I tried the best bakeries in london so you don't have to

One of my bad habits is I will save all the things that I really want to do and never get around to doing them. My Pinterest board is filled with pictures of journaling and going to the flower market and cafes and I have a list of cafes and bakeries that I really want to go to but I just never get around to doing it. And as much as I really want to be a slow living girly the hustle culture in me is still very strong. But the truth is nothing changes if nothing changes, right? So the goal this week is to live my best Pinterest life. I'm gonna go to a bunch of cafes, bakeries, flower market, journal, get in touch with myself. Let's do it. The first place I'm going to is called Uchi Bake. This is a Japanese inspired bakery and has been on my list for a while. They have just opened a new cafe in Angel so I really wanted to check it out and it looked like they had some really great options. I went for the strawberry sando, chocolate brownie and tried the matcha here. It was really good. I was really impressed by the quality but I also realised that the caffeine was way too intense for me and I ended up feeling anxious for most of the day. But you know what? It was still worth it. But the thing I was most excited about was the strawberry sando. It just looks so fluffy and fresh and perfect. It doesn't even look like real food. It just looks too pretty. It's funny how Winston came up and said hi and the next thing you know we're sitting together and have like instantly become good friends. Just non-stop chatting, making jokes. You'd think we'd known each other for years. I honestly love meeting you guys because we just have such special moments like this. We ended up trying the food together. I loved the strawberry sando. It's so much more than just strawberries and cream with bread. The strawberries were so sweet and juicy. The cream was not too sweet or creamy. It was really light and tasty and the bread was so soft, sweet and fluffy. Honestly, I want another one now. I also ordered the teriyaki salmon which I wasn't expecting to look this saucy but you know what? I should never have questioned them because it was so good. The flavours all stood out individually. It was sweet but also so many other things and it just all worked so well together. The bread was soft and fluffy again. This was a really good sandwich. And finally the brownie which tasted more like cake to me because it was so soft and moist. Honestly, a great brownie. This bakery is a very strong start to the video. All around great food, great vibes and apparently a great place to make new friends. Winston and I got on so well that we decided to spend the rest of the day together. I purposely didn't make any plans this weekend because I was trying to be more intentionally slow which meant that I had space for spontaneity and make new friends. Isn't that crazy how that happens? Like the one weekend where I choose to not make any plans and then I end up spending a whole day with a new friend. It's so funny how life works, isn't it? It was one of those rare moments in life where you meet someone who makes you feel instantly, emotionally safe. So you feel like you can be fully yourself around them and I just love it when that happens. We ended up getting dinner together and stayed out till 10 p.m. So we spent like a solid eight hours together and it's also funny because a similar thing happened the last time I filmed a bakery video in Paris where I met Carol and Carol and I are still friends to this day and one of our favourite things to do together is to go to bakeries. Speaking of, we actually went to a bakery recently. What a lovely day in London it is today. It's cold, wet, rainy but I'm here at Neal's Bakery. Look who's back. It's so classic. He's in another bakery video. This is the first one. We're going to try the pistachio because that's what they're known for. It's quite bready and doughy actually. Ready, cheers? Cheers. Well, I only just got a chocolate part so let me try the pistachio. That's nice. That's good. I'm kind of surprised. I had low expectations but it's so good. It's very pistachio-y as well. You can see the actual like full chunks of pistachio. Conscious of the fact there's two more here but at the same time, I just want to finish it. I think actually the next one to mix up the flavours, maybe we try this one. Also, can we take a moment? Look at the glow up we're having. We're not on the ground by the river. We have proper cutlery. We're on a table indoor. We had cutlery last time, okay? I know but it was like so hard. Oh, okay. Oh, there's a little coming out. It's like egg. Wow, okay. That looks good. And it's like chocolate. Cheers. I don't know how I'm going to eat this nicely. Wow, it's like yogurt. Yeah, I was going to say, that's like a really nice like mango passion fruit yogurt, yeah. It's like really thin. It's like egg yolk. Okay, it's a