Food- Outsider Tart (London calling)

Outsider Tart

83 Chiswick High road

London

A Melbourne girl, in an American café... in London. Hmmm.

It’s funny how you jet abroad in search of some traditional English tea and scones and the first café that I end up in may as well place me in NYC. Nether less, in the search of good coffee…. and boy was I craving one; I was led to Outsider Tart.

Word on the street is that a good coffee in London is hard to find. (Melbourne, this is why I love you so very much.)

Surely though, with a little wandering I would stumble upon something hidden and treasured… There has to be someone in this city as obsessed with caffeine as myself.

Outsider Tart is uber trendy- walking down the street I could immediately identify it as part of the café society; wicked name, cool shop fit, kooky workers.

David Lesniak and David Muniz, both business and life partners, made the move to London as ‘outsiders’ with the aim to create amazing cupcakes, pies and treats for the London individual. For these guys, the only thing more camp than their personalities is the décor and food offerings.

The ceiling is lined with hundreds of silver cake tins- illuminated by huge red steel arrow shaped light installations. There are 4-foot gingerbread-esque men made from bottle caps proudly standing in the shop corner. The main counter, a laminex, retro striped rectangle- is smack bang in the centre of this tiny shop displaying cake after cupcake after pie after tart after pastry. Nom nom.

This place is a little food store too, offering every delicacy you could imagine from marshmallow spread to Skippy peanut butter, to chilli sauce and ranch dressing. Pretty much everything you thought only your Barbie dolls had in their toy supermarkets.

Food here is outrageous, from muffins to cookies, to slices and sausage rolls. Everything is decorated to the max; sugar overload- this is not the place to go if you are on a diet. Run away.

If you are not on a diet- get excited. Make sue you share the cake though; it’s a feat in itself. I had an orange blossom cheesecake with a dark chocolate cookie base. The cake was soft and delicate and with the subtle hints of orange it was like sweet clouds floating around in my mouth all day long.

All the finer details were much appreciated- everything is served in cute little paper cups and brown paper boxes.

Caffeine fix- I ordered a flat white which turned out more like a latte, They had definitely over heated the milk and the taste was so American they may has well have poured it straight from a percolator. Oh well. Props for trying- it was still better than Starbucks.

This place is about the interior, the food, the people and the vibe. My favourite London word- ‘wicked’.

So good coffee in London? It’s still hard to find, but ill keep you updated.

Date rate: Yes yes. Plenty of weird items to banter about.

Coffee cure: I wake up. I need coffee. It will do.

Hangover Happy: You could trade your drunken sick feeling for a ‘too many sweets’ sick feeling.

Price: if you pretend the pound is the same as the AUD- amazing.