I’ve developed an enduring love affair for solo dining. In every capacity. What once felt intimidating with wistful melancholy has since become one of my greatest joys. Tempting though it is to treat myself to a fancy lunch every day, there’s nothing quite like a pastry and coffee to-go. @mahaliandco is that ‘great little place’ – it is every bit as wonderful as you’d imagine when you find the sweet spot between technique and identity. From the lemon and lemongrass danish, to the pandan almond twice-baked croissant, everything encapsulates the significance of the Malaysian Chinese and Filipino roots of @miguel_jocson and @ruyanfoong. The bakery itself, simple and elegant, is enriched with meaningful memories and stories told through their flavours, with nothing to mar the beauty of the pastries besides each other. Just knowing you’re a stone’s throw away from Battersea Park, ready to morph back into Lorelai Gillmore and embrace the Autumn toastiness, makes it all the better.

My visits to @chaiguysbakehouse are a love affair with cardamom – from the scintillating passion fruit kouign amann, to the peerless milk bread bun – my favourite. It is absurdly delicious, cardamom is fragrant with aplomb, tumbling twists of braided dough spiked headily by ways of a generously lathered cardamom butter, a lustrously glazed cardamom syrup, and a handful of cardamom seeds to champion the delights of their unembellished truth. @gabe_unger and @abhi.montana’s neighbourhood bakery in Notting Hill is a mastery in coalescence with a cool confidence. British ingredients join forces with authentic Indian flavours to create remarkably good versions of French and Scandinavian pastries. It is a wonderful reflection of the desire to blend culture and establish, in turn, the kind of hospitality that brings communities together.

You know what makes me happy? Great cake – and not because i’m cake obsessed. In fact, it’s the complete opposite, and i’m damned by an unavowed hostility towards it. Typical cake: agonisingly hit-and-miss. Guinness cake from @finks.london lends itself to the class of people who enjoy their cakes like brownies, feeling tipsy with excitement and an unerring vigour to seize every slice. Mischievously fudgy, exceedingly light and replete with soft peaks of cream cheese buttercream. Saint Patrick’s Day may have passed, but I choose to reject any sentiments other than Guinness cake is to be enjoyed all year round.

The comeback is on its way folks. Lots of exciting foodie things to come, including a smattering of all the content that’s been lying dormant for far too long (my bad!). Beginning with the blood orange and rosemary danish from @sourdoughsophia. A pastry so pretty I daren’t slice into it immediately, it expresses a defined articulation of a blood orange’s anatomy, as vibrant by colour as it is by smell, speckled with fresh rosemary, together erupting into the bitterness and tang of a post-dinner negroni, softened by swoon-worthy white chocolate crémeux against audibly crisp pastry. These simple pleasures are the result of carefully sourced produce, thoughtful flavour pairings, and meticulous execution. Sensory perfection.

Chunky slabs of sesame-studded golden brioche, tenderised pieces of bavette steak cosied beneath melty provolone cheese, crispy potato scratchings and oodles of buttery Café de Paris sauce. @crunch.london is the kind of place you’re going to when you know exactly what you want, no ifs, ands, or buts. Nothing about a steak sandwich suggests going half-assed –no juice or sauce spillages? No burnt ends finding their way into your lap? Even if you tend to be the neatest of eaters, one thing I don’t like to compromise on is the bread. It must be sturdy enough to hold together its innards without breaking apart entirely, that’s the worst, and if you enjoy perpetual sweetness to contrast against your salt intake, then this is the steak sandwich for you. Would I personally want a pickle? Yes.

London Fashion Week SS26 begins today and where better to dial up the style than at @cornershop180, where the reshuffling of models, creative directors, and the impatient bakery crowd can arrive en-masse to satiate themselves with the legendary pastries of @populations.bakery. The healing powers of the pistachio and cherry bear claw, or the raspberry round croissant, @pumpstreetchocolate cookies elbow-to-elbow with their honey and oat sisters, stacks of cinnamon buns made from the offcuts of pastry dough and filled with lashings of cinnamon butter – uncompromising on quantity and quality. For a week you can expect a bakery-turned-cafe-turned-wine-bar-turned-catwalk, sit on the sun-soaked mezzanine in the best weather, or settle into the sunken dining space overlooking the opulent selection of gourmet groceries – spot the hulking slabs of focaccia, towers of French baguettes and bagels, irresistible pies, and fresh pastas. You’d be hard-pressed to find chicer neighbours than @toklas_london @toklas_bakery and @ikoyi_london and there is no doubt that Corner Store 180 is in-vogue, now more than ever. You’ll leave much happier than how you arrived. Trust me.

I can’t stop thinking about the buckwheat and chocolate cookie from @donttelldad_qp. It just so happens to be—deep breath—the best chocolate cookie I’ve ever had in London. It was the classic case of keeping it in my bag until the mid-afternoon energy dip hit, but it was late-night before I sunk my pastry-stained teeth into it. The hours spent in my bakery tote must have doubled as a proving draw, as if a cookie can posses the best features of a fudgy brownie or a self-saucing chocolate pudding all in one. This is for chocolate lovers everywhere, for chewy-exterior enthusiasts, and salty-sweet devotees. Don’t tell Dad about it, tell everyone.