Fitzrovia Hot Chocolate From £4.90: Italian Bear Chocolate

Italian Bear Chocolate's second London café, at 29 Rathbone Place in Fitzrovia, keeps the same hours as the Soho original: 9am to 11pm from Monday to Saturday and 9am to 10:30pm on Sunday. It pours the same thick Italian hot chocolate from the same menu, with a small cup at £4.90. What changes is the setting: a side street off Oxford Street rather than the Carnaby Street shopping lanes, which suits the first cold evenings of late October.

The company publishes one menu for both shops, so there is no hidden Fitzrovia special. The core order is the Italian Hot Chocolate in milk, dark or mixed, at £4.90 small, £6.50 regular and £7.50 large. Dark is the one to judge it by, because it shows off how dense the base is. Mixed is a sensible middle ground for anyone who finds pure dark chocolate too bitter late in the evening.

Two items do well here because the room gives you time to linger over them. The Triple Chocolate Mocha at £6.90 is a good mid-afternoon order for people coming out of meetings on Charlotte Street who still need coffee. The Shot or Cup filled with melted chocolate at £4.50 is pure chocolate in a small vessel, best eaten slowly with a spoon. Treat it as dessert, and order water with it.

Any hot chocolate can take the Triple Chocolate upgrade for £2.00, which the brand says it created in 2015. It is rich, and it is the version people photograph. Spice options are cinnamon, ginger, chilli, cardamom and black pepper. Black pepper sounds odd, but in the dark cup it brings out the cocoa rather than tasting peppery. Ginger is the warming pick for a damp November evening walking back to Goodge Street.

If the weather turns mild, which still happens in London in late October, the Iced Chocolate at £6.90 is the same chocolate poured cold. It is heavy, more milkshake than iced coffee, so a small hot cup is the lighter choice. Children tend to do better with a small milk hot chocolate than with anything topped with the Triple Chocolate upgrade, which can be a lot of sugar for a small person.

This is the shop where online orders marked for collection are picked up in person, so the counter staff are used to quick in-and-out visits as well as people settling in. The toilet is on the same level as the café, which the Soho site cannot offer, although the company notes that it is not a fully accessible toilet. For visitors with a buggy or a walking stick, that difference alone makes Rathbone Place the better choice.

The house rules are the same as in Soho. The café is cash-free, a 10% discretionary service charge applies, and laptops are not allowed from 3:30pm. The website advises booking a table to avoid the queues, and that advice applies here too on Friday and Saturday nights. On a weekday afternoon a walk-in table is usually realistic, and before 3:30pm you can bring a laptop and work for an hour with a regular cup beside you.

Rathbone Place sits between Oxford Street and Charlotte Street, so the café catches an unusual mix: shoppers who have escaped the Oxford Street crowds, office workers from the media and design studios around Fitzroy Square, and students from the colleges in nearby Bloomsbury. Evenings bring people who have eaten on Charlotte Street and want something sweet that is not another restaurant dessert menu.

The brand has served the West End since 2012, according to its About page, and Fitzrovia was its second site after Broadwick Street in Soho. The site does not give a year for the opening, so this is not a branch with its own long story. It is better thought of as the practical sibling: the same recipe and prices, a same-level toilet and the collection counter.

From Tottenham Court Road station, walk up Rathbone Place from Oxford Street and the café is a few minutes along, before the street meets Percy Street. Afterward, continue north into Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia's main restaurant street, and loop round to Fitzroy Square, the Robert Adam-designed square that is one of the quietest corners of central London at dusk. Back south, Soho Square is a five-minute walk across Oxford Street.

In the run-up to Christmas, Oxford Street's lights make the walk back to the Tube busier but more festive, and a cup here is a good reason to avoid the department-store cafés. If you are heading to a show at the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road, the café is close enough for a small cup beforehand. On a wet night, the Tube entrance on Oxford Street is close by.

Skip it if what you want is a quick, light drink to carry down the street. These cups are meant to be sat over, and the large size can take half an hour to finish. Skip the shot if you have already had dessert. If this branch is full, the Broadwick Street shop in Soho is about a ten-minute walk away, but book it first on weekend evenings rather than gambling on a walk-in table at both.

A small plan for a cold evening: arrive around 6pm, before the after-dinner crowd, order a regular dark cup with ginger, and share a chocolate shot if there are two of you. That comes to £11.00 before the service charge and is enough chocolate for two people. Ask for the spice when you order rather than afterwards, because it is stirred into the cup while the chocolate is still hot.

Address: 29 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JG. Hours: Monday to Saturday 9am to 11pm, Sunday 9am to 10:30pm. Menu prices: Italian Hot Chocolate small £4.90, regular £6.50, large £7.50; Triple Chocolate upgrade £2.00; Triple Chocolate Mocha £6.90; Iced Chocolate £6.90; Shot or Cup filled with melted chocolate £4.50. Cash-free, 10% discretionary service charge, laptop-free from 3:30pm. Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court Road. The Karpo APP can suggest a Charlotte Street dinner that ends a few steps from here.