Tesco will be bringing the UK’s first hot cross bun restaurant to London this Easter, offering people a one-of-a-kind dining experience amidst a surge in popularity for the Easter staple, to help everyone make Easter their own this year.
The Tesco Hot Cross Bun Café will open in central London for one week only, offering a range of hot cross bun-filled dining experiences to suit all tastes – from brunch to afternoon tea and even five-course fine dining, all from just £5 per head.
All of the café’s proceeds will go to the supermarket’s charity partner, the Trussell Trust, helping them to provide emergency food and support to people in crisis this Easter.
Every dish and cocktail served will feature Tesco products with an innovative twist on the hot cross bun – including vegan ‘Hot Cross Bangers and Smash’ at brunch, Hot Cross Scones at afternoon tea, and Hot Cross Bun Espresso Martinis and Hot Cross Bun Steak Tartare at dinner. To ensure that everyone can enjoy the experience, plant based and gluten free options will be available at every session.
Bookings can be made via OpenTable, however, a proportion of tables will be available during each session for walk ins.
Arguably set to be one of London’s most ‘Instagrammable’ venues, visitors to the Hot Cross Bun Café will be treated to stunning overheard floral displays, designed to feel as if dining in a spring garden. With the exterior of the venue covered in a unique flower wall display, and a dedicated ‘selfie-space’ inside, complete with floor to ceiling flower walls and an ‘Easter throne’ to sit on, guests will be treated to eye-catching designs wherever they look.
For parents looking to entertain the kids over the holidays, each of the daytime brunch sessions will include colour in menus and children’s goody bags, making it the perfect treat for families this Easter.
The café launch comes amidst soaring sales and increasing innovations for the hot cross bun. Sales at Tesco were up by a fifth (20%) in 2021, while sales of its Finest Hot Cross Bun range grew by a third (30%). Kantar also reported that shoppers spent £37million on hot cross buns and a combined £153 million on Easter eggs and hot cross buns, up £48million from the previous year.***
With popularity set to peak even further in 2022, this year has also seen Tesco unveil its most exciting range of the spiced sweet buns to date, with 11 hot cross bun inspired innovations on offer, including new products within its Tesco Finest range. These include Tesco Finest Blueberry Hot Cross Buns along with Tesco Finest Hot Cross Bun Bread & Butter Pudding and Tesco Finest Hot Cross Scones.
For those not able to make it in-person to the pop-up café in Shoreditch, Tesco in-store cafes*** across the United Kingdom will also be serving up one of the dishes from the Hot Cross Bun Café for a limited time only- the Hot Cross Bun Ice Cream Sandwich.
