extraordinary pudding scene. From mind-bending ice cream creations to pastries that would make a Parisian develop an interiority complex, London’s pudding game is stronger than ever.
Indeed, the capital’s finest kitchens are right now turning out the kind of desserts that don’t just end a meal – they steal the show entirely. Here’s our roundup of the capital’s most iconic sweet treats, the ones that have achieved cult status and sparked countless Instagram posts and TikTok videos, but still actually, genuinely work. Trust us, these are the best desserts in London worth saving room for.
Tahini Tart at Mangal II
Ideal for a modern Middle Eastern masterpiece…
Some desserts achieve such cult status that their removal from the menu causes uproar. Or, at least, a clown on table 5 kicking off…
Such was the case with Mangal II’s tahini tart. Invented by chef Sertaç Dirik, who is hailed as one of the most talented young chefs in the capital, Mangal II’s tahini tart is one of the best desserts you’ll likely have the pleasure of eating.
Dancing right on the edge of savoury, the tahini filling is a bold flavour with a velvety sesame caramel filling that’s almost (but not quite) salty. It’s nutty and slightly bitter, with an earthy flavour but still is very much a dessert, indulgence and treat. A gorgeous cherry stone-infused cream, piped in Mangal II’s signature zig-zag aesthetic, brings an unexpected almond-like note to the proceedings.
When it briefly disappeared from the menu, the restaurant was flooded with pleas for its return. Now it’s back and arguably better than ever, with a blackberry glaze that cuts through the sweetness, proving that, sometimes, peer pressure is actually a force for good.
Website: mangal2.com
Address: 4 Stoke Newington Rd, London N16 7XN
Fried Horlicks Ice Cream Bun at BAO
Ideal for a nostalgic sugar rush…
Whether you had a warm cup of Horlicks before bed or a mug of malty Milo in the morning as a kid, this dessert is going to hit you with a sweet dose of nostalgia.
Inspired by the deep-fried yin si juan – a type of bread roll found in fried chicken stalls across Taiwan – BAO have taken their legendary steamed buns, and given them a quick dip in the fryer until golden and crispy. The bun is then halved and stuffed with a perfectly spherical scoop of heavenly Horlicks ice cream.
Already cloud-like in its natural state, when fried the bun develops a satisfying chewy crunch while maintaining its signature fluffiness on the inside – think a freshly fried doughnut but with a distinctive BAO chewiness.
The Horlicks ice cream itself is toasty, malty and creamy, with hints of vanilla bringing that sense of luxury you want from a dessert. We love the way it slowly melts into the warm bun, creating an ever-changing textural experience (and one that gets damn messy by the end). The temperature contrast between the warm, crispy exterior and the cold, creamy centre makes each bite different from the last. There’s no elegant way to eat this. Just embrace the mess and enjoy the sweet ride.
Website: baolondon.com
Address: Multiple locations across London (Soho, Fitzrovia, Borough, Shoreditch, Battersea)
Madeleines at St. John
Ideal for experiencing French simplicity at its finest…
Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to master. The madeleines at St. John prove that when something simple is done absolutely right, it needs no embellishment.
These plump little cakes arrive still warm from the oven, light as air and buttery as heaven. Yep, each batch is baked to order, ensuring you get them at their perfect peak – the golden shells still radiating warmth, with that characteristic scalloped pattern crisp and defined. You’ll have to wait fifteen minutes for the pleasure, but it’s worth it.
The recipe appears in the St. John cookbook, but achieving that exact texture – the crisp exterior, the cloud-like interior, the perfect rise, the steam rising when broken open – remains a challenge that demonstrates why sometimes it’s best to leave things to the professionals.
Ideal tip: Order the madeleines for the journey home and indulge in another masterful dessert at St John’s while actually in situ, whether a deeply warming ginger loaf with butterscotch sauce and malt ice cream, or a classic crème caramel.
Website: stjohnrestaurant.com
Address: 26 St John St, Barbican, London EC1M 4AY
Baklava Ice Cream Sandwich at Berenjak/ Darlish
Ideal for a Persian twist on the classic ice cream sandwich…
Sometimes two wonderful things come together and create something even better than the sum of their parts. Berenjak’s baklava ice cream sandwich is exactly that – a marriage of flaky filo baklava pastry and smooth vanilla ice cream that feels like it was always meant to be.
