Café Le Cordon Bleu

This is a nice place I discovered by chance one day.  I was wanting to find some new coffee shops to go for, and noticed this on Google Maps… I figured anything with the Cordon Bleu name on it would  probably be quite good, and I wasn’t wrong!  And just in case you’re not familiar with the name, Le Cordon Bleu is probably the most famous cookery school, founded in Paris in 1895.

The café is on the ground floor of the Cordon Bleu building at Bloomsbury Square.  I’ve not noticed it mentioned in any of the usual coffee shop guides, and it seems to be a bit overlooked.  Possibly because it’s tucked away in a courtyard and doesn’t get as much passing footfall as it otherwise would elsewhere.  To find it you can either come in through the main entrance to the school on Bloomsbury Square, or directly into the café via Pied Bull Yard.

Most of the customers seem to be staff and students at the cookery school and it’s usually quite interesting overhearing their conversations, which always revolve around food obviously, as well as the usual stress of exams!

All the food is made in-house, although I don’t think any of it is done by the students.  There’s always a very good-looking display of cakes and pastries, some reasonably priced artisan breads, filled ciabatta sandwiches and soup.  They also do these quite cheap ‘savoureux‘, which are just warm little bread rolls filled with a mixture of sweet and savoury ingredients, e.g. feta cheese with fig and honey, or beetroot and roquefort.

They always take care over the coffees they prepare, and usually this is where I see the best latte art of all the coffee shops I go to.

Inside the cafe they have a long wooden table, a few stools and several small tables (plus some computer terminals for the students).  There’s also plenty of seats in the square outside, a space shared with a couple of other venues.

I’m always happy with the coffee and the service here, and if the much busier and smaller Freestate hasn’t got enough seats, it’s only a short walk to here.

http://www.lcblondon.com/london/cafe/en