The seriously good Soho flagship of this creative Filipino bakery (there’s a smaller outpost in Marylebone), comes from the creators of the acclaimed Donia restaurant and Mamasons ice cream parlour. Their Manila-flavoured take on the humble bakery serves all manner of treats, including doughnuts pumped full of photogenic purple ube ooze and chocolate-slathered brown butter cookies, as well as iced ube matcha drinks for unbeatable TikTok clout.
Their chicken adobo pocket is like Greggs gunning for a Michelin star
But it’s their savoury goods that are particularly outstanding. Everything is made on-site, and the longanisa roll offers a giddy take on the sausage roll, its sweet, flaky pastry stuffed with succulent meat, while their chicken adobo pocket is like Greggs gunning for a Michelin star. Their fluffy brioche-like pandesal bread sits somewhere in between the two - enjoy it filled with garlic and cream cheese if you’re looking for something more adult lunch-appropriate.
Sturdy and pleasingly square, Panadera’s pandesal sandos are also a must-nibble, from the classic Filipino flavours of a hearty corned beef hash offering to panko-crusted aubergine for the vegetarians. The space, all warm woods, busy working kitchen and a lowkey hip-hop soundtrack, is on one of Soho’s lesser known thoroughfares (Hopkins Street, which runs just off the altogether busier Broadwick Street), but that only adds to Panadera’s off-the-beaten-track charm. Coffee comes from excellent local roaster Catalyst.
Time Out tip
One of the best pubs in Soho - not to mention one of the best pubs in London - is just around the corner, The Blue Posts on Berwick Street. An old school boozer with a new school crowd.