This isn’t just any old ice cream sandwich. Layers of delicate filo pastry, appropriately honey-soaked, cradle a generous scoop of ice cream made by Persian ice-cream pros Darlish, while pistachios and hazelnuts add crunch and a sense of knowing sophistication.
It’s a toothsome dessert, indeed; the baklava boasts a delightful crunch and a satisfying chewiness, while the ice cream features has just a hint of saltiness that perfectly balances the overall sweetness. And it is certainly sweet, there’s no denying…
It’s street food elevated to art form, and at £7, it’s one of the best value sugar highs in Soho. At the time of writing, it’s not on the menu at Beranjak, but you can get your Baklava Ice Cream Sandwich fix at Darlish (aka the Home of the Baklava Ice Cream Sandwich) as they supply the restaurant with this particular deep cut. They have various locations, including Spitalfields, Harpenden and St Albans. Word of warning, come winter their locations shut down. It’s a long wait ’till spring for all the dessert disciples out there. Best stock up now.
Website: berenjaklondon.com
Address:27 Romilly St, London W1D 5AL
Lemon Tart at The River Cafe
Ideal for tasting perfection in citrus form…
Some dishes become icons for a reason. The River Cafe’s lemon tart has been stopping conversations mid-sentence for years, and one bite tells you why. This isn’t your standard citrus tart – it’s the best one you’ll likely ever eat and for that reason, has been on the menu since the restaurant’s early days.
Most Lemon tarts aren’t zesty enough for our taste, but this one is. What distinguishes this version is its intensity and purity of flavour. Made with proper Sorrento lemons – a little different from the increasingly ubiquitous Amalfi varieties and prized for their intense fragrance – the filling captures the very essence of the fruit and is unequivocally, unapologetically lemony. Of course, in a dish so sparse and forward, the details need to be perfect: the custard is beautifully golden from careful egg sourcing and set perfectly to a gentle – rather than flamboyant – wobble, clinging to the fork like any properly made curd should.
We must also talk about the pastry. The case is a technical feat in itself – rolled whisper-thin and baked to a deep golden colour that brings out the nutty notes of the butter, it provides the perfect crisp contrast to the silky filling, while adding its own caramel notes to the overall flavour profile.
Given a kiss of flame from the wood roasted oven for that signature caramelised top, it’s the kind of dessert that makes you close your eyes and forget where you are for a moment; one bite and you’ll be transported to a sun-drenched afternoon on the Amalfi Coast. Served with creme fraiche, it’s the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. It’s enigmatic.
The River Cafe’s lemon tart stands as a benchmark against which all others are measured, demonstrating how precision and quality of ingredients can elevate a classic into an icon. On that note, if you can’t make it out to Richmond, Theo Randall, a River Cafe alumni, serves up a stellar version at the InterContinental come Amalfi lemon season.
Ideal tip: You can buy this iconic lemon tart at River Cafe’s shop to take it away or for delivery within London. We recommend picking it up and eating it alongside the banks of the Thames, ideally with a chilled bottle of sweet late-harvest Riesling plucked from a cool bag. Yes, you’ll pay handsomely for the pleasure (for a small tart that serves 5, the cost is £35) but some experiences are worth every penny.
Website: rivercafe.co.uk
Address: Thames Wharf, Rainville Rd, London W6 9HA
Chocolate Mousse at Parakeet
Ideal for a chocolate experience that will make you giddy with delight…
When a chocolate mousse quickly achieves cult status in a city full of elaborate desserts, you know it must be something special. The Parakeet’s version has done exactly that, becoming London’s most talked-about chocolate mousse through its perfect execution and curiously domestic serving style.
Served with delightful theatrical flair at the table, scooped out from the depths of a chamber pot (yes, our minds went there too) this deeply flavoured mousse is then placed atop a bed of nutty bran and oat crumb already in front of you.
It’s impossibly light – we’re talking millions of tiny bubbles creating the kind of airy texture that makes you wonder if it might float right off the plate. A good chocolate mousse is measured by the dark chocolate it uses, and they must use the good stuff here, lending a sophisticated bitterness that prevents the dessert from becoming too sweet. Each spoonful dissolves on your tongue, delivering intense chocolate flavour without any hint of heaviness. Moreover, it makes it dangerously easy to polish off the whole thing while swearing you’ll “just have one more bite”.
