Rabot 1745

Buoyed by its location overlooking Borough Market, Hotel Chocolat is aiming for some additional street cred with Rabot 1745 – a slick café-restaurant named after a cocoa estate founded in 1745 on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. As you might guess, this venue is famed for its hot chocolate: their premier-league brew is a well-balanced, savoury-edged elixir guaranteed to warm the cockles, and you can even add a shot of St Lucian rum if you’re feeling chilly (in summer, a cup of iced chocolate does the trick). Rabot’s café offer also extends to afternoon tea and cocoa-themed breakfasts (try their beer-braised sausage baps with cocoa/tomato ketchup), while the upstairs restaurant offers more ambitious seasonal ideas such as venison fillet with cocoa-crusted braised ‘trimmings’, celeriac purée, caramelised almonds and red wine reduction.