Eating everything pistcahio we could find at Westfield London (and rating them out of 5)

The PistachiBros | Food & Drink | June 2024

Pistachio. It’s ubiquitous. It’s de rigueur. It’s a slightly off-putting shade of green at times. Pantone announces their “Colour of the Year” each year – it’s Peach Fuzz in 2024 incidentally – but if there was a food version, it would probably be pistachio.

Long gone are the days of ruining your fingertips cracking open shells to feast on the salty, oily delight inside because pistachio has been co-opted and corrupted by dessertists everywhere. So, we sent pistachio experts – The PistachiBros – out into Westfield London to sample everything pistachio they could lay their tastebuds on, and to get their honest opinions on those products.

Please note – all products reviewed were bought by the reviewers.

JOE DELUCCI’S

After a couple of false starts, Joe Delucci’s was the first place we came to that had anything pistachio on their menu – and they had both pistachio-flavoured gelato and pistachio-flavoured macarons!

The seats at Joe Delucci’s are sawn-off vespas, and after nearly falling backwards off them (Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday I am not) we kicked off the pistachio crawl with the gelato.

It’s a subtle flavour and not too sweet – an adult’s ice cream – and the bits of pistachio in the gelato were a good addition.

I didn’t love the macaron and struggled to get the pistachio flavour from it, so if you’re wanting a hit of pistachio goodness, you won’t find it here.

We each gave the gelato 3 out of 5 pistachios, and I gave the macaron 1.5/5.

THE KNOT CHURROS

I’ve loved churros ever since I had them for the first time at a theme park in Germany as a 16-year-old. They say you never forget your first, and I’ve been chasing that churro high for nearly two decades since.

The Knot has some amazing churro creations and eye-popping freakshakes, so we were hopeful for something spectacular as we approached. We were slightly disappointed to find out that they only offered a pistachio dipping sauce, rather than a gravity-defying dessert creation, but we ordered it anyway.

The sauce was good, it clung to the churro nicely and had a viscosity and mouthfeel similar to a white chocolate dipping sauce – in fact, I suspect it was a flavoured white chocolate sauce. It also clung nicely to my shirt after I spilled it on there.

PistachiBro E gave the sauce 3.5/5, I thought it was a 3.

BLANK STREET COFFEE

If we were going to find something satisfactorily pistachio, it was going to be here. Blank Street and pistachio are synonymous – right down to the colour scheme of their locations – and we got everything pistachio they had to offer.

The pistachio cookie was slightly disappointing, but it’s filled with a thin layer of their delectable pistachio crème. It certainly wasn’t bad by any stretch, but we were expecting more, and both gave it 3.5.

The pistachio pain au chocolat was a step up. The pastry was excellent, and the dusting of pistachio on top gave it some excellent crunch, but it’s the generous helping of pistachio crème inside that takes it to the elite level. 5 pistachios out of 5 – get yourself one now.

Finally, we had their iconic pistachio latte – iced instead of hot. I love a hot pistachio latte, so was interested to see how it translated, and I’d say it doesn’t work quite as well as it’s warmer twin.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as their pistachio latte is obscenely morish and I’ve had to ween myself off them somewhat, but it was also one of two items on our tour that we finished so that speaks to its deliciousness. We each gave it 4.5.

LÄDERACH

If Willy Wonka were real and able to run his chocolate factory instead of fighting off The Unknown, then Läderach might be his only competition. It’s not just the incredible silken chocolate but the shopping experience that feels luxurious.

We got their tartufi pistachio, pistachio dark chocolate, and pistachio and marzipan fancies because we felt we should – i.e. wanted to - try their full range. And boy, were we glad we did. The chocolate was perfectly balanced between sweet and savoury, and the dark chocolate enhanced the pistachio as much as the pistachio enhanced the dark chocolate.

I’m not going to lie – Läderach chocolate isn’t cheap, but it is worth the price if you’re a chocolate connoisseur.

TIRAMISU

When a place is called “TiramisU”, you’d expect them to make a pretty damn good tiramisu – and they do. I like my tiramisu to be heavier on mascarpone than cream as a rule, but it’s still an excellent dessert. But that wasn’t the showpiece of our visit.

Run- don’t walk – to get their pistachio cannoli. My issue with cannoli (usually) is the shell isn’t crunchy enough and tastes like dirty fry oil. Not here, dear reader. The filling was exceptional and the crushed pistachios coating the cannoli was inspired. I could have eaten a dozen of them, were I not bordering on pistachio fatigue.

We both said 5/5 for the cannoli.

LITTLE MOONS

I don’t like mochi. I don’t like the texture of the outside bit, nor do I like biting into stiff ice cream, but I was open-minded enough o see what Little Moons had to offer by way of pistachio.

By this point, I was craving something hot, or salty, or not pistachio-flavoured, so you could say that I maybe wasn’t in the best frame of mind to be tasting something I was fairly sure I wouldn’t enjoy…

Little Moons’ honey roasted pistachio mochi was nice. It wasn’t especially pistachio, and I couldn’t taste the honey-roastedness of it, but it was certainly more enjoyable than I expected it to be. I won’t be racing to Little Moons anytime soon – as a matter of personal taste – but I’m glad I tried their pistachio offering,

PistachiBro E didn’t try the mochi, but I’d give it 3/5.

BONUS STOP – BADIANI GELATO

We did try to stop at some other places on our journey towards Badiani, and we made no secret of our relief when their menus did not have anything pistachio-flavoured on them.

I’m a big fan of Badiani, but even my heart was filled with dread at the prospect of eating more sweet pistachio treats, so we were relieved to find they offered free samples, rather than us needing to buy a single scoop and consigning most of it to the bin.

Badiani does have a bunch of pistachio-flavoured items – multiple decadent gelato flavours (including their incredible Buontalenti Pistachio), a pistachio hot chocolate and a pistachio gelato croissant – but none of these were available when we visited.