London’s Best Dessert Bars
Everyone loves dessert, right? Although, I often feel like I tack it onto a meal without giving it much thought in it’s own right. I try to go out to eat a fair bit, but also love the idea of going out for ice cream. Because we’re adults now, and we can go out for ice cream whenever we damn well want. Amazing stuff.
Making pudding a whole event in itself is ridiculously enjoyable, you see. Rather than settling for a sub-par sundae after your main meal, I’m a big fan of seeking out specialist dessert parlours. Homemade ice cream, inventive flavours and inviting interiors totally win my approval.
For guaranteed sugar comas for hours (in the best possible way), here are some places in London to get your sweet fix sorted! I’ve even included an option for those of you who are vegan or dairy-free, as everyone deserves to gorge themselves on dessert once in a while.
Afters
With venues in Wathamstow, Leyton, Forest Gate, Hounslow, Tooting and Wood Green, Afters definitely has the dessert market in the city pretty well covered.
There’s plenty of vintage-inspired decor in their parlours and an impressive menu, including ridiculously epic looking sundaes, cakes and ‘cold stone’ cone bowls.
Oh, and they also offer up Afters Original Falooda – an Indian drink mixing aewra water with rose syrup, vermicelli, tapioca seeds, dried whole milk, sweet jelly and a choice of ice cream. I really want to give this one a try!
Definitely a great stop-off to satisfy those who are sweet-toothed in nature.
Afters
Various locations in London
aftersoriginal.co.uk
Gelupo, Cambridge Circus
Seriously guys. That, right there, is heaven in a pot. We stumbled across the wonder that is Gelupo when we’d had a steak at Flat Iron (fave), had time to kill before seeing the latest Star Wars (really good) and were on the hunt for somewhere to grab a celebratory payday dessert. Because having a bank account that doesn’t have a minus number in is so worth celebrating.
I chose the Bitter Chocolate Sorbet and the Coconut Gelato, and honestly, wowsers. It’s basically a posh Bounty bar in ice cream form and my new favourite dessert in the world. Seriously, it’s such a perfect combo – rich sorbet and creamy gelato with plenty of flavour and sweetness in both.
If you fancy something a bit different, they do some more off-beat flavours, as well as a really tasty pistachio ice cream (see above, pairs well with the hazelnut flavour). At four quid for a cone or tub with two flavours, it’s pretty reasonable price-wise and the interior is just lovely. We sat in the back of the space, sipping on nice and strong £1 coffee and chatting about life, and almost missed our film because of it…
Oh, and it’s also on Archer Street, which made me happy, because I love Archer, the TV series.
Gelupo
7 Archer St, Soho,W1D 7AU
www.gelupo.com
Ruby Violet, Kings Cross & Tufnell Park
Ruby Violet has such a strong homemade, locally sourced ethic that I absolutely love. Their original parlour is located in Tufnell Park, and all the ice cream is made there on a daily basis, with fresh ingredients. Much of the fruit is locally sourced, and the blackberries and damsons come from owner Julie’s home town in Nottinghamshire.
Their ice cream flavours range from raspberry ripple and belgian chocolate, through to apricot and sour cream, mantova pumpkin and even the intriguing-sounding purple sweet potato. I have to give that one a try sometime, just for curiosity’s sake.
Unlike many other dessert stops, you can also grab a boozy treat to go with your ice cream at Ruby Violet. Hooray! Or maybe a Gin and Tonic or Raspberry, Rosewater and Prosecco sorbet is your kinda pudding? Either way – if you like a touch of the hard stuff with your sweet tastes, this place has got ya.
Ruby Violet
Tufnell Park – 118 Fortess Rd, NW5 2HL
King’s Cross – 3 Wharf Road, N1C 4BZ
rubyviolet.co.uk
Sunflower, Leytonstone High Road
This one’s on home turf! Yep, those huge-ass jars of Nutella are a short walking distance from my front door.
I first discovered this little place when we’d been out for a curry down the road, and didn’t really fancy any of the curryhouse’s desserts. The walls are painted a vibrant, sunny yellow with black tiling and it has that vibe of being on your holidays somewhere sunny.
My usual pick at Sunflower is one of their crepes – with strawberries, a mega generous helping of Nutella and some cream on the side. As well as tasty sweet options, they also do savoury crepes too, making it a great lunch option as well as a dessert parlour.
For other options, check out their huge cabinet filled with cakes and pastries, or dip into their numerous ice cream flavours. I definitely recommend the bubblegum if you like your ice cream super sweet!
