According to Buzzfeed, “the number 1 British dessert to try before you die is a doughnut from Crosstown”. Now, that’s a claim to get this blog post started with. Launched in 2014 in the historic Leather Lane market of London, they pride themselves in using high quality ingredients and producing consistently good end results. They were also the first street food trader to accept card payments with no minimum and no additional charge. Fast forward a few years and now they have 16 locations (and counting!) including stores (and a few trucks) in Soho, Piccadilly, Shoreditch, Hammersmith, King’s Cross, London Bridge and even in Cambridge.
Read more about their story here.
What sets them apart and what they are known for is their sourdough doughnuts – they are the first in the world to do this! They also have vegan doughnuts. They’e received high accolades and praise for these doughnuts. Their menu includes some very interesting flavoured doughnuts including matcha tea, Sri Lankan cinnamon sugar, Tongan vanilla bean blaze, peanut butter and jelly and one that really shakes (in a good way) the food scene in London once a year every year and we love it! But we’ll discuss this separately below. You can see the rest of their menu here.
Pandan Doughnut
To celebrate the Chinese lunar new year celebration, each year around February Crosstown have this special doughnut that is available for about a month. Their signature sourdough is infused with fresh pandan leaves, filled with a homemade coconut custard, then topped with a vibrant green pandan icing, and finished off with desiccated coconut. I’ve taken this description from their website. This doughnut right here is one of my favourites in the city for two reasons. Firstly, because of the unique flavour. I love pandan, so to have this flavour be central to this doughnut is a dream! Pandan, for those who don’t know, is like a combination of vanilla and coconut, subtly brilliant if you ask me. And secondly, I love exclusivity. The fact that it is only available for a certain period of time every year creates a buzz and I love that!
Getting there
There are numerous branches scattered around London.
