London – the capital. Home to the most amazing landmarks, tourist attractions, the queen. Oh, and a million and one instagrammable locations. Over the past two months of living in London, I’ve aimed to tick off as many places on my bucket list as possible. However, due to the fact that I am the biggest foodie you’ll ever meet, the majority of those places have been places where I can get my sugar/carb/artisan cake fix. So here goes, a list of the 6 most instagrammable cafes in London. Tried and tested, by yours truly. Breaking the bank for these reviews (I wish I was joking), so you don’t have to!
Saint Aymes
Before landing my job in London, I attended the interview a few weeks before and decided to make a day or two out of it. My logic was: if I got the job? Great! If I didn’t? I’d still made some memories and all was not lost. Anyway, after the interview my nerves were on edge so my sister and I decided to visit a little café I’d heard (and seen) a lot about! Saint Aymes is the prettiest little spot with an incredible flower arrangement on the front of the building. The flowers are changed with the season and we visited when the whole place was an aesthetically pleasing lilac dream. We decided to sit outside but the interior was just as gorgeous, with flower walls and pink velvet seating to die for. So you get it, it’s pretty to look at. But is it worth the price?
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One glance at the menu is enough to send you into cardiac arrest, I’ll be honest. My sister opted for the pink Unicorn Latte and I chose the Marie Antoinette, which is a pink hot chocolate made with Ghanaian white chocolate, topped off with whipped cream and Oreo crumbs. If they didn’t sound extra enough, both drinks were garnished with 24 carat gold AND were both £8.45 each. You may think that’s insane (and it is) but their milkshakes are £17. SEVENTEEN POUNDS! After viewing the menu, we settled on just sharing a slice of cake. An £8 slice of cake.
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I think I’ve complained about the price for a little too long now. SO, price aside, the food and drink was actually pretty amazing. I mean, I could’ve got 8 McDonalds cheese burgers for the same price, but it was probably the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. The rainbow cake slice we had also tasted glorious and all in all, we decided that the price was actually worth the experience. The interior and exterior was incredible to look at and I still dream about that hot chocolate. So take what you will from this review, but if it’s ever payday and you’re feeling spontaneous, I’d definitely reccomend Saint Aymes as a treat.
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Elan Cafe
Elan, the name on every cake lovers lip’s. Elan only opened up their first cafe in 2017, and have now opened in several locations across London. One thing you can be sure of, is that every single one of their cafes will be full 5 minutes after opening. So if you are going to visit, be prepared for some wait time. When I visited, the wait was short and sweet, but I’ve heard some horror stories from others who haven’t been so lucky. Just something to keep in mind!
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My friend George and I ordered a mixture of sweet and savoury goods: sweet potato fries, buttermilk chicken goujons, two amazing little cakes and some drinks. White chocolate is my go-to (as you’ll come to see by the end of this post) so I ordered the white hot chocolate, whereas George opted for a floral tea. There are a million and one different flavours of tea, coffee, hot chocolate, smoothies and juices, as well as a huge selection of cakes, desserts and brunchy goodness. I went for an amazing pink glazed cake with super soft sponge that was almost like a mousse. I have the sweetest of sweet tooths so opted for the one that looked like it would be the sugariest, and it certainly was sugary! The closest thing I could compare it to is a candy floss white chocolate dream. Which is more than I can say for the white hot chocolate, which just tasted like hot milk. Which leads me swiftly on to the prices…
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£6.50 for a hot milk. In other words, I was had off. The prices of the cakes were also pretty extortionate for what they were too. Although mine was lovely, it was still around the £5/£6 mark. The negatives aside, Elan is definitely a place I’ll visit again! I visited the cafe just off Oxford Street and it was actually pretty big. It also had amazing interior, and is pretty much flower walls, pink velvet chairs and neon signs galore. A bloggers dream.
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Feya
A tiny little cafe filled with white blossom trees (and really good hot chocolate) can be found just off Oxford Street. I had expected it to be a lot busier, but to our pleasant surprise, we were seated pretty much immediately! For an independent cafe which has had a lot of hype, I thought the prices would be a lot higher than they were. I mean, I paid £9.50 for pancakes but I also paid about the same for a hot chocolate elsewhere. So, in terms of my personal experience, Feya does not completely break the bank.