Sunflower Cafe and Creperie
777-779 High Road Leytonstone, E11 3BZ
Yorica
One for all my vegan/dairy free pals out there!
Yorica’s fro-yos, ice creams and shakes are completely dairy, egg, nut and gluten free – and not an animal product in sight. Meaning those with intolerances or who don’t eat animal products can gorge themselves guilt free on tasty dessert options. Yay!
Yorica
130 Wardour Street, W1F 8ZN
yorica.com
What are your favourite dessert spots where you live?
These places make me want to move to London pronto!
xoxo
jessica
from
The Crown Wings
There’s a crepe and waffle place near me that I seem to visit far too often! x
I’ll have to visit one of these places next time I’m in London. We have a few local places that do some fab desserts nearby.
I now want to eat all the desserts!! These all look fab, and the Gelupo is positively drool worthy x
Wow! so many yummy desserts! I would love some ice cream right about now!
xoxo, Candice
I love these new dessert places that are appearing. I went to Creams the other day and think the desserts are better than Kaspas
Ahh I could kiss you – we’re in London in a few weeks and I can’t wait for some tasty dessert nibbling!
Ruby Violet sounds wonderful! We have a couple of dessert places in Exeter now which is exciting in this tiny little city 🙂 one is an Italian style gelateria which makes me very happy! xxx
Lucy @ La Lingua | Life, Travel, Italy
oh this looks and sounds amazing and I so wish I lived closer as this place would become a fav of mine the pictures are just amazing and could just reach into the screen
I don’t really have any place nearby to me that does amazing ice cream apart from my local Tescos who stock Ben And Jerrys haha!
oh my, i need to jot all of these places down. dessert i my thang and I’m heading down to london sometime next month too
Afters is one of my faves as is creams. I will have to check out some of the others as I do have a penchant for deserts, I kinda have a sweet tooth x
Oh my goodness. I’ll take a delicious dessert bar like this any day!
What are you trying to do to my waistline lady?! Man! I’m gonna have to go and visit now aren’t I?!
I’m probably the only one but ice cream is my least favourite dessert. My friend loves a parlour near her home and it’s supposedly the best ice cream in Scotland…not sure if that title means much though ha.
After having had far too many sub-par desserts in traditional restaurants I love the idea of specialist dessert bars.
This means you live quite near me! Come be my friend, and we can eat Nutella every day 😛
Nicola // pink-confetti.co.uk
OMG YES. Although I’d probably not be able to fit out of the door haha!
Ooo I’ve heard of Ruby Violets, they have some amazing looking desserts and the fact you can get boozy ones means I must go there or I’ll regret life ha
Oh how I love a good dessert! Sunflower sounds like my idea of heaven…I am heading to London next month for my birthday – I think I know where I’ll be going for my birthday treat!
I love a good dessert every now and again. Not spotted any cool spot around me though.
Lovely suggestions.. I will check them 🙂
notebookofclaire.blogspot.co.uk/
Well then, I definitely need to make a trip up to London again soon for food reasons…
Meg | Elmpetra
OOh yummy, I haven’t been to any of these in London! I do like Snog in London though xxx
Never heard of any of these but Yorica sounds like something my friends would love!
Anywhere that sells a bitter chocolate flavour is gonna be a good place in my books!
We have a lovely little Italian cafe that sells ice cream it’s delicious. We go to London in a few weeks we will have to watch out for some of these the kids love desserts
Ah I need to return to London soon! We have a local ice cream place here which is good, but I I wish they would add more flavours – bitter dark chocolate would be top of my list.
I’m bookmarking this. I love a good ice-cream bar and like to try new ones when out and about in London
This is such a great post! I wish I lived in London now so that I could go! Thanks for sharing.
Deepti xx | http://www.mademoisellemeetsmaquillageandmacaroons.com
Oh my goodness!
Me and my friend are always looking for new places to eat in London – will definitely be trying out these 🙂
Dani x
OMG! I need to visit ALL of these when I’m in London next.
Oh my friend RAVED about Gelupo, I wish we had one in Manchester! Anything that taste like Bounty gets a thumbs up from me :).
These look and sound like some AMAZING places to eat dessert! I really fancy a trip to Gelupo right now 🙂
Louise x
Im not a huge fan of coconut but even I love the look of that wonder mixture in a cup….these places sound amazing, I wish they were much closer to me.