Miel Bakery — Restaurant in London

Service was good but nothing I bought tasted nice, which is super sad because I was very excited to try Miel.

The chocolate tart was tiny, and unfortunately, the taste didn't justify the steep price. Also, the biscuit part of the tart wasn't great. The pecan cookie was another disappointment, and though my family loves cookies anything with chocolate and nuts, no one could stomach it. The madeleines were kinda dry and there was some sort of perhaps coconut flavour. In any case, they just didn't taste the way a madeleine should (I'm French so I know what I'm talking about) and they were overcooked. In the end, everything I bought ended up in the bin. Even the kids at home didn't like it. I love desserts and I don't mind paying what most people would consider high price for it. I've tried other bakeries in London where prices would make some people flinch. But it was the first time where I felt like everything I bought was inferior to what I could've purchased from a place like Marks and Spencer, in particular the cookies.

The bakery is French-influenced. However, to me, there was nothing French about the taste or something close to it. In all honesty, I felt like the owner/ cook should visit France and actually try what is being sold in bakeries or visit other bakeries in London who sell similar products at similar price point.

This being said the bakery is very popular and has very good reviews on Google, so although my family and I were personally disappointed, others may like what the bakery offers! So I would still recommend people to give the bakery a try.

EDIT - 07/04/24

I can see that the owner responds to every single negative review, including mine. While I understand that she and her team put their heart and soul into her business and that it hurts bad when someone openly doesn't like what one produces, it's really inappropriate to respond to a customer and try to tell them how they should think and feel and what they should say.

Arguing with me over how I should feel about the cookies and madeleines and what not is not productive as it will not change my opinion. The issue isn't the coconut flavour or using brown butter or what not, it's just that it didn't taste good, to me and my family. Same for the cookies and the tart. Sure, the cookies are bestseller, but it doesn't change the fact that we didn't like it and that personally I found that there was no real flavour of chocolate or pecan.

I would advise the owner to avoid looking at reviews if she's unable to remain neutral because it's impossible for everyone to like your products. That's just the reality of running a business, especially a food business. You will not find a single restaurant and bakery shop anywhere in the world that doesn't have a bad review.

It's also very unfortunate that the owner is trying to accuse me of racism. In my review I actually said "French-influenced", and I maintain that nothing I tasted reminded me of France or was even close to similar bakeries in London who are equally French-influenced. Once again, telling me about your education and background won't change MY opinion.

Leaving the French influence thing aside, the bottom line is no one in my household liked what I bought. Full stop.

Ultimately, I paid for the food as a treat to myself and my family. It wasn't given to me. So I have a right to share my opinion, whether it pleases the owner or not.

Also, I ended my original review by saying that I would still recommend people to give the bakery a try as though we were disappointed, they may like it. The fact that the owner still responded the way she did just shows a real lack of business acumen, and really I hope that she will take my review as constructive criticism and...

Update September 10, 2025 - Food looked lovely but disappointed again. Really excited to try all the things, and a number of the things were quite tasty, but there seemed to be quite a few problems with the actual baking. Overall, things were tasty, but if you're picky about textures and bakes I'd recommend passing.

I bought custard caneles, a plain croissant, a pain au chocolate, the flan, and pear and rosemary tartin.

I stopped by late in the day, but the problems with the croissants were more than I'd expect from that.

The plain croissant was very tasty and I enjoyed eating it, but it was very soft and spongy, and not very flaky. Made me think the butter had gotten too hot maybe before baking.

The pain au chocolat appeared dry and had a very weird texture. The layers peeled off as whole pieces. The inside was also very dense, akin to the inside of a french cruller rather than a croissant. It was still tasty, but something had obviously gone wrong with the baking of them.

I liked the premise of the custard caneles. As someone who loves caneles, I really enjoyed the texture of the outer layer. The flavor was good as well. I'd probably prefer it as something long and then to get more surface area since that was the best part. My partner really likes custard, so he felt the opposite and wanted more custard.

The pear and rosemary tarte tatin looked great and I enjoyed eating the pear slices, but the pastry had a really acrid taste like they were burned but they didn't appear to be. The pastry was a lovely golden color, but we both found it very bitter. Maybe the tarts were cooked with some that burned and left a flavor or they were burnt and it was scraped off? I don't see anything, but that's how it tastes which is really unfortunate.

The flan was ok. I found the overall dessert to be a bit too sweet, I think it was the pastry in particular. But the main problem was that the custard was a bit grainy.

Original review October 9, 2021 3 Star ⭐⭐⭐ - So beautiful - so disappointing. Everything in this store is so gorgeous, but I got 4 things and I was disappointed by them all. The best of the bunch was the chocolate-hazelnut croissant, but it was nothing special and not as good as it looked. I also got the plain butter croissant which was quite dry, and rather tasteless, and not at all crispy, there was barely any crumble, which was surprising because it really looked like there would be. There was also very little butter flavor, which explains why it was so dry. It was also rather soft and spongy instead of puffy and airy. The chocolate hazelnut was very dense and wet, and still little butter flavor. The filling was subtly flavored. I got the cardamom bun because it seemed popular and it was ok, though also a bit dry for a bun, but the flavor was nice. I also grabbed the tigre cookie which was very cakey. As someone who likes dark chocolate I found the ganache really nice, but my husband who prefers milk chocolate found it bitter. Given the other reviews, I'm guessing this was a bad day? Everything was so beautiful but it was all so mediocre, and given the beauty I was all the more disappointed. The prices are also quite high for...

Service matters. A lot. And on my 3 visits, I’ve experienced awful service each time. It was the same staff member each time: the other day I was speaking in my usual kind and bubbly way, “How would you compare the custard tart and the cheesecake?” since I had never seen custard like this before and it was made in slices as I often see cheesecakes. The lady had a very arrogant and jaded demeanor the entire time, and said “Um… well… have you never had custard? You’ve obviously had cheesecake… that’s the difference! HA HA HA HA!” with a super obnoxious laugh. As she walked away, the customer next to me leaned over and said, “for the record, I don’t think you deserved that” and the one next to him said “Yeah… I was going to ask the same thing”.

The entire rest of my visit while we were sitting, whenever there were no customers we could just hear her in the back talking so loudly complaining about people the whole time: other staff members, customers, presumably mutual friends of the colleague she was speaking to? Normally I wouldn’t factor something like into a review but it all just added to this very unpleasant experience of being around someone who clearly doesn’t want to be there and doesn’t want you there either.

On a previous visit, we stopped by on our way to a cross-country train. This same staff member initially completely forgot our order. Then when I alerted her to it, she took ages to fit it in, by which time we were now about to be late after 18 minutes waiting for a simple BLACK Americano and Oat Latte. When we finally got the drinks we had to run for the train and nearly didn’t make it, and when we finally were able to relax and enjoy our drinks… the latte was definitely not oat milk and my black Americano was full of milk!

There are many more details I haven’t shared as this is already long, but I’m just really tired of these kinds of experiences. The pastries and all the food I’ve tried is VERY good. Excellent. But atmosphere, service, culture, the customer experience, it’s all extremely important to me and there are too many places in London that service excellent pastries and then get away with having terrible service. Not with me - that’s the last time I go to Miel Bakery. I want to reward the places who also invest in training their staff and developing a warm culture of great service and great customer experiences - the entire experience, not just the food (if they get your...