Jaydeep H.
Google
When TikTok tells you to travel from Eastbourne to London for a cube-shaped croissant, you listen. Or, at least, I did. May 2023, peak cube croissant hysteria, and Le Deli Robuchon was cashing in on the trend. I dragged my partner along on a Wednesday morning, fully prepared to bite into flaky, buttery genius. What I got was a masterclass in why not everything viral deserves the hype.
The vanilla and chocolate cube croissants arrived looking exactly like the videos, perfectly geometric, dusted with icing sugar, topped with chocolate pearls. Adorable. Instagram worthy. And then I took a bite. The filling, to be fair, was generous and creamy, but here's the catch, it's all shoved in the middle. You spend the first few bites gnawing through dry, under-filled pastry like you're working your way through a particularly tedious chore, and then suddenly you hit the centre, and it's too much. The chocolate version edged ahead slightly, but that's like saying one traffic jam is better than another.
Service was good, minimal interaction with the staff, so can't say much. The atmosphere? Less Parisian café, more WeWork annexe. Laptop warriors everywhere, killing any charm the place might have had. Can't remember the exact price, but I can tell you this, it wasn't worth the train fare. The cube croissants have since vanished from the menu, a fitting end for something that was always more gimmick than craft. TikTok lied to me, and I'm not going back.