What's New Restaurants: Berko in the Kerry Center

Robynne Tindall, Contributing Editor | Nov 13, 2014 4:30 pm | Add a comment | 2172 reads

Say what you like about the cupcake trend that has lingered on since Magnolia Bakery’s over-the-top icing made a cameo appearance in Sex and the City in 2000, but in Beijing at least they’re not going anywhere soon. The latest contender for our city’s sugar-hungry hearts is French cake brand to the stars Berko. Using 100 percent imported ingredients, including Brazilian blueberries and French vanilla, they make petite cupcakes in flavors like banoffee (banana and toffee) and speculoos (a spiced shortbread biscuit), as well as more-ish cheesecakes that are among the best we have tasted.

Berko opened their first store in the Francophile Galeries Lafayette late last year but surprisingly the new Kerry Center location actually captures a better sense of the brand’s French origins, fusing turn-of-the-century Parisian salon du thé décor – think pastel colors and extensive cornicing – with modern touches like colored LED ceiling lights. It’s a pleasant reprieve from the carbon-copy Starbucks décor of most other CBD coffee shops.

At RMB 40 for a mini-cupcake Berko is, to put it mildly, at the higher end of the cake pricing scale. But for a food that is already supposed to be an indulgence, a little bit of extra pocket change doesn’t seem like such a big deal.

Berko
Daily 8am-9pm. 1/F, Kerry Center Office Building, Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District (8529 9897)
朝阳区光华路嘉里中心写字楼1层