Arôme Bakery (Covent Garden)
Alix André trained as a pâtissier in Lyon and then cooked under Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester before moving through Alan Yau's Yauatcha and Rainer Becker's Roka, which is why the croissants here are built to French spec and filled with miso, laksa and gula melaka (British Baker).
Why go
André runs Arôme with Ellen Chew, the Singaporean restaurateur behind the Chew On This group, and the pairing explains the menu: classical lamination and a housemade shokupan on one side, Southeast Asian pantry on the other (British Baker). The Mercer Street shop runs to 2,000 square feet, bakes everything fresh on site each day from organic flour, and opened after a three-month trial pop-up in Soho. The best seller is the Honey Butter Toast, a thick slab of the shokupan under a crust of set honey. The Good Food Guide named it one of Britain's 50 Best Bakeries for 2026 (Time Out). This is the Covent Garden shop at 9 Mercer Street, in The Yards; the Duke Street site in Mayfair is a separate branch.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Honey Butter Toast first, then the Miso Bacon Escargot and the Gula Melaka Coconut Twist. Time Out singles out the housemade shokupan and
sausage and cheese croissants with Japanese bbq sauce
(Time Out). - Avoid: the last hour. Doors close at 5pm Monday to Saturday and 4pm on Sunday, and the honey butter toast goes long before that.
What locals & experts say
- Good Food Guide, Britain's 50 Best Bakeries (2026), as reported by Time Out: the
French-Asian bakery, which first opened in 2020, combines Parisian patisserie flair with global flavours.
1 - The Times, Britain's best bakeries (2023): ranked No. 29 among the country's 49 picks.4
- Alix André, co-founder, to British Baker:
I think it is interesting to spice things up and mix both worlds.
2
Good to know
- Timing: Monday to Saturday 8am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 4pm (Covent Garden).
- Booking: walk-in counter service.
- Dietary: no allergen, gluten-free or vegan statement is published by the bakery. Third-party listings claim both; treat as unconfirmed.
- Location: 9 Mercer Street in The Yards, three minutes from Covent Garden station. The Mayfair branch on Duke Street is a different shop.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "French pastry timeout top 50 bakery." REAL. The top-50 list is the Good Food Guide's; Time Out reported it.
Verdict
should-visit — A Lyon-trained pâtissier who came up under Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester and then cooked in Alan Yau's and Rainer Becker's kitchens is the reason the French-Asian crossover here holds together technically rather than reading as a gimmick: the lamination and the shokupan are both done properly before the miso and gula melaka arrive. Two Good Food Guide 50 Best Bakeries appearances and a Times top-30 placement back it up. It is a counter, not a meal, which caps the rung.