Looking for flowers to go with your chocs? Check out our pick of London’s best florists.
Looking to buy a box of chocolates in London, and a supermarket selection just won’t cut it?
Get yourself to the capital’s best chocolate shops and chocolatiers. Some have been going for centuries, and many have French, Belgian or Swiss influences, so they know their delicious stuff. Plenty have online stores too.
Artisan du Chocolat, Chelsea and Selfridges
Established as a stall on Borough Market in 1999, Artisan du Chocolat now operates as an online business, its products ranging from individual truffles to gift hampers, with boxes in all sizes, shapes and colours. And know this: these are the folk responsible for the salted caramel flavour so widely enjoyed now, having created it for Gordon Ramsay almost 25 years ago. As you’d expect then, salted caramel scoffables — from truffles to bars to hot chocolate to sauce — feature prominently in Artisan du Chocolat’s signature range.
If you’re shopping for someone who isn’t keen on salted caramel (?!), the luxury collections make for a jazzy gift. Sure, you’ve got your usual vanilla in there, but also raspberry, elderflower, orange, passionfruit and coconut — all decorated in eye-catching patterns.
Chocolates are crafted at Artisan du Chocolat’s factory at Ashford in Kent, using traditional methods rather than machinery where possible.
Artisan du Chocolat.
Charbonnel et Walker, Old Bond Street
This showy chocolate boutique comes with an impressive claim: it’s London’s oldest chocolate shop. Charbonnel et Walker was also the long-term holder of a Royal Warrant under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, holding onto it until late 2024.
There are multiple Charbonnel locations across London, but for our money, the original Old Bond Street branch is The One (especially at Christmas, when the Royal Arcade looks magnificent). This is everything a chocolatier’s should be: sweeping gold-framed windows enticing you inside. A glass cabinet piled high with delicately-placed chocolate pyramids. Staff who are all too happy to help.
Charbonnel is synonymous with truffles, their gold-trimmed tubs instantly recognisable. The Pink Marc de Champagnes are well known, although we have it on good authority that the Rose Creams were a favourite with the late Elizabeth.
Charbonnel et Walker, One The Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, plus other locations in Canary Wharf, Broadgate, Harrods, Selfridges and Leeds.
Dark Sugars, Brick Lane and Greenwich
Though better-known for its gravity-defying hot chocolates, Dark Sugars is a chocolatier first and foremost. Nyanga, one of the co-owners, spent three years in South America and West Africa researching cocoa, before setting up shop on Brick Lane. Now that’s dedication.
Flavours we’ve spotted previously include apricot brandy, gin & lime, and coffee & walnut. Buy pre-packaged boxes, or pick and mix from the options spilling out of bowls and across trays and tables. There’s something of a Middle Eastern bazaar about it.
There were two Brick Lane branches, but they’re back down to one, with a second store now open in Greenwich, plus an ice cream shop a few doors down. Dark Sugars still serve the famous hot chocolate, and it’s the law that you have to get one every time you go in. We don’t make the rules.
Dark Sugars, 141 Brick Lane |9 Nelson Road, Greenwich | Ice cream shop at 21 Nelson Road.
Godiva Chocolates, Harrods, Covent Garden and Canary Wharf
Godiva’s a brand familiar to chocolate lovers everywhere, and it’s got three stores here in London. Whatever you’re after on the chocolate spectrum, they sell it: truffles, bars, tablets, hampers, biscuits, snacks… even chocolate truffle coffee.
Flavours err on the classic side (caramel, almond, hazelnut), while the Covent Garden branch doubles up as a cafe, serving ice creams and hot chocolates to take away — along with chocolate covered strawberries.
Godiva Chocolates, Unit 2, The Market, Covent Garden, with concession stores inside Harrods and Selfridges.
Läderach Chocolates, various London locations
A respected Swiss chocolate brand that’s been around for over 60 years, Läderach is a relative newcomer to the London scene. Tartufi — individually wrapped truffles made from Piedmontese hazelnut — are a speciality, and available in nine flavours, including white chocolate, pistachio and amaretti.
They’re also known for their chocolate-covered popcorn, along with a wide range of pralines, truffles and chocolate tablets, whose flavours are kept simple but decadent.
Läderach, stores at White City, St Pancras, Selfridges, Regent Street, Covent Garden, Harrods, Chelsea and Canary Wharf.
Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, King’s Cross
Renowned chef Alain Ducasse waded into the world of chocolate when he began manufacturing his own, as a way to ensure standards in his restaurant were high. First he opened chocolatiers in Paris, before announcing a shop in London in 2018. All the products sold here are made in Ducasse’s Parisian workshop and imported to the UK, so you’re getting French-grade chocolate.
