Rose Bakery

Such a great place for tea time. The foods are much better than I expected!

for tea time (or pudding for lunch) at the achingly hip Dover Street Market, head up to the top floor for some nutty carrot cake with a lite-​crown of cream cheese. as yum, raspberries and polenta cake, all best with a cup of coffee looking out over the grey rooftops of Mayfair.

I enjoyed the food here and if I employed a personal chef I would have them make me the Rose Bakery salad bar options each and every day. I wish the locale wasn’t within Dover Street Market or the future brings an additional larger space. The carrot cake is delicious!

By sheer luck — managed to snag the only decent table for 2 in this tiny space — avoiding being crushed next to large architect-​types with expansive elbows and loud conversations. But seated in splendid seclusion by the window, it was pretty damn good.
The ‘plate of vegetables’ (for the dieting types, I guess) didn’t seem a thrilling prospect for £10. However the cakes, especially the date and walnut scones looked rather tempting, although they weren’t quite sweet enough for my taste. I asked for some more of the excellent fig jam to zhuzh them up. I had it on top of quark rather than butter for that almost-​cream-​tea experience.
My friend had a savoury quiche thing with a load of green salad on the side (maybe they could have made the salad more exciting?)
It came to a rather extortionate £22 for all this, plusa couple of coffees — but I guess we were in Mayfair and it was all freshly baked and quirkily presented.
Service was friendly, venue very too-​cool-​for-​school — and I specially wore my new highwaisted pants I got in a pop-​up sample sale on the Lower East Side. Worthy of Dover St Market, indeed.

I am a big fan of the Parisian branch of the Rose Bakery which is on a recently hip road near the scuzz of Pigalle and is constantly packed with hipsters and hot international waiting staff. This branch in Dover Street Market is slightly less great, perhaps because the fresh English food is less of a novelty in London than in Paris. It is also almost unbearably expensive for the sort of café you just swing by for some mid-​shopping sustenance, the bill for a cup of tea and a cake can make your jaw drop. However, the brownies are delicious, the tea is fancy, the surroundings unimpeachably hip and the staff seem refreshingly keen on food for a high end fashion store. When I was there last they were enthusistically polishing off some on-​the-​turn pavlovas.

Going to Dover Street Market is like being thrown into a real life version of Zoolander, with its ‘derelicte’ appearance and terrifying shop assistants prowling around sparsely hung rails with items of clothing so expensive that need their own individual life insurance policy and body guard. This is why I come here to eat, because Rose Bakery on the fourth floor is refreshingly homely, the staff refreshingly normal and friendly.
Looking at the tiny space it’s hard to imagine how the team of suspiciously slender chefs fit behind the counter space, let alone prepare such tasty treats there. The bakery, founded in Paris is famous for its selection of teas, savoury tarts and delicious cakes. Most of the food here is organic, the vegetables served are seasonal and there is an equal balance between meat and vegetarian dishes.
My favourite is the bacon and tomato tart, although depending on my mood, the weather and other variables, I often opt for the mouth watering shepherds pie. If I’m feeling particularly traumatised by the display of sticky out ribs and collar bones wondering dangerously around the rest of the store, I also have the carrot cake to reassure myself that good pudding is the true and righteous path to happiness. With a topping as rich and creamy as this, it’s not a hard task. To put the icing on the cake (ha ha-​sorry) there is a tiny little terrace for a sneaky cigarette and al fresco dining on that occasional sunny day.