Amazing Dessert Restaurants Around Europe {Barbara Strother}

For those who love food and love to travel, there's nothing that quite beats finding a great restaurant abroad. And while there are plenty of food preparation styles that are practiced internationally, it can be absolutely incredible eating a given country or region's specialties in those regions themselves, as authentically as possible!

However, it's not always easy to find the best of the best while practicing food tourism, so in this post we'll seek to identify some of the best dessert cafes, bakeries, and restaurants throughout all of Europe! Specifically, we'll be going into depth on a few of the best selections noted by Utrip in a 2012 article on the same subject.

La Pallaresa - Barcelona, Spain

La Pallaresa is a chocolate lover's dream come true. A cozy little chocolate restaurant and coffee shop located in Barcelona, it's a popular breakfast hotspot and known mostly for its decadent chocolate, and specifically its churros and chocolate menu selection. For those unfamiliar with this particular dessert, churros are essentially sweet, fried dough pastries, and considered excellent for dipping in coffee, or in this case rich hot chocolate! It's actually a fun and relatively simple dessert to replicate at home, and you can find a very nice churros and chocolate sauce recipe at Just A Taste. But if food tourism is your thing, you've got to try it at La Pallaresa!

Giolitti - Rome, Italy

Arguably the single most famous destination dessert on the planet, Roman gelato is a must for any food tourism enthusiast. And while there are various places well worth trying, none will impress a traveller quite so much as Giolitti. Wonderfully flavoured cake and gelato comes in various shapes, sizes, and even themes, with the beautiful "Olympic Cup" being a particularly appealing option.

Backerei Balzer - Berlin, Germany

A famous establishment mentioned by The Guardian as one of the top bakeries in Germany, this is an incredible destination for classic baked goods. Backerei Balzer has remained a family establishment since 1920, and recipes range from the unique specialty streusel and sugar yeast buns, to popular desserts like apple fritters, cheesecake, etc. done as well as you've ever tasted.

As with La Pallaresa, a visit to Backerei Balzer will have you itching to try out certain recipes at home. To get you started, My Smart Buy has several helpful buyers' guides on cookware and baking tools that you may need to pull off some of these wonderful desserts. These include knowing the basics and what you need to look for in terms of the proper equipment.

Indulge Dessert Lounge - London, England

A bit closer to home for many of our readers, the Indulge Dessert Lounge in London offers some of, if not the best dessert options in the U.K. Here you'll find a more traditional menu full of anything decadent you've ever wanted, from chocolate drizzled crepes, to brownies, cheesecakes, milkshakes, etc. Naturally it's a popular destination, but it's well worth the trip to the city if you have an itch for sweets.

For those who wish to dig a bit deeper, there are dozens and dozens of renowned bakeries and dessert locations throughout Europe. But to spark some ideas for your food tourism, these are a few of the very best selections out there. Enjoy!

~Barbara Strother