All-day snacks are replacing fixed dessert moments
In Soho, eating often happens between places rather than around fixed meal times: a coffee before work becomes breakfast, a quick stop in the afternoon replaces lunch and something small after the gym fills the gap before dinner. This has changed what people expect from cafés and healthy restaurant spaces. Snacks are no longer treated as secondary to full meals. Increasingly, they are part of the daily routine, especially in places where people move in and out throughout the day. Smaller portions, coffee counter formats and food designed to travel have all become more important. The best examples feel less like traditional desserts and more like everyday food.
At Hg Soho, the restaurant known as Honest Greens outside the UK, the snacks sit within that shift. Their house-made range, Real Bites, includes gluten-free and plant-based options made with olive oil and no refined sugar, available throughout the day rather than limited to dessert service.
According to Honest Greens, the range underwent two years of testing before launch, with a focus on creating desserts without refined sugar while maintaining texture and flavour. Smaller snacks are no longer treated as an afterthought.
Smaller bites built for everyday routines
The format is more practical than formal. These are snacks for in-between moments: alongside coffee, during a short break or after a workout. They are designed for portability rather than for presentation at the table.
That approach also changes the role of the coffee shop counter itself. Instead of relying only on pastries or packaged bars, cafés and healthy food spaces are making more room for snacks that feel closer to a healthy meal, just in a smaller format.
Why all-day snacks fit Soho
The appeal of this kind of food is closely tied to how Soho operates during the day. The neighbourhood moves between breakfast meetings, takeaway coffees, office lunches and evening plans. Not every eating occasion becomes a full sit-down meal. In that setting, smaller snacks become part of the area’s daily movement. Real Bites fits naturally into that pattern. Less like a traditional dessert menu, and more like a reflection of how people already eat across the day in central London.