Bakery Round-Up: Layla Bakery and Fortitude Bakehouse

I am knee deep in the artisan bakery scene in London right now, with two more visits this past week. The first was Layla Bakery, a small but thriving neighbourhood bakery in Notting Hill. Getting up before work to get my sugar fix, I went for the filter coffee with oat milk, along with a raspberry danish accompanied by a chocolate and pistachio pain suisse (pictured above). The danish was good, and though not being one of the best I've had in London, was definitely of a good quality nonetheless (I would have enjoyed some compote of some sort to make the danish not as dry). The chocolate and pistachio pain suisse was rich and flaky, though did suffer a tad from a soggy bottom. I wasn't wowed by what I had at Layla, but if I lived in Notting Hill then I'd be happy to call it my local.

Then yesterday, I travelled to Bloomsbury to visit Fortitude Bakehouse, widely considered one of the best bakeries in London. I wouldn't go that far, for reasons I'll outline shortly, but it is by no means bad.

First off, the queue to Fortitude Bakehouse was enormous; it was a good half an hour before I was able to make my choices. While I am happy to queue as long as the produce is proportionate, I found that this wasn't the case on my visit. There wasn't an awful lot of time to consider choices (unlike TDK, where - though the queue can also get rather long - you are able to see what they have on the menu well in advance), though I clocked the signature beignets from the off, and chose their rhubarb and strawberry beignet (pictured above), along with the pizza danish (below).

The beignet was great - amply filled and a joy to eat, if a little messy. The danish, on the other hand, was greasy and just pretty basic. So a tale of two halves. However, as well as the excessive queue, Fortitude does not have any appropriate seating - just long single benches like the kind you'd have in primary school, which makes sitting down to eat a bit cumbersome. Given all of that, and that their wares didn't particularly wow me, I should think that I won't be visiting again any time soon. For now, Popham's and TDK still rule the roost.