On the top floor of Dover Street Market’s breathtaking new store, Rose Bakery is the perfect shopping pit-stop. The original opened in 2002 in Paris, and with its resolutely English menu it was expected to fail spectacularly. It didn’t – it turns out the French have a hankering for English grub. The food at this branch is similarly scrummy.
Goat’s cheese and broccoli was good and a decent portion, with deliciously flaky pastry and a simple, well-dressed side-salad. Stuffed peppers, loaded with anchovies and olives, were nice, light and with bags of flavour. Blueberry cheesecake, meanwhile, was citrusy and peppered with cardamom, and a pistachio cake was dense, moist and crumbling – a lovely way to round off lunch.
Food aside, it’s undeniable that much of Rose Bakery’s appeal lies in the startling design of the venue (think taxidermy, sculptural Burberry trenchcoat towers and such). You might not fit into the impossibly pretty clothes after scoffing all that cake, but it’s an achingly chic little spot all the same.