London Beard Papa’s
After I left Brisbane, a new Japanese shop opened very near to Central station called Beard Papa. I think this Profiterole chain has been open in the US for sometime and it’s taken its while to cross any of the oceans to finally land on London’s doorstep. The first store opened up on Oxford Street last year and always seems very popular given the queue inside.
Right now, all they serve are profiteroles and drinks. Profiteroles are a light crisp food also known as a Cream Puff in the US and are made out of a Choux pastry. The pastry expands so much during the cooking process that the pastry makes an ideal container for some sort of filling, typically a cream or custard one. Beard Papa’s are continually pumped out very fresh, and although they don’t stay warm long because they are so light and airy, they still remain crisp as they hold back filling it with the appropriate custard cream concoctions until they are ordered.
Beard Papa in the UK still seems to be testing the market, with vanilla as their main flavour, and a small number of flavours rotating weekly (green tea was the one when I tried it). On the board you could see that Chocolate, and a number of other standard flavours were still coming soon. The green tea flavour had just the slightest touch of green tea flavour without being overwhelming or as gritty as what some green tea ice creams could be, and went well with the crisp light pastry.
Beard Papa’s is definitely worth getting for a sweet afternoon or perhaps morning snack. They do larger packs as well, making it a perfect thing to bring to the office, though not as cheap.
Details: Beard Papa’s
Found on: Corner of Oxford and Berwick Street, London
Highlights: Fresh crispy profiteroles lightly dusted with icing sugar and filled with a sweet and flavoursome custard cream filling.
Room for improvement: At £1.40, they’re not that cheap to take to a party (but still worth it)
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10
Tried this afternoon: very good indeed but I wonder: wouldn’t a warm custard filling be better than the current cold one? Anyway one is not enough, at least two!
Warm custard would be nice, though perhaps it’s just for practical reasons to keep the pastry crisp. Considering how they fill it when you order it, hot custard would be great. Glad you enjoyed.
No way warm custard would be gross, beard papas have to cold
Colin, I totally agree with you. Do you think Beard Papa would be stupid enough to use hot custard? The whole point is a delicious (hygienically dispensed) refreshingly chilled cream centre. Pfft to you Patrick.
Indeed, hot custard would be an affront to Beard Papa. Can you imagine all that warm custard sitting around in tubs all day. Ick.
How the hell would they keep it warm? Ugh, it would be like gravy at chip shop counters. This is ludicrous. COLD COLD COLD.
I think a hot custard filling would be just ticketty boo with Beard Papa. After all innovation is what he is all about. I am sure many people doubted the cold filling, but look how well it went off. I say lets try the hot custard before we make any judgements.
Can we have a bit of sense PLEASE. Does anybody remember when beard mamas were launhed with a tasty HOT filling?? Well, it was a DISASTER. SCALDS, BURNS, HOSPITALISATION. Please do not make me re-live this custard NIGHTMARE.
Beard Papa is cold happy filling. Feeling of delight from cold happy filling. Hot cream feeling of joy may be with you forever. Beard Papa is not for lucky best eating, but for satisfation of work well done.
WTF????!!!???
Don’t be such a racist Dick. He is obvioulsy struggling with the language barrier.
Don’t be sucha racist Dick, he is obviusslie sturggling with the langwage barreer
Well, looks like you need some help too. I’ll meet you at Beard Papas and we’ll sort it out. If you know what I mean. Fist to Fist. Man on Man.
Come on then, I will stuff Beard Papas up your bum till they come out of your mouth