Restaurant Review: Dioriviera Pop-Up at Alto Selfridges

Dior’s Pop-Up Café + Store Has Been Charming Londoners at Selfridges This Summer.

Since lockdown had been finally lifted, Dior announced on the second week of June that they are launching a pop-up shop at famous Italian restaurant Alto in Selfridges.

Booking was a tedious process. After realising they had sneakily disabled all of their booking systems across various platforms, the next available date to get in was 2 months after my initial call. We took the chance with half days off work to pop in to see what the hype was about.

Was it worth it? Let’s see..

Ambience

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe LondonHallway

The entrance all the way to the elevator to the ’rooftop’ was in this custom Dior wallpaper from the SS21 collection.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London lights

On the other side after the elevators you’ll see this cute vespa light installation. We’re clearly going to the south European riviera here!

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London inside

The rooftop setting also has this unique print on the marquise draping, which was a nice touch.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London tableware

Dio r alongside with many other lucury brands are tapping into homeware. Here’s a display of their extra fine Limoges porcelain with hand-painted filet border and Toile de Jouy Hydrangea motif. This pattern is constantly reimagined and is a tribute to the founder or Dior. Dessert plates start at £85.. puts Iittala to shame on the fancy scale.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London inside

Overall ambience was nice, but the tables at this restaurant are so lumped together. It was hard to take pictures without anybody. Since the launch of this pop-up, I’m sure it’s been a race to get here for some.

Food

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London carpaccio

Food here appeared to be small dishes, very light and pricey. Here’s a snap of my sea bass carpaccio with orange zest.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London sea bass

A snap of my friend’s fish with lemon and greens. Nice, light and perfect for summer.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London crab salad

My crab salad which came inside an entire crab shell and an ice bed.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe LondonTruffle Fries

Tasty truffle fries. If you’re hungry and need an upgrade to the McDonalds ones these are great.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London cocktails

The beautiful cocktail with the Dior magazine illustration and my friend’s bellini.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London dessertRosana Eats Dior Cafe London dessert again

White chocolate dessert with straciatella ice-cream inside. It was okay but the white chocolate which is used for moulding can taste waxy. Remember the white chocolate from the 90s? That’s what was here.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London dessert

Yes.. We love our desserts so we decided to also take the sharing platter of desserts which included cannolis, chocolate cakes, pistachio cakes and some berries and liquor.

The food was okay. It was overpriced, as mentioned and the platters were very small. You are certainly paying for the experience, location which is the rooftop of Selfridges and the luxury label.

Dior Pop-up Store

Their pop-up store was a stunning small square pavilion with the entire collection inspired by southern European riviera. Many items came in neon green, red and navy.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London vespa

Upon entering the store, the Dior vespa, which retails for around £26,000 is on display. There has apparently been around 30 of these badass vehicles made.

I would be very worried how much scratches it would get if i was using it for everyday transport.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London boutique

Most of the collection included the classic saddle bags, book tote bags and lady Dior bags in various colours. You can see the sales assistants also embracing a stripe-shirt riviera inspired uniform.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London handbags

A display of the classic handbags in seasonal colour. I personally don’t own any bags from Dior. Before their rebranding, Dior has always appeared a bit too expensive for my taste. Some of the bags are a bit too feminine for my sport, all-black attire. I’m more of a Louis Vuitton girl.

If I had to pick one bag I’d opt for the small ombré red lady Dior. How about you guys?

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London clothing rack

It’s amazing to see how they’ve bought the old logo to life in their new collections.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London popup store

Some of the accessories were cute, such as these woven bracelets.

Rosana Eats Dior Cafe London mannquin

Most of the collection included flowy maxi skirts, chunky sandals and logo t-shirts and kaftans.

What do you guys think about Dior and Maria Grazia Chiuri’s work on reinventing the brand with her youthful collections?

Dior’s pop-up café is on until September. More information about the pop-up and restaurant here.

Final verdict

I personally didn’t find this experience to be so amazing, in comparison to the Fendi one. The food at the Fendi pop-up was better quality and you got better value for money with the food with bigger plates. The service was also friendlier at the Fendi Café in Harrods.

If you’re a die-hard Dior fan then this is the place for you to catch before it ends. I guess the pop-up was cute and it’s amazing to see how fashion brands are aiming to tap into immersive food experiences more. From Burberry Cafe and Ralph’s Coffee Bar, there’s many trying to sell an experience for their fans.