Website: theparakeetpub.com
Address: 256 Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 2AA
Read: Restaurant Review: The Parakeet, Kentish Town
Brown Butter & Honey Tart at The Marksman
Ideal for witnessing the perfect wobble…
If you’ve never frantically phoned ahead to reserve a slice of dessert before, the brown butter and honey tart at The Marksman might well be your first time. This unassuming-looking creation has become so legendary that regulars know to book their slice before they’ve even entered the restaurant.
What makes it so special? It’s all about that perfect wobble – think moo deng captured in custard form or, as Jay Rayner put it, “the wobble and softness of a newborn’s thigh.”
It’s not just the custardy part that defines this famous tart, though. The pastry is the perfect penny-thickness, and baked to that precise moment where golden turns to mahogany, adding just a whisper of bitterness to balance the sweet. Inside, the filling is a marvel of kitchen alchemy; nut brown butter and borage honey transformed into something that makes time stand still. Only when the point of the tart starts to wobble does it snap you back into the room.
While it might look like just a tart, the first spoonful reveals caramelised notes mingling with delicate honey sweetness. A dollop of crème fraîche cuts through the richness perfectly and sends it on its way.
Website: marksmanpublichouse.com
Address: 254 Hackney Road, London E2 7SJ
Salted Palm Sugar Ice Cream at Som Saa
Ideal for a London take on distinctively Thai dessert flavours…
If you’ve been to Thailand, no doubt you’ve seen roasted or deep fried bananas being served at the side of the road, often with an overly sweet for some (probably those fibbers we mentioned in our introduction) syrup drizzled all over.
Well, the crack team at Som Saa have taken this idea and run with it to create their signature salted palm sugar ice cream and banana dessert. And, although it’s very much a novel dish rather than one that’s eaten in Thailand (most of their menu is textbook Thai), we’re endlessly thankful that they went a little off piste with this one.
The ice cream is made especially for Som Saa by the churning experts Hackney Gelato, using top shelf imported palm sugar. If you think salted caramel ice cream is good (and it is), wait until you try Som Saa’s salted palm sugar version.
The palm sugar gives it a deep, butterscotch sweetness that’s more complex than your standard caramel, while the salt is calibrated just right to make the flavours pop. But what really takes it to the next level is how they serve it – with warm banana that’s been grilled over charcoal and brushed with turmeric caramel, then finished with a scattering of toasted sesame seeds. It’s a brilliant rendition of Thai dessert flavours reimagined for London palates.
The genius of this iconic London dessert lies in how the warm, aromatic banana provides the perfect temperature contrast to the cool, creamy ice cream, while the turmeric adds an unexpected earthy note that ties everything together. It’s a soothing way to end a spicy meal, that’s for sure. This one has been on the menu since their days at Climpson’s Arch, and it’s not going anywhere – the regulars simply wouldn’t allow it.
Website: somsaa.com
Address: 43A Commercial St, London E1 6BD
Profiteroles at Quo Vadis
Ideal for when classic French indulgence goes the extra mile…
In a city full of elaborate desserts, Quo Vadis’ profiteroles, or ‘les qv profiteroles au chocolat’ as they’re officially known, prove that sometimes classics are classics for a reason. They might not be reinventing the wheel here, but boy, are they making it roll smoothly.
Each choux bun is textbook perfect crisp and light on the outside, with a delicate shell that yields to reveal a centre filled with both vanilla ice cream and confectioner’s custard. Yes, both.
The crowning glory is the warm chocolate sauce which creates a perfect temperature contrast. The type of chocolate is key here – it’s dark and sophisticated, cutting through the sweetness of the filling while adding glossy drama to the plate. These profiteroles manage to provoke both childlike wonder and grown-up appreciation in those in of them – no small feat for what’s essentially a fancy cream puff. Or, profiteroles with a prize inside, as we unofficially like to call them.
The chef behind this one is the brilliant Jeremy Lee, one of London’s true pudding kings, and a huge fan of this one (even if he does say so himself). Indeed, if Lee had to pick one pudding on his menu as his favourite, it would be this one – and that’s straight out of the horse’s mouth.