Dark chocolate is the prevailing base flavour, with lime, coconut and passion fruit among the ganache and praline options, created using fresh fruits and spices. Bars go up to the full 100% cocoa for hardcore chocoholics, though milk chocolate bars are also available for those who can’t handle the intensity. Some bars have fillings such as caramel mousse, while others are topped with varying combinations of fruits and nuts. Packaging is environmentally friendly, with paper used instead of plastic where possible.
Le Chocolate Alain Ducasse, Bagley Walk Arches, Coal Drops Yard | Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street | 5 Dirty Lane, Borough Yards.
Leonidas, various locations
We now move onto Belgian chocolate, thanks to Leonidas’ multiple London branches. They go big on seasonal products here — Christmas and Valentine’s, yes, but also Halloween.
Anyway, it’s worth a visit year-round: all very luxurious — think creams, pralines, caramels and ganache chocolates. None of the flavours are particularly outrageous, but Leonidas does a toothsome sideline in confectionery, including marzipan, fruit jellies and marrons glacé.
Leonidas Chocolate, stores at various locations across London.
Maison Samadi, Ravenscourt Park and Knightsbridge
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Tucked away among the salons and restaurants of west London’s King Street, Maison Samadi is a small but smart chocolate boutique which wouldn’t look out of place on a fancy Parisian boulevard. Thankfully for us, the fourth generation of the Samadi family to run the business are sticking firmly to London.
In addition to a classic selection of truffles and bars, Maison Samadi offers Petits Gateux (delicate mini chocolate cakes), as well an impressive selection of hampers if you’ve got deeper pockets. Otherwise you can’t go wrong with a selection of the signature truffles — hazelnut, pecan, lemon, blueberry and strawberry all feature.
It’s also the London home of the ‘Dubai viral chocolate’, a pistachio-filled chocolate bar which gained fame on social media in late 2024.
Maison Samadi, 301 King Street, Ravenscourt Park, and Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge.
Melange, Peckham
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Did you know London has a chocolate museum? It was previously located in Brixton and is currently looking for a new home, but it has a fully-operative sister shop specialising in the sweet stuff, Melange, in Peckham.
Isabelle Alaya is the woman behind both. Passionate about chocolate, she concocts her own bars, buttons, hot chocolate lollies and more, with a selection from 18 different flavours available at any one time. Lavender & lemon, cumin & mint, and coriander & grapefruit are among the more unusual options we’ve spied, though the menu changes seasonally, and chocolate is sold in 20g strips, meaning you can mix and match.
It’s worth swinging by at Easter, when Isabelle fashions all manner of eggs, rabbits and ducks from chocolate, while Christmas brings penguins, trees and other festive shapes that look (almost) too good to eat.
Melange is also a cafe serving ice cream and hot chocolate, and even opens as a cocktail bar on selected dates, where drinks are paired with chocolate bites.
Melange Chocolate, 2 Maxted Road, Peckham.
Melt Chocolates, Notting Hill and Holland Park
Natural, fresh chocolate, made daily is the philosophy of Melt, which is also family-run. (The name, we presume, is what your resolve does as soon as the aroma hits you.) The kitchen is in the shop, so you can watch the chocolates being made.
Flavours are simple, but deliciously effective (champagne, hazelnut, praline) and Melt also offers treats such as brownies, honeycomb and caramels, all with a chocolate twist. Plus, they serve hot chocolate in store, or you can buy it to make at home.
Impressively, Melt’s packaging has all been plastic-free since the brand was founded in 2005.
Melt Chocolates, 59 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill | 6 Clarendon Road, Holland Park.
Pierre Hermé, Covent Garden
Though it’s a name more commonly associated with delicate, pastel macarons, Pierre Hermé does an equally delectable line in chocolate, and happily, the London boutique offers both — ideal if you suffer from indecision.
In fact, they even combine the two in the signature chocolats au macaron — literally, macarons enrobed in chocolate. If it’s pure chocolate you’re after, the bars are your best bet — though be warned: some are upwards of £10 a pop.
Pierre Hermé, 38 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden.
Pierre Marcolini, Marylebone, Harrods and Selfridges
From one Pierre to another, Monsieur Pierre Marcolini spends part of each year travelling around the world to source the best cocoa for his products, which take the form of ganache, pralines, bars and tablets. Fancy denominations include a ‘plumier of champagne truffles’ and a ‘malline of palets fins’, though the chocolate tablets keep things deliciously simple — a slab of the good stuff, big enough to slay your cravings, but small enough that no-one could reasonably expect you to share.
