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<\/div>\nThere was a time when \u201cWould you like to see the dessert menu?\u201d felt like the easiest \u201cYes, please\u201d in the world. But in many restaurants, the pastry section has become an afterthought. Gone are the sprawling lists of sundaes, cakes, tarts, puddings, and pies; dessert menus are shrinking as dining habits shift, priorities change, and fewer diners indulge their sweet tooth.<\/p>\n
Where this section was once a fundamental of any restaurant worth its sugar, an increasing number of top eateries are doing away with it altogether. \u201cMyself and [head chef] George [Williams] decided very early on to not have a pastry section,\u201d says Beth O\u2019Brien, sous chef at The Fat Badger, part of London<\/a>\u2019s new wave of upmarket restaurant-pubs. \u201cWe all rotate \u2013 sometimes I do desserts, sometimes it\u2019s George.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In extreme cases, some restaurants are not just without a pastry section <\/em>\u2013 they are without puddings altogether. \u201cWe don\u2019t do dessert at Kiln,\u201d chef Meedu Saad tells me matter of factly. \u201cWe\u2019re just not set up to do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n See also: <\/em>Why London Restaurants are Embracing a New York State of Dining<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Saad\u2019s second restaurant, Impala, is the current London buzz spot and like its big sister, sweet dishes are not a priority. Just one dessert \u2013 a pistachio and date custard tart \u2013 is on offer, and even this one dessert has salt in every single element, from the pastry to the date puree. \u201cI didn’t want to go from eating a savory meal into a sweet thing that’s completely different \u2026 and I didn\u2019t feel like we needed anything else to prop it up,\u201d says Saad.<\/p>\n And where does the blame for the decline of the dessert lie? An easy finger to point is at weight loss drugs: \u201cWe’ve had a few people in recently [at The Fat Badger] who led by telling us that they\u2019re on Ozempic, so they want a smaller and lighter menu,\u201d says O\u2019Brien. \u201cWe often just end up sending out a sorbet.\u201d<\/p>\n Tastes, too, are changing, with The Future Laboratory\u2019s recent food and drink trend reports<\/a> finding that salted, sour, and umami-led profiles are emerging as key flavor preferences.<\/p>\n But, even if diners are leaning more toward savory dishes, many restaurants make a case for customers themselves not being the root cause of the problem. The call is coming from inside the industry. \u201cIt’s become a lot more difficult to run a restaurant,\u201d says Louis Lingwood, head chef at London newbie Osteria Vibrato<\/a>. \u201cAnd because restaurants have to optimize, they’re like, \u2018okay, we can’t afford more people in the kitchen. Let’s do an offering that this limited team can cope with.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn casual and mid-market dining \u2026 guests move faster, spend more consciously, and dessert is often the first thing cut,\u201d adds chef Gabriel Kreuther, whose eponymous New York<\/a> restaurant still leans heavily on classic French pastry principles. \u201cThe rise of small plates and shared formats has blurred the meal’s architecture in ways that make a formal dessert course feel out of step.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"buckwheat](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/chocolatebuckwheattimberyard11-1707x2560.jpg\")
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