Peggy Porschen is a pretty pink floral cafe in West London which has gained stratospheric hype from Instagrammers and Bloggers alike but sadly, wasn’t worth the hype when I visited.
This cute little cafe has been on my list for years and every time I’ve walked past the recognisable pink floral doorway I’ve been desperate to go so when I came here with my friend Amber and we had high expectations.
You can’t book a table at Peggy Porschens so we arrived (complete with plants and flowers after a visit to Columbia Road Flower Market) and joined the queue of about 10 people outside the cafe who were already waiting for a table. Now I don’t mind waiting at all, but it was very warm for a September Sunday so we were desperately thirsty and dehydrated by the time we sat down. Luckily, we only had to wait 20 minutes for a table, much less than the 45 minutes we were initially told.
We opted for a table inside, as it didn’t look pleasant having a table right by the queue and we could see that people were getting bothered by wasps because they were spending so long photographing their cake and not enough time eating (pretty sure we’re all guilty of this). Inside the cafe its small and very, very chaotic.
We were seated in an unfortunate space right by the preparation area, which meant we got a good view of the chaos that seemed to be the kitchen. Trays were precariously balanced on top of each other and more than once we got splashed by rogue coffee so it wasn’t a particularly relaxing experience.
After having a look at the menu and the cake display by the counter we chose our drinks choices and our cake. I’d heard a rumour that the cupcakes were £12 each which I think is extortionate but I was relived so see that this is a myth – a classic cupcake cost £5.40 which is much more purse friendly. After 15 minutes of being seated, a waitress came to take our order and our food and drinks arrived 15 minutes later. Remember I said that we were thirsty and dehydrated? Since arriving in the queue outside, we’d had to wait 50 minutes before we even received a glass of water. Pretty poor considering we counted 11 members of staff serving just 13 tables.
What we ordered
To drink, Amber ordered a Hot Chocolate (£4.75) and I ordered a Latte (£3.60) and because we were really thirsty and the weather was warm, we also ordered some cold drinks and some tap water. I chose a Diet Coke (£3.00) and Amber decided to try the Summer Berry Ice Tea (£3.95). I loved the pale pink crockery that our hot drinks were served in
After much deliberation (think cupcake vs. layer cake) we both decided to order slices of layer cake as we’d seen quite a few wasps in the cake display and decided the layer cakes were better protected. No one wants cake a la insect! I chose the lemon, raspberry and rose cake (£6.95) which was light and delicious and Amber ordered a slice of Strawberry and Champagne cake which looked really moist. The food was the redeeming quality – the cake was delicious with great flavours and not dry at all.
Of course we took some pictures before we dug into our food and you could see all around the cafe lots of other people doing the same. We even saw that lots of girls had dressed wearing pale pink shades for the occasion.
Was the cafe beautiful? Yes it was, the gorgeous pink floral details everywhere were stunning, but unfortunately the chaos inside of staff and customers meant that you couldn’t appreciate any of it. In my opinion, Peggy Porschen Cakes is overrated and it really didn’t live up to the huge expectations we arrived with from the hype of Instagram.
Too much Style, not enough Substance
I’d say it’s not worth a visit – try Elan Cafe instead for great food, a much better service and gorgeous pink floral details for your Instagram photos.
Peggy Porschen 3/5
The cake saved the visit and average scores have Peggy Porschen sitting on the fence but I don’t fancy going back any time soon.
Food – 4/5
Service – 1/5
Decor / Ambience – 3/5
Two slices of cakes, two hot drinks and two cold drinks cost £32.63 for two people including service charge.
Have you visited Peggy Porschen? Feeling Inspired? Check out my London restaurant hit list!
Peggy Porschen
116 Ebury St
Belgravia
London
SW1W 9QQ
