As any dough nut will know, this family-run bakery has been selling the most incredible and multi-award-winning rye-based bakes at Borough Market and around the capital for about five years now. It even briefly flirted with an outlet at Westfield Stratford, which closed, but now, hurrah, has reopened.
With a tiny café space of just four tables outside the Waitrose in the shopping centre’s Great Eastern Market, Karaway offers a small range of toasties, pastries and cakes, plus a huge range of baked loaves to take home with you.
I took a break from the hordes over a cheese and ham toastie which, despite looking nearly as tired as I felt after a morning of shopping, was lighter and far better than it appeared. Plus it was huge: easily enough to be shared as a main. An equally generous pastry was sadly less successful, tasting more like a bread roll with added flavours. Still, it was a chance to rest and watch rye fans fill bags with pretty packets of biscuits, fat wedges of honey cake and of course, lots of loaves.
There are heaps of samples, but the patient, knowledgeable staff will guide you through the flavours, from traditional ryes like the dark, dense Lithuanian Scalded, with its delicious caraway aftertaste, to 100 percent rye sourdoughs, or even speciality ryes stuffed with dried fruits, nuts and spices. You might be bewildered by the choice, but hopefully this time Karaway is here to stay, so you can come back again, to try it all.