bit messy, guys. The pastry is really flaky. The custard or the yogurt is like tangy but not too tangy. It's quite nice. It's sweet and tangy at the same time. This one surprised me and I really, really, really like it. You're doing well. So good. How do you even tackle this one? I don't even know. Oh my goodness, it's like passion fruit now. I'm going to cleanse my palate. I'm surprised you picked cojicha. You don't think I'm cultured? No, it's just very... cojicha is a very rogue drink, okay? Really? Maybe you're like ahead of the curve. Watch in a few months' time, cojicha is going to be really popular. Yeah, I know. I feel like I've got on the good side. I apologize. I'm not going to be able to get the chocolate part. Let's go for the middle bit. How though? Okay, I'm going to have to put this down. It's quite rich chocolate, right? It's very rich. You do have a lot. Yeah, you can tell it's high quality chocolate. Because it tastes darker chocolate. Yeah. I think the chocolate's kind of nutty. Also, the pastry is very buttery. Wow. It is 100% like a croissant. It's so light. It doesn't taste like flaky to me. It just tastes soft, like a soft croissant. I think having a big chocolate bite might be too much for me. I'd want a thinner spread of it throughout rather than one big dollop. You have to really love chocolate. Yeah, because it's intense, guys. We did really well. Yeah, which is your favorite, do you think? Oh, for different elements, I think I liked the pistachio one, but mainly because it is a chocolate. Yeah. And then I liked the custardy one. Well, the passion fruit and mango one because it was fun and different. But this is the one I'd probably have again. I would say one, two, three. Oh, because you're fruity. You like fruity things. Yeah, I'm just not huge on... I'm so basic when it comes to chocolate. I like it milky and artificial. I like when it's too high quality. Listen, we can't buy taste, okay? I have come to Columbia Flower Market because I want to get some flowers. And there's also a bakery nearby that's newly opened that I really want to try called Crema. This is the market. It's a glorious day. Let's get some flowers. I'm thinking I'm going to get the three for £20 mix, but I just don't know which one to pick because everything's so nice. Thank you. I got myself the matcha and a courgette and pumpkin one, but I'm going to take this home because you can't film in here. But let's give this a little quick taste test. Oh, the matcha's really good. I love going to Columbia Flower Market and picking what flowers I want in the vase and putting it together. There's just something about it that I find very relaxing and enjoyable. I love these colours. I've not tried this combo before, but I really like it. It is giving more spring than summer, but I ain't mad about it. I don't think I'm the best at flower arranging by any means, but I do enjoy it. That's the most important thing. It's not about being perfect. It's about just having pride in your home, I guess, and doing things just for the sake of it, bringing you joy. Oh, they look so pretty. Honestly, flowers make the world of difference. It really does. Anyway, I only picked up one pastry because there wasn't a lot of options there. I did actually ask for the croissant, but I think you couldn't hear me, so I have just this. But it's an interesting one. You can really smell the courgette. I quite like courgettes, so I'm kind of curious about it. We have lost a courgette. I don't taste any pumpkin. I don't know if you can see the pesto inside. That's the main flavour I'm getting. I think I need to get a bite from the middle. I think the sweetness of the pastry on the outside and the savoury on the middle is really confusing me. I don't know if that combo works. I think I would have just made this whole thing savoury, but it is something different, and I've tried something that I've never had before, so that part is really exciting. As much as I love matcha and this tastes great, I get so anxious. So I might need to chill out with the matcha. Yesterday, I was talking a lot and I wanted to be present, but at the same time, I felt so anxious and I had to say to him, I'm sorry, the matcha's really got to me. I'm just feeling so anxious right now. And he's like, that's okay. And then I slowly weaned off, but I might need to chill out with the matcha for a bit. I don't know what it is about caffeine, but my body does not handle it well. But I just love matcha, so what's a girl to do? It's a struggle out here, it really is. I have come to Chestnut Bakery. It's one of the highest rated bakeries in London. And it's also really spacious. It's like a lot of seating, which I love considering we're in Covent Garden. I feel like this whole vlog, I've been keeping saying that I want to have solo time, but it's just always ended up being so busy and making new friends, which is so lovely. But I have brought my journal and I have a