welcome to the house of bertaux

I had a particularly disastrous hair cut at the Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy on Thursday. Okay, I lie. It isn’t that bad, but vastly different to the usual style du chevaux on my head. So I wandered down the long route from Bond Street to Greek Street in Soho with one thought in mind – to drown my sorrows with hot cups of Earl Grey and a rich, fluffy pastry from Maison Bertaux.

I’d only gone to this quaint French patisserie once before, several months ago, after hearing many wonderful stories and seeing saliva-inducing photographs from a rather lovely blogger by the name of Anne-Marie (hello if you’re reading!). Once you step in through the door you’ll most likely be greeted by a kind old man by the name of Johan, who’ll be more than happy to guide you through the myriad of scumptious looking pastries and cakes in the shop window. After you make your choice, you go off to find a seat and the waifish male waiters will bring it to your table, along with your drink if you choose to have one (but why would you not want to have tea with your pastry?).

Luckily my favourite seat upstairs was still available – a light and breezy spot in the back corner where one can look out of the red chiffon curtained window (though admittedly there isn’t much to see but the odd van and Soho-ites passing through Greek Street). Sitting up there with a good read (a new book I picked up from Foyles: ‘How to be a better foodie: a bulging little book for the truly epicurious‘, tres amusing), it’s simply soothing being there. Compare this with the frantic buzz of a Starbucks or Cafe Nero. Non, here you can take your time and sip your tea leisurely while taking miniscule bites of your pastry (because you wouldn’t want it to all go at once, would you?) and savouring every little mouthful. Divine.

The tea is superb, my Earl Grey was light and fragrant and convinced me to go without milk (I usually find supermarket-bought Earl Grey too bitter and so I add milk and sugar to it. A sin, I know!). The smell of bergamot was calming and went nicely with the sweetness of the berries in my choux pastry. Believe me when I say that being at Maison Bertaux was like floating in a little sanctuary of bliss for about two hours.

What’s more, a waiter by the name of Menton came over and complimented me on my hair. Tea, choux and reassurance that I didn’t look as horrible as I’d thought! That made my day. Of course, he did then try to ply me with free cheesecake and an invitation to dinner later so I’m not so sure that comment was very genuine…

Maison Bertaux
28 Greek Street
London W1D 5DQ
Tel: 020 7437 6007

* This is my last post before I fly off to Hong Kong for a month. So brace yourselves for an avalanche of posts as I eat my way through the city, hurrah!