Cakes & Bubbles

Who Should Book Cakes & Bubbles

If your ideal afternoon involves a Champagne coupe in one hand and something technically precise from a world-calibre pastry kitchen in the other, Cakes & Bubbles at Hotel Café Royal is the right call. This is a confident choice for couples marking an anniversary, solo food enthusiasts who want a lighter, lower-commitment format than a full tasting menu, anyone who finds the gap between a London afternoon tea and a serious dessert bar frustrating. It sits inside one of Regent Street's most storied hotel addresses, the occasion-match is real: the room signals special without demanding a three-hour commitment or a four-figure bill.

The Venue

Cakes & Bubbles occupies a dedicated space within Hotel Café Royal at 70 Regent Street, a building that has anchored London's West End since the 1860s. The room is compact and considered rather than sprawling; the spatial experience here is one of intimacy rather than grandeur, which separates it from the high-ceilinged dining rooms that dominate the hotel's wider estate. That scale works in the venue's favour: it keeps the focus on what arrives on the plate and in the glass, rather than on architectural theatre. For food and wine enthusiasts who have done the circuit of London hotel bars and afternoon tea rooms and found them more about spectacle than substance, this is a meaningfully different proposition.

The chef behind the concept is Albert Adrià, whose professional history includes decades at elBulli alongside his brother Ferran; widely considered among the most consequential restaurants in the history of modern cooking. That context matters here not as biography but as evidence: the technical ambition applied to pastry at Cakes & Bubbles comes from a kitchen tradition that treated dessert as a serious discipline, not an afterthought. You are not getting a hotel pastry chef replicating standard afternoon tea formats. The approach is considerably more precise than that.

The Drinks Program

The name is not decorative. Champagne and sparkling wine are the intended pairing format here, that editorial focus is what makes the drinks program worth examining as a decision factor. Most London dessert and afternoon tea venues treat wine as incidental, a glass of Prosecco offered as an upgrade, priced for margin rather than match. Cakes & Bubbles structures the experience around the pairing logic from the start, which means the bubbles are a genuine part of the proposition rather than a bolt-on. For wine-oriented guests, this is the most coherent dessert-and-sparkling pairing format available in London at this price tier. If you are considering Sketch's Lecture Room or a Mayfair hotel bar for a celebratory drink and something sweet, the deliberate pairing architecture here gives Cakes & Bubbles a specific edge for that occasion.

Awards and Standing

Cakes & Bubbles has appeared on the Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe rankings for three consecutive years: Highly Recommended in 2023, ranked 270th in 2024, rising to 206th in 2025. OAD's casual Europe list is crowd-sourced from experienced diners and restaurant professionals, so consistent upward movement across three years is a meaningful signal, it suggests the kitchen is maintaining quality rather than coasting on an opening moment.

Booking and Logistics

Cakes & Bubbles books easily by London fine-dining standards. This is not a venue where you need a three-week lead time or insider access, a few days' notice should be sufficient outside of major holiday periods, though weekends during peak season warrant earlier planning. The Hotel Café Royal address on Regent Street is central: Piccadilly Circus tube is the obvious approach, placing the venue within easy reach of Mayfair, Soho, the West End theatre district, making it a natural before- or after-theatre stop.

Practical Comparison: Cakes & Bubbles vs. Alternatives

For European pastry venues with comparable specialist focus, Pavé in Milan and Caffè Sicilia in Ragusa represent the category benchmark in their respective cities, useful reference points if you are building a broader food-travel itinerary.

Browse our full London restaurants guide, our full London bars guide, or our full London hotels guide to plan around your visit. For UK destinations beyond the capital, Waterside Inn in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and Moor Hall in Aughton are worth considering if you are extending a trip.