The Peninsula Boutique & Café

Viennoiserie, bread and a case of individual cakes

The pastry case is the reason to come: Guardian Lion, Black Sesame St. Honoré and a Yuzu Hazelnut Meringue Tart, each made as an individual cake and finished to hotel standard. The Peninsula Boutique & Café is the ground-floor café, patisserie and boutique at The Peninsula London, by Wellington Arch on the edge of Belgravia, and the counter moves through the day from breakfast viennoiserie to lunch items and boxed sweets to carry away.

Mornings run on croissants, pain au chocolat, almond croissants, cinnamon buns and Danish pastries, with a bread shelf that reaches past the baguette into maple sourdough, fig and walnut sourdough and a cereal sourdough. The individual cakes are where the kitchen shows itself: Guardian Lion, Black Sesame St. Honoré, Matcha & Strawberry Choux, Yuzu Hazelnut Meringue Tart, Framboisier, Memil Chocolate, Fig & Almond Tart and Triple Vanilla Tart. There is also a crêpe trolley working sweet and savoury, and a parfait with fresh fruit made in classic and vegan versions.

Half café, half boutique

The boutique side sits in the same room, stocked with artisanal chocolates, chocolate bonbons in a range of flavours, house tea blends, coffee beans and cookies, so it is easy to leave with a box rather than a plate. Light lunch runs to sandwiches and salads, which makes the room usable for a full stop rather than a pastry and coffee alone.

The design is deliberately composed: glass display cases, marble finishes, teal walls and copper and gold detailing, bright and calm rather than crowded. Allergens are clearly labelled across the counter, and service is attentive without being formal, so the room suits quiet conversation, a book or an hour with a laptop as easily as it suits gift shopping.

What to order first

Focus on the patisserie and the confectionery, because that is where the work is most specific. The Black Sesame St. Honoré and the Triple Vanilla Tart are the clearest expressions of the pastry section, the Matcha & Strawberry Choux the lightest, and the Fig & Almond Tart the one that eats best with coffee rather than tea.

For a morning stop, take the almond croissant or a cinnamon bun with a coffee. For a gift, the bonbons and the house tea blends are the obvious route, and the coffee beans are sold by the bag. If the visit is lunch, a sandwich or salad with a crêpe from the trolley afterwards makes the most of the range.