WhereToEatNow Review
There is something admirable about a business that refuses to diversify. Landeau sells chocolate cake. Not a range of cakes: one cake, by the slice, with coffee if you want it. You can order a slice, or you can order two slices, and that is the extent of the decision-making required of you.
It is very good cake. Dense and dark without being bitter, closer to a set ganache than to a sponge, with a thin biscuit base and a heavy dusting of cocoa on top that makes the first forkful drier and more intense than what follows. It is rich enough that a slice genuinely serves one person, which is not always true of chocolate cake. Have it with an espresso; the cake is sweet and the coffee is the counterweight.
The Chiado branch on Rua das Flores is small and usually has a short queue that moves fast. There are seats, but takeaway works fine — this is a cake designed to be eaten from a box on a wall somewhere with a view.
Honest notes: it is one cake, so if you do not want chocolate cake there is genuinely nothing else for you. It is not cheap for a slice. And the intensity that makes the first few bites brilliant can make the last few a slog if you are not a serious chocolate person. But as a single-purpose institution it is close to perfect, and it has stayed good for years, which is harder than it sounds.