Gourmet Chocolate in Covent Garden: Knoops on New Row

Knoops at 2 New Row, WC2N 4LH, makes hot chocolate by melting real chocolate flakes into milk, and the cheapest cup on the board is a small 28% white blend for £4. The shop sits off St Martin's Lane near Leicester Square and stays open until 10.30pm on weekdays and 11pm on Saturdays. When you want gourmet chocolate near me in Covent Garden but would rather drink it than unwrap it, this is the late-night answer.

Jens Knoop, who grew up in Germany, opened the first Knoops in Rye, East Sussex, in 2013. His idea was that drinking chocolate deserved the same choice and craft that speciality coffee already had, so he served chocolate drinks instead of powder. A year later came Knoopology, the system of choosing your percentage, your milk and an add-in such as orange zest, sea salt or chilli.

For six years it stayed a single shop. In 2019 the investor William Gordon-Harris found the Rye store and joined to expand it, and Knoops now runs five London shops in Chelsea, Covent Garden, Kensington, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill. Dubai followed in late 2024, and on 21 August 2026 the company opened its first American store in Salt Lake City. New Row was its first West End shop.

The board lists more than 20 chocolates, and six of them also come iced or as milkshakes. The house blends are the cheapest: 34% milk costs £4.20 small and £5.30 regular, 54% dark costs £4.50 and £5.60, and 70% costs £4.60 and £5.70. The single origins cost more, so think of the blends as the warm-up and the origins as the reason to come back.

At the bitter end, the 85% Colombia is floral with vanilla and pepper for £5.50 small, and there are two 100% options with no added sugar. The 100% blend costs £5.49 small and the 100% Philippines single origin costs £6.70. If you have never drunk unsweetened chocolate, order the small size and taste it before adding anything, because there is no sugar to soften the bitterness.

Salt, pepper and dry spices are free, and the list runs from Maldon sea salt and Szechuan pepper to cardamom, star anise and pimentón. Fresh additions such as rosemary, mint, lavender, orange, ginger or matcha cost 50p, whipped cream costs 50p, and handmade marshmallows cost £1.30. Drinks are made with whole milk unless you ask otherwise, with semi-skimmed, skimmed and lacto-free options as well as oat, almond, soya, coconut and hazelnut.

The 38% Solomon Islands is non-dairy, and every chocolate from 54% upwards is vegan, so plant-based drinkers have most of the board available. A pinch of pink pepper in the 65% Colombia, which costs £5.10 small, is a good test of whether you like the add-in idea at all. Skip the coffee menu here; you can get a flat white anywhere in Covent Garden, and the chocolate is the point.

Iced chocolates start at £4.20 for a small 28% and reach £5.90 for a regular 70%. Milkshakes run from £5.50 for a small 28% to £8.50 for a regular 100%. The vanilla soft serve costs £3.85 in a cone or tub, and a topping of white, milk or dark flakes adds 40p. Bakery shelves vary by store, but the list includes pastel de nata, cannoli and a raspberry cheesecake brownie.

Every chocolate on the take-home shelf comes as flakes in a paper tube, so you can recreate a favourite percentage at home. The 34% milk blend is listed as the best seller at £13.50, while the 28% white blend, the 70% and 80% extra dark blends and the 100% Philippines cost £14.50. A Festive Hot Chocolate Gift Set costs £29, a tin to decant the flakes into costs £8, and Knoops cacao tea costs £7.95. This autumn the shop is also selling Halloween bundles.

The shop opens at 8am Monday to Friday and on Sunday, and at 9am on Saturday, with Sunday closing at 10pm. Late opening is the shop's real advantage: it keeps pouring well after most Covent Garden cafés have shut, which makes it a natural stop after a West End show. There is outside seating and the shop is dog friendly, with a wheelchair ramp available, but there is no toilet, so plan that before you sit down.

If the queue is too long, Knoops' other central shops are a short tube ride away, with Knightsbridge and Kensington both on the Piccadilly line. For a box of filled chocolates rather than a drink, Charbonnel et Walker in the Royal Arcade off Old Bond Street is the traditional alternative. Leicester Square on the Piccadilly and Northern lines is the closest station to New Row.

New Row is a pedestrian lane of small independent shops that links St Martin's Lane with the streets leading into Covent Garden. Cecil Court, the alley of antiquarian bookshops across St Martin's Lane, is a two-minute walk with a cup in hand. The Covent Garden Piazza and its market building are a few minutes the other way, and Seven Dials is just to the north.

Address: 2 New Row, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4LH. Hours: Monday to Friday 8am to 10.30pm, Saturday 9am to 11pm, Sunday 8am to 10pm. Nearest station: Leicester Square. Facilities: outside seating, dog friendly, wheelchair ramp, vegan options, no toilet. Prices from the official menu: small 28% hot chocolate £4, small 34% £4.20, regular 68% Madagascar £7.90, marshmallows £1.30. Take-home flakes cost £13.50 to £14.50 a tube, and the 34% milk blend is the best seller.