Fortitude Bakehouse

Sourdough starter in the cake batter

The unusual thing at Fortitude Bakehouse is where the sourdough goes. Cake batters are fermented with starter, doughs are worked by hand, and bakes come out in staggered batches through the morning, so the counter keeps changing shape. Dee Rettali founded the Bloomsbury bakery in 2018 around that method, drawing on a craft she learned from her mother and grandmother in County Cork and took into professional kitchens in England from 1992. It is what separates the case from a standard croissant window: long-fermented buns and beignets, savoury rolls beside them, and a short list that turns over as trays are replenished. The approach has carried the bakery onto national lists, including a number 30 placing in Opinionated About Dining’s 2026 Cheap Eats in Europe ranking.

The bakehouse is the room

The shop occupies a quiet cobbled mews in Bloomsbury, behind blue wooden doors and under high windows. The front section is the retail room; the working bakery sits directly behind a full-width counter, so ovens, trays and the smell of the current batch set the tone. Seating is limited indoors, with a few two-person tables outside, which makes this a bakehouse to buy from rather than a room to settle into. Service is quick and direct: order at the counter, take the bag, eat close by.

Buns and beignets, then something savoury

Start with a morning bun. They arrive as raspberry custard, chocolate cinnamon and brown sugar cream versions, large, flaky and heavily filled. Beignets are the other draw, cream-filled with flavours that rotate seasonally, and the pistachio chocolate bun is the third name people repeat: rustic, generous, and balanced rather than sugary.

The savoury side is just as strong. Lamb sausage rolls come in a substantial casing, salt beef arrives in brioche with coleslaw, pickles and aioli, and the award-winning Berber omelette with harissa is the one to order if you want the kitchen at its most distinctive. Egg mayo rolls, a croque madame with bacon, cheese and egg yolk in puff pastry, and tomato and basil soup fill out lunch, while the bread shelf runs to sourdough baguettes, seeded rye and probiotic yogurt soda bread. Lemon and coconut cake and a chocolate brownie cover the plainer sweet order. Drinks stay short: espresso made with Has Bean single origin coffee on a Victoria Arduino White Eagle, and tea alongside. Coffee and a bun is the default pairing; add something savoury if a tray has just come out of the oven.