Where to buy, taste and make chocolate in London

If you only make one chocolate stop in central London, make it Rococo at 3 Moxon Street in Marylebone. It's small, it makes its own bars and truffles, and it'll build a box to order while you wait.

Marylebone, Mayfair and Regent Street

Rococo's only London shop is on Moxon Street, just off Marylebone High Street and round the corner from La Fromagerie. Build your own box, get a hot chocolate at the counter, and ask about same-day delivery if you're buying for someone else. The team also runs group tastings and chocolate-making sessions, worth knowing for a team outing. Hours are 10am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday, Baker Street and Bond Street stations are both walkable, and on Sundays Marylebone Farmers' Market sets up at the top of Moxon Street from 10am to 2pm, so one morning covers both.

Charbonnel et Walker was founded in 1875 with the encouragement of the future Edward VII, and calls itself Britain's first chocolatier; the shop in the Royal Arcade off Old Bond Street still feels like it. Buy the Marc de Champagne truffles, dusted with icing sugar, and try the enrobed stem ginger, which is the underrated order. It's a gift shop first, but the drinking chocolate is worth buying for your own apartment, boxes are wrapped properly, and from autumn the advent calendars turn up.

The Brussels chocolatier Pierre Marcolini opened a London flagship on Regent Street this March, which makes it the newest serious chocolate shop in central London and the easiest to reach from a West End apartment. Order online and you can pick up in store within two hours, handy if you're buying a gift on the way to dinner.

Paul A. Young, Soho and the City

Paul A. Young's shop at 143 Wardour Street is the one for late in the day. It's open until 8pm most evenings and 9pm on Thursdays, and from noon on Sundays. The sea salted caramel is the signature and has won a shelf of awards, and the Soho shop runs chocolate tastings and brownie-baking workshops too. There's a second shop in the Royal Exchange by Bank station, open weekdays only and useful if your meetings are in the City.

The four central shops make one walk. Start at Rococo in Marylebone, head down to Regent Street for Pierre Marcolini, cut across to the Royal Arcade for Charbonnel et Walker and finish in Soho at Paul A. Young, which stays open latest. Allow two to three hours with stops, and do it on a weekday, because Regent Street on a Saturday afternoon is slow going.

Make your own at Melt, Notting Hill

Melt's bean-to-bar workshop in Notting Hill costs from about £55. You work with the shop's chocolatiers from the cocoa bean onwards and go home with three bars you made yourself. It's the most hands-on thing in this guide and a good plan for a wet Saturday with older children. Book ahead and give it its own day with a wander down Portobello Road, since Notting Hill is a Central line ride west. If you'd rather skip the class, the shop's still worth a stop for its handmade chocolates, and it runs a subscription box by post.

Chocolate hates a warm room, and only about half the residences on this site have air conditioning, so in summer put truffles in the fridge and take them out half an hour before eating. Fresh truffles from Rococo, Charbonnel et Walker or Paul A. Young are meant to be eaten fairly soon, so ask the shop for the best-before date. Flying home, keep boxes in your hand luggage rather than the hold, and ask the shop to pack them flat.

Food hygiene ratings for the places in this guide

Official fact Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, checked 23 September 2026. 5 is the top rating.

Name	Registered address	Rating	Inspected
Rococo Chocolates	3 Moxon Street, W1U 4EP	4	Aug 2026
La Fromagerie	4 Moxon Street, W1U 4EW	5	Jul 2025
Melt	59 Ledbury Road, W11 2AA	5	Sep 2025

Ratings cover hygiene only, not food quality. Matched by name and address; a venue not shown was not found or could not be matched with confidence.