Is this the Best London Dessert?

We weren’t in search of the best London dessert. It found us as we were dining at The Wolseley, Piccadilly. Who would have thought that this marbled, monochrome London establishment, famed for its European cuisine, could be home to the most enormously exquisite banana split?

We Spotted this London Dessert on an Adjacent Table

Frankly we’d already stuffed our faces. My companion had partaken of the Hungarian Goulash with spaetzl noodles and I had indulged in a medium rare flat iron steak with a buttery bernaise sauce flecked with tarragon, pommes frites and a green salad. We were about to call it a day and finish with a modest macchiato coffee.  Then the waiter brought flamboyant ice cream coupes to the next table.

We stopped in our tracks. We put our gossip on hold. We turned to question these young men.

Their faces were beaming as you only do when you know that you have made the perfect menu choice. And no one was beaming more than the man who had ordered the best London dessert, The Wolseley banana split!

So caution was thrown to the wind. Fortunately, The Wolseley menu that we were given did not contain the calories of this banana split dessert confection (which I have since discovered online to be a whopping 1004).

The Wolseley Pared Down London Pudding Menu

Banana split has a bad rap. It seems like a strange choice for a London pudding pared down Wolseley menu.

It conjures up images of synthetic flavoured strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice creams doused in a sauce that has never seen a chocolate bean and gaudy maraschino cherries sitting on a plainly split slightly un ripe banana…and woolfed down by college students in a kitsch 1950s diner.

The banana split was invented by an optometrist in 1904, David “Doc” Strickler from Pennsylvania who bought a drugstore and charged 10 cents for the creation,  twice the price of every other dessert on the menu.

Clearly this snippet of history has obviously given the The Wolseley in Piccadilly the courage to charge £11.95 for this dessert delicacy).

Memorable Chef Inspired Elements

There were many many things that make the Wolseley’s banana split the best  London dessert…

It is served in bespoke boat shaped pressed glassware on The Wolseley’s monogrammed china. The starched pristine table cloths and genuine electroplated cutlery look as if they have been in service since the turn of the century.

This London dessert delicacy is carried to the table like a religious icon in a church service and placed on the table with greatest of reverence.

And on to the components of this London dessert…
The perfect banana is crisply caramelised in butter and sugar.

The finest London ice cream, tastes of nothing but egg yolks, cream and vanilla.

Double cream is whipped, aerosoled and perfectly dispensed in a precise, lacy frill.

Someone in the kitchen has taken fresh raspberries. Then combined them with sugar and strained the resulting syrup to remove the seeds before delicately dribbling it over the cream. Notice how the raspberry puree nestles in the folds of the cream with none of it dripping on to the ice cream below.

Crushed nuts, browned to a perfect pale shade of toastiness are scattered on top of this exquisite creation.

And let us not forget the chocolate sauce…bitter, rich with a just-melted-from-a-bar-of-70%-cocoa-solids taste is served in a small silver plated jug.

My Suggestion for London Dessert Superlativeness

Such perfection is difficult to improve on.  My modest suggestion (if I dare) would be to include a small jug of caramel for those that prefer this to chocolate. It would add a level of Americaness, but why not? Fusion can only be a good thing when it comes to dessert heaven in London.

You may also enjoy our piece about great British puddings.

You can make a reservation at The Wolseley and sample their other delectable desserts by visiting their website here. Or you may want to peruse The Wolseley menu. But whatever you do make sure that you sample this spectacular London dessert.

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