Arôme Bakery (Duke Street).

Arôme Bakery (Duke Street)

Alix André came out of Lyon through Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, then Yauatcha and Roka, which is why the laminated dough here ends up carrying miso and palm sugar.

Why go

Arôme started as a Soho pop-up in 2019, went permanent in Covent Garden in late 2020, and opened this second counter on Duke Street in August 2022, steps from Selfridges (Restaurant, Hot Dinners). The pâtissier is André, from Lyon, who trained with Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester and then with Alan Yau at Yauatcha and Rainer Becker at Roka, and the backing comes from Ellen Chew's Chew on This group, the people behind Rasa Sayang in Chinatown. The bakery describes its own work as melding age-old French methodologies with Asian ingredients, baked fresh on site daily (venue). What that means on the shelf is a Croissant 1930 next to a miso bacon escargot, and a gula melaka coconut twist next to a pain au chocolat. Before you plan anything: this branch closes on Mondays and Tuesdays, which the Covent Garden shop does not.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the honey butter toast, a thick slice of soft and fluffy shokupan enveloped in a crunchy honey crust (venue), which Hot Dinners tried and called phenomenal. The miso bacon escargot. Croissant 1930 to judge the French half. A gula melaka coconut twist. A shokupan loaf to take home.
• Avoid: Mondays and Tuesdays, when this branch is shut. The end of the day, when the honey butter toast has gone. And do not assume the hours match Covent Garden, because they differ every day of the week.

What locals & experts say

• James McAllister, Restaurant, 11 August 2022, on the pedigree behind the counter: André is originally from Lyon and trained under Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, Alan Yau at Yauatcha, and later with Rainer Becker at Roka. On the idea: Firmly embedded in French pâtisserie, Arôme's menu celebrates traditional pastry methods while exploring multicultural flavours from Singapore, Japan and France. A trade report on an opening, not a review.3
• Gavin Hanly, Hot Dinners, 12 August 2022, announcing it and offering his own first-hand line on the signature bake: we've tried it - it's phenomenal.4
• Chetan Sharma, chef-patron of BiBi, January 2025, picking the bakery for one thing: They make a honey toast that is incredibly simple but ridiculously delicious. He describes it as Japanese milk bread coated in honey and butter and baked deeply golden, which is the shokupan under its set-honey crust that Arôme leads with. A chef who cooks at that level naming the same bake is the strongest outside confirmation of it. He names no branch, so the credit belongs to the bakery rather than to one door.1
• The awards belong to the other branch. Arôme's placement in the Good Food Guide's Britain's 50 Best Bakeries 2026 and The Times' 2023 ranking at number 29 are both attributed by their sources to the Covent Garden shop, which is curated separately here. Nothing has been published about this counter on its own.

Good to know

• Where: 27 Duke Street, W1U 1LE, just north of Oxford Street by Selfridges. Listings that file it under Mayfair are wrong; the address is Marylebone.
• Timing: closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm, Saturday 9am to 6pm, Sunday 9am to 4pm.
• Against the other branch: Covent Garden, at 9 Mercer Street, closes Mondays only and runs 8am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 4pm Sunday. The two differ every day.
• Booking: walk-in counter.
• Diet: allergens are published per product, and gluten, milk and egg run through most of the range. There is no vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free statement, so nothing is flagged here.
• Hygiene: Food Standards Agency rating 5, inspected 20 September 2025 by the City of Westminster.5
• Sites: Covent Garden (9 Mercer Street, curated separately) and this one. The hygiene register also shows a third London bakery at 90-92 Shaftesbury Avenue W1D 5EA, rated 5 in May 2026, which the company's own website does not list.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: Saved with no note; the note on my list belongs to the Covent Garden branch.

Verdict

could-visit — Worth the detour off Oxford Street if you are already up there, and check the day first. Alix André came from Lyon through Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, then Alan Yau's Yauatcha and Rainer Becker's Roka, and that CV is the whole explanation for what comes out of this oven: proper French lamination carrying miso, palm sugar and shokupan rather than a novelty menu. The signature is the honey butter toast, a thick slice of Japanese milk bread under a crust of set honey, and the miso bacon escargot is the bake that states the idea plainest. Everything is baked fresh on site daily. Ellen Chew's group is behind it, the same people as Rasa Sayang in Chinatown, and this is the second of what the hygiene register says are now three London bakeries. The catch is scheduling: this branch is closed Monday and Tuesday, and its hours differ from the Covent Garden shop on every other day of the week, so anyone who knows the other one will get caught. It sits here rather than higher because the awards this brand holds, the Good Food Guide's 50 Best Bakeries for 2026 and a Times ranking, both attach to Covent Garden, and nobody has assessed this counter on its own.