Marcolini also does a decent range of vegan chocolate, switching out the dairy for oat milk.
Pierre Marcolini, 37 Marylebone High Street, 97 Westbourne Grove (Notting Hill), and inside Harrods and Selfridges.
Prestat, Piccadilly
Ever wondered what a chocolate shop run by Willy Wonka would look like? Prestat is perhaps the closest you’ll get to knowing the answer: rumour has it that the colourful cocoa heaven inspired author Roald Dahl, a regular customer.
Despite its literary links — and Royal Warrant — Prestat still feels like a secret, somewhat tucked away inside Princes Arcade off Piccadilly. It’s been here since 1979, luring chocolate lovers towards its shelves laden with hot pink and bright blue boxes, containing truffles in flavours such as salted caramel, pink champagne and London gin.
You can pick up a small box of chocolates for around £25, and there’s also a traditional glass confectionery cabinet, with individual flavours of chocolates and truffles, so you can select your own combinations. Bars are an option too, and venture into the unique — how about milk chocolate with earl grey and bergamot?
The tiny shop doesn’t have the space for making the chocolates — that’s done a few miles away at Prestat’s factory in Park Royal.
Prestat, 14 Princes Arcade, Piccadilly.
Rococo Chocolates
Fresh handmade truffles are this company’s pride and joy, made in small batches, with flavours that shift with the seasons. But the Rococo range extends far beyond that, across bars, boxes and drinking chocolate, along with cocoa-based treats you don’t really see anywhere else, such as white chocolate-coated cranberries, and cocoa dusted amarena cherries.
The packaging is unique, wrapped in Rococo’s signature blue and white designs, illustrated with seashells, fruit and flowers.
We adored the Belgravia branch of this chocolate mini-chain, with its hidden Moroccan garden tucked away out the back. Sadly, that branch has now closed, but you can still shop in-person in Chelsea and Marylebone.
Rococo Chocolates, 321 King’s Road, Chelsea, and 3 Moxon Street, Marylebone Village.
William Curley, Soho and Harrods
What could be more charming that a tiny courtyard, tucked away among the back streets of Soho? A chocolate shop within said courtyard, that’s what.
The finest ingredients and most natural produce are at the forefront of William Curley’s values — he’s written three books on the subject, too. Some jolly inventive flavours come out of this boutique, some extremely British, and several Japanese inspired. Thyme & Scottish Heather Honey, Rosemary & Olive Oil, Juniper & Blackcurrant, Japanese Black Vinegar, Yuzu and Apricot & Wasabi flavours have all won prizes. For both quality and creativity, these chocolates are reasonably priced.
William Curley, 33 Smiths Court, Soho, and a concession within Harrods.
Neuhaus Chocolates, various locations
When The Sidings was first unveiled at Waterloo station, and all that was there were the toilets, it felt like a bleak place. Then, one day, a chocolate shop opened, and the world (or The Sidings at least) suddenly felt brighter. That chocolate shop was Neuhaus Chocolates — a Warrant Holder of the Court of Belgium, no less — and we now find ourselves drooling at its windows every time we pass by for a pre-train bathroom break.
The business has a fascinating story, beginning life as a chemist when pharmacist Jean Neuhaus took to covering the medicines in his apothecary in chocolate. No prescription required these days, to shop your way through pralines, gianduja, fondant, speculoos, nougatine… sorry, where were we?
Neuhaus Chocolates, Waterloo, St Pancras, Selfridges, Harrods, Covent Garden and Heathrow Airport.
DeRosier Chocolates, online only
Unless you know the area, you may never have heard of DeRosier. Chocolates are made in their Earlsfield kitchen, and were sold at two shops, in Earlsfield and Wimbledon Park, until they closed in late 2023. Now, their products can be ordered online for postal delivery, or personal delivery if you live locally. As the products are so fresh, it’s recommended they’re eaten within two weeks of purchase, which has never caused us too much of a problem.
Eye-catching boxes of chocolates feature flavours including peanut praline; banana caramel; and lemongrass, lime & chilli. Flavours are distinguishable by the psychedelic patterns printed on top (eg. hazelnut praline is giraffe print).
Chocolate bars are available too, with themed packaging, some celebrating the local area. The Tooting is a milk chocolate with buttery notes, while the Southfields is milk chocolate with sea salt, both wrapped in historic black and white photos of the area. Cocoa purists are catered for with a 100% dark bar, and more playful treats include chocolate covered honeycomb.
DeRosier Chocolates, online only.