Inside tip: When winter rolls around, keep an eye out for their sticky toffee pudding. Made with Agen prunes and Medjool dates, it’s another classic that’ll make you grateful for cold weather.
Website: quovadissoho.co.uk
Address: 26-29 Dean St, London W1D 3LL
Ube Choux at Donia
Ideal for a Filipino-French fusion that tastes as good as it looks…
If you’ve been anywhere near Instagram lately, you’ve probably seen this purple beauty pop up on your feed, but don’t let its lurid hue fool you. Unlike some style-over-substance social media star dishes, Donia’s ube choux is some serious pastry work masquerading as social media bait. Indeed, there’s a reason why it’s up there with the best dessert in London
Think of it as a French pastry that’s taken a delicious detour through the Philippines. The choux pastry shell is everything it should be – crisp and crackly thanks to a hazelnut craquelin crust, but it’s what’s inside that makes it special. The lilac-colored ube cream (made from purple sweet potato) is paired with cloudy coconut chantilly and ube praliné, creating something that tastes as good as it looks. The result is a masterpiece of texture and flavour – crisp shell giving way to creamy filling, with the unique, nutty sweetness of ube complemented perfectly by tropical coconut notes.
It’s a clever nod to Mamasons’ famous ube ice cream sandwiches while being entirely its own thing, and we love it.
Website: doniarestaurant.com
Address: 2.14, Top Floor, Kingly Ct, Carnaby St, London W1B 5PW
Pain Perdu at The Ninth
Ideal for French toast taken to heavenly new heights…
If you think you know French toast, Jun Tanaka’s pain perdu at The Ninth will make you think again. It’s the kind of dessert that makes you realise why the French called it ‘lost bread’, because anything else you’ve tried before this will feel precisely that: lost and forgotten.
The magic lies in the preparation, which is nothing short of culinary alchemy. Premium brioche is soaked for a full day in a rich crème anglaise bath before being transformed into something that straddles the line between pudding and heaven. The exterior achieves that holy grail of dessert textures – a glass-like caramelised crust that gives way to an interior so cloud-like and buttery it defies physics.
But it’s the finishing touches that elevate this from merely excellent to unforgettable. A final sprinkle of sugar gets the blowtorch treatment, creating a crunchy, caramelised top that would make a crème brûlée jealous. Served alongside house-made tonka bean ice cream and a scattering of buttery crumble, it’s the kind of dessert that causes spoons to joust across the table.
While technically a refined French classic, there’s something disarmingly familiar about this dish. It taps into that primal memory of weekend breakfasts and treaty moments, but Tanaka has somehow managed to preserve that comfort while crafting something entirely extraordinary. What began centuries ago as a thrifty way to rescue stale bread has evolved into something truly magnificent in his hands.
Website: theninthlondon.com
Address: 22 Charlotte Street, London W1T 2NB
Steamed Duck Yolk Custard Bun at A Wong
Ideal for burning your mouth off with salted egg lava and not even regretting it…
This whimsical creation is the very definition of ‘save the best for last’. Pale and pristine, with a gentle blush, each dessert bun at 2 Michelin-starred A Wong arrives looking remarkably like a miniature white peach, complete with a delicate leaf garnish – a playful bit of culinary theatre that’s typical of Andrew Wong’s creative genius. But the real drama unfolds when you break into it.
These heavenly parcels harbour gooey souls of custard – golden and voluptuous with salted duck yolk. The molten centre is quite possibly the most luxurious filling you’ll ever encounter. It’s a masterclass in contrasts: salty meets sweet, liquid meets solid, and tradition meets innovation. Fair warning: approach with caution – this isn’t called a ‘lava bun’ for nothing, as many an enthusiastic diner has discovered.
Word to the wise: These beauties tend to sell out, so mentioning you’d like one when you book isn’t just advisable – it’s essential.
Website: awong.co.uk
Address: 70 Wilton Road, London SW1V 1DE
The Bottom Line
From perfectly executed classics to imaginative new creations, these sweet sensations have earned their place in London’s culinary hall of fame. They are London’s best desserts.
Whether you’re a dedicated dessert hunter or just someone with a sweet tooth and a sense of adventure, these puddings are worth crossing town – or even country – for.