After four months of lockdown, outdoor dining opened up the week of my 30th birthday. Great timing? Certainly. But with a huge array of big birthday plans thrown out the window (and my previous-years 29th birthday plans completely out of the window as we were in full lockdown still), it meant I had to quickly reassess and plan a smaller selection of celebrations for my thirtieth. One of them was a catch up with Aftab, one of my oldest and dearest blogging friends. We planned an evening of drinking bubbles and eating cake at Hotel Cafe Royal's Cakes & Bubbles terrace, and then an Italian dinner at Forty Dean Street. The entire evening was perfection, and we loved Cakes & Bubbles so much I just have to tell you about it!
I got there a little early so ordered a glass of Veuve Clicquot champagne and settled into our Veuve Clicquot-coloured seating on the side of Regent Street. It was pure magic just sitting there watching the hustle and bustle of London come to life once more. After months of eerie quiet on the streets, I relished the atmosphere as I sipped on my champagne. As soon as Aftab arrived he joined me with the champagne, and we chose our cakes for our little reverse birthday dinner.
World-renowned pastry chef Albert Adrià is at the helm of Cakes & Bubbles, so we knew we were in good hands. Aftab chose the impressive-looking Golden Egg Flan, while I opted for the very pretty, and delicious, Baklava Pistachio Pillows.
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| Photo by Aftab |
One thing I really missed during lockdown was just not being able to eat fancy food that I could never make myself or that couldn't be transported through a food delivery, so it felt like such a special novelty to be eating such a finely-crafted pastry. The baklava pastry itself was very light, and was filled with creamed pistachio. I honestly could have eaten another portion of them!
Cakes & Bubbles does offer an afternoon tea version of their pastries (which looked amazing - the table next to us had it!), however as we had dinner booked for afterwards we didn't want anything too over-indulgent, so their individual pastry offering worked perfectly for us. And although the terrace was chilly and doesn't have heaters, the staff did offer us plenty of blankets...but I'm definitely looking forward to visiting again in the summer when it's a bit warmer!