As Seen Abroad: Cakes & Bubbles in London

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Foodies and TVies will know the name Albert Adrià from his time at El Bulli, long known as the best restaurant to ever have a documentary made about it. We were really hoping to visit Enigma, his Barcelona restaurant, during our Europe trip. But since we’re stupid, we didn’t realize we were visiting Barcelona during the week before Easter, when many restaurants are closed to give their staffs the week off. Thus, we couldn’t visit Enigma. Luckily, the notorious A.A. has a restaurant in London that’s all about dessert.

Cakes & Bubbles in London

Cakes & Bubbles is a dessert-focused restaurant right next to Regent Street, walking distance from the Waldorf Hilton. In addition to afternoon tea, you can also just order tea and cakes separately, which is what we wanted to do since we didn’t have the appetite for an entire afternoon tea spread. They also sell cakes and other sweets if you’re looking to bring something as a gift when staying at somebody’s house.

Here’s a travel tip from us: whenever you make a hotel reservation, add a little note saying it’s your honeymoon. They don’t know it isn’t true; and maybe it is - after all, what is a honeymoon if not a time when you want free stuff? Every now and then, you’ll get an upgrade. Same goes for restaurants: when they ask for the occasion, put “anniversary,” because sometimes you get a free drink or dessert or something.

But here’s the key: you need to remember that you told them it was your anniversary. Otherwise, when they say “Happy Anniversary” or give you a plate where that message is relayed in chocolate, you’ll stare at them like idiots. We forgot we told Cakes & Bubbles it was our anniversary, so when they said it, we stared at them like idiots.

The menu and coffee at Cakes & Bubbles

Cakes & Bubbles has a savory menu if you want to get lunch, but even though we were there around noon, we were only interested in dessert. Knowing the chef behind this place, you might think it would all be crazy molecular gastronomy stuff, but there were plenty of normal things like cheesecake and baklava. There were certainly fancy desserts like a rose jelly served on top of a non-edible rose, which our waiter told us couldn’t be shared because it was just a single bite and was “more of an experience” than something to eat. If that sounds like dumb Instagram fodder instead of an actual dessert, it probably is.

I got a latte that was perfectly acceptable, and Eriko got a rose latte that we both found to be absolutely delicious and one of the highlights. Eriko said, “If I am Paul Hollywood, I say this is the right amount of rose.” If you don’t know what that means, I’m not sure why you’re here.

I got up to go to the bathroom before our desserts came, and oh, boy, was it ever a trek. You have to go out the back of the restaurant, through the lobby of the adjoining hotel, and cross seas and deserts and mountains before finally reaching the bathroom. By the time I came back, I was hungry.

Desserts at Cakes & Bubbles by Albert Adrià

When the waiter brought our desserts, he asked “Have you eaten these desserts before?”

“I’ve… had cheesecake before,” I said.

“But you haven’t had these specific desserts,” he said.

This seemed like an existential, Hugh Everett, bizarro universe kind of question. But what he wanted to explain was that the gold egg Eriko had ordered was not edible. It was a real eggshell painted gold. After taking your pictures, you were to flip it over and eat the Passion Golden Egg Flan inside, which looked sort of like the custard pudding cups Eriko gets form the konbini. She said it was really good, but to me, it seemed small and silly.

I got the chocolate Basque cheesecake, which was 15 GBP, or around $20. I’m usually not big on Basque cheesecake. I prefer New York cheesecake, preferably the cheapest no-bake kind available with a graham cracker crust. But man, was this thing good. Perfectly creamy, perfectly chocolatey, and not chewy or burned on top. If you’re going to charge $20 for a piece of cheesecake, it had better be good, and this was a $20 piece of cheesecake. Making this dessert my lunch was a good choice.

Verdict: is Cakes & Bubbles worth visiting?

Cakes & Bubbles isn’t cheap, and the decor is fancy enough to let you know this isn’t a place to just chill and have a coffee (though it is good coffee - I even ordered an extra espresso after our meal). This is a special occasion place, which is why they do the fun pretty desserts. I’m just not sure the pretty desserts have had enough effort put into them.

Yes, you can snap Instagram photos with the rose or egg, but considering we’re dealing with the guy who created a famous TV chef’s favorite meal ever, I would expect the egg to be edible. I’d expect the rose to be edible, since I’ve seen it done before. This seems more like a social media spot than a restaurant. I don’t think you need to go here unless, like me, you were desperate to eat at one of this guy’s restaurants and were foiled by Good Friday. Otherwise, maybe stop in with some friends once and then never go back. It’s good, but you don’t need to be eating cheesecake every week, fatso.