table and I'm here by myself. I think I'm finally going to have solo time to journal and to try some incredible pastries. I got myself an iced caramel latte, decaf, because caffeine is just too much for me. I've got a vanilla bun and a pistachio and chocolate bun. They look really good. I think I'm going to start off with a vanilla one first. Well, I wasn't expecting it to be that sweet. It's really good, by the way. It's a bit too sweet for my liking. I can't taste the cinnamon as much. It's not as gooey as I thought it would be. I'm going to do the cinnamon now. I think the vanilla cream is a bit too much. I think I would just have had it just as a cinnamon bun, but the cinnamon is really good. Okay, now we're going to try the pistachio and chocolate bun. It looks too pretty to show. It's a bit tough, this one. Oh, gosh. This one isn't as sweet, which is nice. It tastes like honey, which I wasn't expecting. I think I prefer the cinnamon bun without the vanilla. The pastries are okay. I don't get the height, if I'm being completely honest, but they have a lot of seating in central, which is really good. It's actually a good seat because there's a big window here and you can people watch. I have my drink. I have my bun, and I'm going to do some journaling now. I feel like life moves so fast. Even when I'm trying to make active, intentional steps to slow down, there's just so much happening all the time, and I just haven't had time to process any of it. Actually, I wanted to talk to you guys about this. Like, I'm doing this whole series right now on short form, like on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, all about being shameless. I'm doing 30 Days of Being Shameless. I've talked about resentment and my feelings on resentment. I've talked about decentering men, my body image, how I dress. Like, I dress more feminine now. I'm just learning to take up space and pursue what I want to do on my own terms. And initially, I was, like, really nervous about sharing all of that online because I didn't know how people would perceive it and whether I'd be judged for it and criticized for it, even though the whole point of the challenge is to be shameless. But one thing I wasn't expecting was how positive and lovely the response has been. Some of you have been saying how you would like long-form videos about this topic. If you guys have seen the series and you would like to see long-form content about it, then let me know and I'll happily do that. I just want to make content that you guys really enjoy and I really enjoy. And the fact that we can be on the same page on something like this is quite special to me. I'm now gonna journal because I keep talking about it and I don't do it. So let's journal about my feelings, shall we? I was hanging out with a friend in Balham, and as I was leaving the cafe, I noticed that they had some really cool charity shops in this area. This is an area that I come to very often, so I was really surprised by it. There were so many nice pieces in this one. I'm trying to explore more of my style these days, experimenting with different shapes, styles, patterns, hopefully without breaking the bank. So this place was a great find. And also the price was very reasonable too. I found this embroidered bag from Accessorize for only £4. What absolute bargain. I am back home and I want to show you a couple of the bits that I picked up from the charity shop today. Did I need these things? Absolutely not. But I just couldn't help it. So I'm gonna show you what I got because it was actually really good. And there were items in the charity shop that were completely brand new with tags. There was a Nobody's Childs dress in there, which I was nearly tempted to get, but I was like, I don't need this. I have plenty of this kind of thing already. And I really wanted to get pieces that, like, I don't have. Like this one. It's got a hole in it. This is why you should look at things better. I need to figure out how I can, like, sew it on. So with the pattern, if you can see, there's, like, lots of white embroidery on it. I'm sure if I, like, stitch it together or get someone else to stitch it together, it won't be super noticeable because the whole thing is, like, embroidered anyway. But that's crazy that I didn't pick that up. Classic me. I got this waistcoat. And this is from a brand called Suspirillo. I think it's proper vintage. But the cool thing about this is that it fits me like a glove. Like, it looks so good on. And that's another thing I need to think of when I think about clothes is how does it fit me? No more trying to make something work. It either fits me really well and I'm, like, super excited about it, or I'm just not gonna have it. I've decluttered way too much that I'm, like, now I just want to be really intentional about the items I have. And I just really liked this one. And the last thing I got is this bag. Look at all the detail on that. I go to events