Patisserie Valerie

Patisserie Valerie’s cakes are always so eye-​catching whenever I’ve walked near their shop windows. This one is centrally located around the main shopping areas in town with a spacious dining room inside.
We came in midday to finally try a couple of slices and have a drink (out of a bottle if you order soda). I’d had my stomach set on the Strawberry Gâteau and my companion ordered a piece of Cheesecake. I liked the soft cake and cream as well as the macadamia nut crumble on mine, but the cheesecake wasn’t as nice – a slight soapy taste thus went unfinished.
While we were seated swiftly, service was certainly not swift. Similar to a previous reviewer’s experience, it took ages to flag down a server for the bill once we were ready to make an exit.
The cakes look great, but as this is a chain, they are not made in house so will be sitting out for quite a while to be drooled upon by passersby before being served. If you must come, perhaps a visit to their sister location outside the Grafton would yield better service and quality in the least.
2.5 Stars

I was visiting my cousin in England and she took me to Cambridge to do the touristy things. We did the punting (even though it was a rainy day) and walked around. In the afternoon we were both tired and wanted to sit down and rest. We came across this place and saw the cakes from the window and immediately decided on it.
We shared a Strawberry Mille-​Fueille together and ordered a couple drinks. This whatever thing was soooo good. I hate the fact that desserts in the US are always too sweet and I could literally feel my teeth melting in the sugar, in a bad way. The Mille-​Fueille was excellent. My cousin and I were fighting for it (it was late in the afternoon and we didn’t want to fill up so we didn’t order much). To date, we still talk about this dessert with relish.
I really hope that I can go back to England some time in the future and if I do, I would go back to this place again (not necessarily this location though).

This Patisserie Valerie made me a little sad. I used to love this chain, but it seems that as they expand across the UK, the quality of the cakes gets worse…
The good bits:
— It is in a good location, near shopping and near the river for punting
— The cakes *look* amazing
— It is quite large, so easy to grab a table, even on a busy day
The less good bits:
— although the cakes look fantastic, they just don’t taste that great. I shared half a raspberry tart and half a chocolate moose with my brother. The raspberry tart was okay (although the pastry didn’t seem very fresh) but the chocolate moose had no flavour at all. It was so disappointing that I didn’t even finish my half
— The staff are pretty slow, and sooo hard to flag down when you want to pay/​escape
Find a patisserie that makes their cakes more locally and it should be better…