Konditor & Cook, Bloomsbury, London

Curly whirly chocolate cake – pure heaven!!!!!!

After walking past it more than once recently, I finally decided to treat myself to a slice of cake today to celebrate getting a new job (three new jobs, in fact). Yay!

The staff are friendly, the cakes all look yummy and it took my ages to choose. I finally plumped for the chocolate and hazlenut, but had no idea that it was wheat free. And even after tasting it, I can't tell. it's fabulous. I've put it back in the fridge to save for after my dinner, but there's a bite shape missing :-) Little boxes as well which means that your cake won't fall about all over the place.

You have to spend over a fiver if you're paying by card, so I picked up some tea which was rather wonderfully called Brewhaha. it's very very tasty. I like it here.

I'm not sure why it's not getting five stars, it's missing that "something" but it's really very very good. I can see myself popping back here when I'm next in the area.

Konditor & Cook is probably best described as a coffee shop chain specialising in cakes. Not the sad, plastic-wrapped specimens you find in Pret or Starbucks, but really beautiful and indulgent cakes.

The branch on Gray's Inn Road seems much more like a bakery or cafe than a chain. It's really pretty, cosy and the cake display is amazing. My dark chocolate and raspberry fudge tart was so, so good and under £3 - good value for saying how delicious it was.

Like pretty much all of the cafes in this area, it'll get busy around lunchtime. There's not much in the way of seating other than benches, which is a bit irritating - have your cake to go if you can.

Yeah whatever, I'm not nearly as over-the-moon about K&C as so many other peeps, but it's good stuff nonetheless.

I was pleased today (American Thanksgiving) to see they had a turkey/cranberry/dressing sandwich - which I bought and enjoyed:
http://london.blog.qype.com/?p=153

But, it was just okay. Nice place on an otherwise barren stretch of Gray's Inn Road but nothing phenomenal.

This branch of the Konditor and Cook serves up a mean lunch to go. They have some delicious gourmet sandwiches, and a number of hot food items including pastas, quiches, and soups that continue to rotate on a daily basis. They also make a mean coffee, so if you happen to fall to their dazzling range of pastries, cakes and slices, you can have something to lessen the sweetness of it all.

Service here is always prompt, efficient and I rarely have to queue to pay or order something. Apparently you can eat in at this branch though I’ve never tried it since it just seems like there’s a continuous stream of people coming and going that I think I’d find it too distracting.

I get my lunch from here at least once a week and try very hard to resist the delicious biscuits and cakes but I keep going back for more! The choice of soups, salads, tartlets and sandwiches changes daily. Not a place to go if you're on a diet because you can never walk out without a chocolate brownie, flapjack or one of the other heavenly baked goods. But if you're feeling indulgent, it's the best patisserie in London. I love their little fondant sponge cakes which come decorated with special messages. You can ask for them to be personalised and give them to friends as a rather original pressie.