Sadly the above places didn’t survive the lockdowns of covid and have now been closed.

Would I go again? I think I’m good for a one-off experience.

Address: 400 Oxford St, London W1A 1AB.

More about Dioriviera collection here.

Have you been here? What did you think?

Lots of love and stay safe,

Muoti Ravintolat Ruoka ja juoma Matkat

Review: Violet Cakes – Harry’s & Meghan’s Royal Wedding Cake

Review: Violet Cakes – Harry’s & Meghan’s Amalfi Lemon & Elderflower Wedding Cake

Rosana Eats Violet Cakes

The unforgettable royal wedding in 2018 is in all of our memories. When Meghan and Harry tied the knot, an estimated 1.9 billion people watched the spectacular ceremony from Windsor Castle.

Regardless of how divisive Harry and Meghan’s aftermath of leaving Britain has been, I decided to treat myself this year for my Birthday and try the Amalfi lemon and elderflower cake from Violet Cakes. This leading American-owned bakery specialises in cupcakes and all things sweet! They have a understated bakery café in Hackney, East London.

Take a peak inside the café with me and hear my thoughts on the delicious lemon elderflower cake, even decorated with similar flowers like at the Royal Wedding!

Rosana Eats Violet Cakes

The café itself is located in a very quiet residential street between Dalston and central Hackney.

Rosana Eats Violet Cakes

As you can see, the decor and overall feel is very understated. I love it!

Inside is a small till and a barista with cakes on the go. As you can see, this place seems to be pretty popular!

Rosana Eats Violet Cakes

I am honestly quite amazed at how minimal the interior and overall feel is in comparison to some branded cafés in central London. I’m sure these guys must emphasise more in quality than branding, which for any cake lover is important.

Rosana Eats Violet Cakes Londons

Some cakes were topped with beautiful petals. Similar to the flowers in the royal wedding.

Review of Cakes At Home

Rosana Eats Violet Cakes London

So here it is.. the cake with the rest of my birthday merch and gifts. for my 30th, I decided to go all out and get a bottle of Armand de Brignac’s champagne, the brand formerly owned by Jay Z, which was recently purchased by LVMH. Yes, I’ll admit that I bought it mainly for the fancy bottle.. I’m sure the opulent packaging makes a hefty margin in their production. The champagne was actually good FYI 😀

Rosana Eats Violet Cakes

So here it is.. the Amalfi lemon and elderflower cake, the same cake from the same bakery as from Meghan Markle’s and Prince Harry’s wedding. The icing was standard buttercream icing. There was not much flexibility over customising the cake. This cake was suitable for summer.

Rosana Eats Meghan Markle Wedding Cake

The cake featured flowers, similar to the ones in the royal wedding, a memo picture here.

The cake was layered with tangy but sweet lemon curd and a soft spongy cake with a hint of elderflower. The combo was spot-on! The buttercream icing however was a bit too sweet for my liking. Perhaps this was done to take away any sour flavouring from the lemon.

Rosana Eats Meghan Markle Wedding Cake

This gorgeous cake claimed to serve 8 people. I didn’t end up having a party because of Covid so me and my SO stuffed our faces every day with this cake, oh lord cake for breakfast anyone? I wasn’t too confident lemon cake or the icing would turn out great if you’d defrost it.

Rosana Eats Chocolate Cupcake Violet Cakes

Last but not least.. there was this delicious cupcake I decided to enjoy a day before my birthday. I usually don’t like chocolate cake but this guy was the bomb.It was so moist and there was the perfect fudgy powdery balance without too much of the decadent after-flavour that some chocolate cakes have.

Overall verdict

I think Meghan and Prince Harry did an amazing job for picking out this fantastic lemon elderflower cake from Violet Cakes for their wedding. So fresh and summery and there was a good balance of sweet and tangy flavours.

If you’re a fan of lemony flavours and want a twist on the lemon cake for a special occasion, I don’t think £78 with flowers is a huge splurge. I would probably request to leave the cake without the buttercream icing and replace it with a homemade one fitted to your preference.

Will I be back again? Maybe only for the cupcakes. The cake? Only for future special occasions!

If you’re looking for a quiet spot to have an afternoon coffee and cake session in East London, this is perfect.

Address: 47 Wilton Way, London E8 3ED. More information about Violet Cakes here.

Lots of love and stay safe,

Kulttuuri Ravintolat Ruoka ja juoma Matkat