Cakes & Bubbles

The pastry chef behind the counter is described by Time Out as one some people rate the best in the world, and its reviewer still marked it three stars for going too far (Time Out).

Why go

A small counter inside Hotel Cafe Royal on Regent Street, with a menu by Albert Adria. Marble, gold-leaf walls, trolleys of fizz, and windows facing the street (Time Out).

Nina Clark's review is the only assessment anyone has published, and it splits neatly. What works is the technique landing on something you want to eat: a pancake made airy, filled with yogurt foam and topped with a creme brulee shell; a tiny stroopwafel ice-cream sandwich served in an elaborate box and then dropped into a foil bag to keep it cold.

What does not work is the same technique with nothing behind it. Her example is the carrot cake, "just a few grated tendrils of the vegetable wedged between paper-thin wafers", and her instruction is to take the chocolate cork instead.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the chocolate cork. Clark: "it's the most decadent, rich - and weighty - thing here" (ref). The pancake with yogurt foam under its brulee shell. A glass off the trolley.
• Avoid: the carrot cake. And ordering a single item and expecting that to be the visit, because these weigh a few grams each.

What locals & experts say

• Nina Clark, Time Out, May 2019, three stars out of five, on what the technique produces: "The 'cake' concotions are radical. A twist on a pancake was airy, filled with a yogurt foam and topped with a crème brûlée shell; a miniscule stroopwafel ice-cream sandwich came served in an elaborate box and then popped in a dainty foil bag to keep cool." ref
• The same review, on where it overreaches, and on the bill: "Sometimes it went too far: the 'carrot cake' was just a few grated tendrils of the vegetable wedged between paper-thin wafers. Get the signature chocolate cork instead." And: "there's no sugar-coating the prices. A single creation costs between £6 and £12, and to feel even remotely satisfied, you'll need several." ref
• Nobody else. No chef in the industry-vote file has named it, and nothing published after 2019 was reached on 1 August 2026. This entry rests on one voice.

Good to know

• Where: Hotel Cafe Royal, 68 Regent Street W1B 4DY, at the Piccadilly Circus end.
• Timing: current hours were not established.
• Price: six to twelve pounds an item as of 2019, and the critic's point is that you will order several.
• Booking: worth booking for a table rather than the counter.
• Hygiene: no FSA record exists for Cakes & Bubbles under any spelling, checked by name and by the W1B 4DY postcode. The surrounding hotel is registered as Cafe Royal at 64-72 Regent Street W1B 5RJ, rating 5, inspected 20 March 2025, with hygiene and confidence in management both at zero. That is the building's record and not this counter's, and it is given here as the building's. FHRSID 546026. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note against this row. The master line "Albert Adria's cheesecake-and-cava counter at Hotel Cafe Royal" is curation text, and it needed checking: Adria and the hotel are confirmed, and the cheesecake-and-cava framing appears in nothing reached, so this entry describes what the one published review actually found instead.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Go if you are on Regent Street and you want one very good thing rather than a meal. Cakes & Bubbles is a small counter inside Hotel Cafe Royal with a menu by Albert Adria, who Time Out's Nina Clark introduces as a chef considered by some to be the best pastry cook in the world. The room is marble, gold leaf and trolleys of fizz, with windows onto the street. What she found was a counter that is at its best when the trick lands and at its worst when the idea outruns the eating: a pancake filled with yogurt foam under a creme brulee shell works, a stroopwafel ice-cream sandwich arrives in a box and then a foil bag, and the carrot cake turned out to be a few grated tendrils between paper-thin wafers. Her instruction is to take the chocolate cork instead, which she calls the most decadent, rich and weighty thing there. Do the arithmetic before you sit down. Items run six to twelve pounds, they weigh a few grams, and you will want several. Held at could-visit because that three-star review from 2019 is the only assessment anyone has published, no chef has named it, and there is no hygiene record for the counter itself.