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My friend Charlotte and I ordered two hot chocolates (I went for white chocolate obvs, she went for milk chocolate) and they arrived with the cutest little patterns on! The white hot chocolate also came close second to Saint Aymes’ pink hot chocolate, and was half the price. In Feya, they have a huge assortment of homemade cakes and treats, and Charlotte went for the salted caramel brownie (and it had gold glitter on it!). As I mentioned earlier, I ordered the pancakes and they were to die for. They’re called Wisteria Waffles, although I went for the pancake option, and they arrived covered in white chocolate drizzle, mixed berries, lemon zest, pink whipped cream and edible flowers. I told you I have a sweet tooth! Not only did the whole combination taste like a dream, the pink whipped cream was incredible. I’d definitely recommend getting them if you do go! Although, the smoothie bowls also looked amazing. Just order the whole menu.
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All in all, I’d definitely recommend going to Feya. It’s a small independent business, they sell some really good food at a pretty reasonable price, they do some amazing hot chocolate, the interior is beautiful AND the staff were super friendly and didn’t get angry at us for getting in their way multiple times to take photos by the blossom trees (thank u).
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Peggy Porschen Cakes
The queen of the instagrammable spots. Upon arrival, you’ll likely see a queue of people just waiting to get a photo with the floral archway. Whether they actually go in? Nobody knows…
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Okay, I sorta made Peggy Porschen’s sound like a horror film there. I mean, some aspects I suppose were, but let me explain. By now, you’ve probably realised that I really like hot chocolate. You also know that I have a major sweet tooth. Do you wanna know something else? I absolutely HATE coffee. I know right, what’s wrong with me? I can’t be a normal blogger writing posts in a cute coffee shop with a little cappuccino because I just hate coffee. This is going somewhere, I promise. So I’d seen how incredible the hot chocolates at Peggy Porschen’s looked with the little stencils of snowflakes and decided I’d order one for myself. I took one sip, and it tasted like 5% hot chocolate and 95% coffee. I think it might have just been boiling water with coffee beans in it and a snowflake on top. Looked cute, tasted like my worst nightmare. I’m not usually this savage, but I promised you an honest review! Maybe I’m just super fussy and can’t appreciate anything unless it’s filled with sugar. I think I can feel a New Years resolution coming on…
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On a brighter note, we got seated straight away, they had really nice macarons, and it is a really good instagrammable spot. Which is what we’re judging them on, right? I didn’t get to see the interior as we sat outside but the exterior of the building is so beautiful! If pink is your thing, you should probably visit Peggy Porschen’s. It really is like a bloggers wonderland, but behind all of the dreamy photo ops, it was just a little dissapointing. The price was extortinate (I think the bill came to almost £30) and although the cake we had was divine, it was also about £7 for a slither. So what’s my Peggy Porschen’s verdict? It’s a great location for photos, and the food and drink does look incredible. However, unless you want to break the bank, maybe just be like the people who take pictures at the archway and never actually go inside.
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Palm Vaults
In the east of London lies a pretty little cafe called Palm Vaults, a perfect catch up spot with the coolest interior. With pink seating, bare brick walls and tonnes of plants hanging from the ceiling, it really does make for a lovely chill out spot. Even the bathroom was all pink with super cute leafy wallpaper! Although I didn’t get any food here, I did get the prettiest and cheapest hot chocolate so far! I went for a pink rose hot chocolate (a white hot chocolate with a hint of rose), and not only did it look amazing but it also tasted amazing. Palm Vaults has a huge array of drinks including rainbow lattes and they had a pretty big food menu too.
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It’s definitely a place I’ll have to visit again, mainly because I didn’t get the chance to try out any of their food, but also because the vibes were super chill and the staff were just as lovely as everything else there. Also *drum roll* the prices actually weren’t bank breaking!!! Can you believe it? An instagrammable cafe in London not charging extortionate rates? So although this review was the shortest of them all, I’d still very much recommend visiting Palm Vaults and getting your rose hot chocolate fix.