a lot more now. In fact, I have a red carpet event this week. I thought this could be a potential bag option for one of the outfits, but I don't know if it's gonna work or not. Also, another thing has arrived. I never get PR because I just never say yes to them. I would only ever say yes to something that I was, like, really genuinely interested in. And this is one of them because I have been so curious about this for the longest time and was gonna invest in one myself. But Current Body reached out and sent me their LED therapy mask. This is the Series 2, which is the red light one, guys. Wow. I'll let you guys know how it goes because I'm curious myself. Also, if you're interested in getting one, I'll leave my discount code in the description box below. You can get 10% off. So if you were gonna get one anyway, you might as well use the discount code. So I'll leave the link to that in the description box. This isn't sponsored or anything like that. This is kindly gifted and I'm really excited because I've been really wanting to try this. I don't know how I'm coming across on camera and what I'm like, but I feel like even though I've been taking time for myself and going to cafes, I haven't, like, properly relaxed. Whereas today, I do feel that, so that's great. And I'm going to a bakery that has been on my list for a really long time. It's called E5 Bakery. It's right in front of me. Going into this place, I didn't know how cool and unique it was. The actual seating area looked really interesting. So I decided maybe this place made more sense for lunch. For example, the menu was built around their sourdough. So I felt like I couldn't come here and not try the sourdough out. So I will try the pastries later. For now, I'm going to try out the kimchi toastie and the soup of the day. Whilst I've been waiting for the food, I've been journaling. And I feel like I've finally been getting really into journaling now. Like, I'm actually making lots of progress with my thought patterns. So that's good. I also find, like, even though it's busy here, the music isn't loud, so it's not overstimulating. And I'm able to just, like, be in a flow state, which is quite nice. And the tea is very helping. So they do soup of the day. So it changes every day. So it's chilled courgette, almond, and basil. It's kind of weird having soup when it's cold, but it's really good. It's so delicious. The flavors aren't too intense, but they all kind of blend into one really well. Guys, I'm very impressed. Now, this is the thing I really wanted, the kimchi toastie. I just love kimchi. Wow, it is really flavorful. And the texture is so hitting. It's so crunchy on the outside, but soft on the inside. And you can just, like, dip it in and have it like this. And it's really good. I feel like this is the experience I wanted this whole video. But for whatever reason, I wasn't able to fully relax and be, like, in the zone. But finally, last time's the charm. We made it to the final place, and I finally got to relax. But I think maybe the reason for that is because I'm not used to doing this. I don't really go to cafes and relax on my own like this. So maybe it just took me a little time to, like, get used to it. And now I'm feeling much more comfortable. I picked up a triple chocolate cookie. I will say, I think cookies are my favorite type of baked goods. It's, like, melting. And I don't know if I have tissue with me, so that's great. And then I went for a savory option. This is a Marmite and cheese. But usually when I think of baked goods, I think of sweet stuff. But I want to venture out into trying more savory pastries. It's a bit too bready for me. And then the Marmite comes in quite strong, and I can't really taste the cheese. But it's a shame. That's kind of a letdown. I'm not sold on this one. Right, let's try the cookie. Look how good that looks. No. Oh, no. I don't know what's going on there, but that does not taste like a chocolate cookie. It tastes like a mix of nuts and seeds. And the chocolate, I can't really taste that much. And the texture is more crumbly. It doesn't, like, melt in your mouth. It's not chewy. Ooh, I don't like that. I was really hoping to end the video on such a high. That did not happen. I think if you're someone who doesn't like super sweet desserts, you're going to really like it. I, on the other hand, when I'm going to get a chocolate chip cookie, I want, like, a sweet chocolate chip cookie, you know? I will say Uchibake, I don't even know if I'm saying that right, has got to probably be my favourite in terms of the food. Oh my god, that place was a 10 out of 10. Everything in that place that I tried was incredible. I would highly recommend going to Uchibake. But the cafe vibe was a bit loud and dark, so you can't win them all. But yeah, thank you so much for coming along with me. I hope you enjoyed the video. I love you lots, and I shall see you guys next time. Thanks for watching. Bye.