More festive delights

The Langham Hotel has launched its Festive afternoon tea menu.  Fully themed including reindeer biscuits and eggnog panacotta.

Afternoon tea at Marconi lounge ME Hotel

This is a newly built 5 star hotel in The Strand, London. It recently started offering afternoon tea and its first theme was "buildings of London".
The decor of this place is mind blowing. Really stylish with art deco modern twist.
Despite being 5 star this place was very relaxed and chilled.
The tea selection was good. I chose Chai because I hadn't had it before. The aroma coming from it was delightful, but teabags? I suppose it saves the hassel of a tea strainer, but not what I expected. The waiter poured the first cup but thereafter it was left to us. I suspect this is part of their relaxed style than lack of attentiveness, because we were the only people there. However, we needed to request another pot as it had gone cold.
When the food came out the patisseries looked impressive, but I was quick to notice there wasn't the expected Shard on the plate. Instead we had Big Ben, which was very tasty, though perhaps slightly too nutella-esq.
The sandwiches though tasty had dry bread as if they'd been prepared well in advance.
The scones smelt deliciously buttery and were good. No additional cake trays were offered, but to be honest this was enough because unlike some places you go to, each of us received our own patisserie selection. No having to cut a thing of beauty in half. Our fav was the chocolate macaroon.
All in all we had a very pleasant afternoon. Just a couple of niggles, when the door if the hotel opens a really cold breeze came through and being on the ground floor not an amazing view, except for the walkers by looking in.

Christmas crackers

Two hotels are providing festive afternoon tea.

Intercontinental Westminster
Is offering unlimited Laurent Perrier champagne with its festive afternoon tea menu. Carol singers will also be present during the weekend.

The Mandeville Hotel
Is having a Christmas afternoon tea, where the whole menu is themed from turkey sandwich fillings to cranberry scones.

Goodwood Revival

It was great to see everyone dressed up in vintage togs at the Goodwood Revival this weekend.
Everything seemed themed down to acapelor singers and St Trinians.
Fabulous effort!

Top tip - Haymarket Hotel Afternoon Tea

Worth checking out. A friend tells me that this is a really good, reasonably priced tea with welcoming service.

http://www.firmdalehotels.com/london/haymarket-hotel/afternoon-tea

Afternoon Tea at the Chesterfield

We went to the Chesterfield Hotel near Green Park this weekend for Charlie and the Chocolate afternoon tea. I have to confess that I was as excited as a child about the wonka-tastic delights that might be on offer.

We were greeted by an enthusiastic and enigmatic host who showed us to the afternoon tea room. I was full of anticipation about what was to come.

We were seated in the main room, not the conservatory,  which was very dark. We were given menus to decide which tea we wanted.
I was pleased to see that a chocolate tea was on offer. It was good, slight bitter chocolate flavour. We were told we could change tea if we didn't like it.

The trays of food  arrived with very little expIanation of the content. It was from here that my special feeling started to diminish. The waiter didn't share my excitement and the selection in front of me didn't match my expectations.

The sandwiches however were really tasty. My favourite was ham and cheese, the egg was also a team favourite. We tried to catch the eye of the waiter for more sandwiches,  but we must have waited about 15 minutes,  until I actually had to ask. The tea waiter didn't arrive again for us to ask for alternatives. Attentiveness was not the order of the day

Onto the second layer. Although most of the patisseries tasted OK, for me they were not "out there" enough for Willy Wonka. Imagine what Willy Wonka's afternoon tea would look like! That's what I was expecting. 

Onto the scones. Not the best I've had.  Not enough chocolatey flavour in the chocolate one. The homemade jam seemed to be missing the sugar or it had chocolate in it. Very strange and not nice.

Ok, so you may be wondering about the Wonka bar in the picture. Had I turned the bar over you would have seen that the label was not wide enough to cover the bar and it was fixed with sellotape. Attention to detail!!! I opened it expecting to find a golden ticket of some kind. But this came later....

If anyone is intending to go to the Chesterfield, I have an unopened golden ticket you can have which is likely to give you a discount on your tea or free champagne. If it's the free hotel room, I'll have it back. I wouldn't mind being welcomed by the host again.

More tea reviews Vicar?

Found another Afternoon Tea review blog. Check out Katie & Chelsea and Kelly Michelle
http://katieandchelsie.blogspot.co.uk/p/afternoon-tea.html?m=1

http://www.aroundtheworldin80pairsofshoes.com/

Afternoon Tea at Vertigo42 (Tower 42)

Never had tea in the city before, but a special offer came through for Tower 42's Vertigo bar and I thought it'd be rude not to :-p , considering I wanted to catch up with a friend that had just returned from her honeymoon.
Getting up to the venue on the 42nd floor felt like mission impossible- three reception desks, one security check, two esclators and one lift later we arrived to some stunning views.
We were seated by the window with  views across to Mansion House, the London Eye and beyond. We were soon served with a glass of champagne and were enjoying chatting when we realised we hadn't been served any food 25mins after arriving.
Just a I began getting twitchy that I was going to be late back from lunch, a charming man with a tiered cake stand arrived. My initial opinion was slightly disappointed as there were no traditional sandwiches to be seen, only two tiny morsels of toasted bread with smoked salmon and a piece of quiche (non refillable). Tier two contained two tarts; chocolate and passionfruit (zingy) and tier 3 tiny blueberry scone and a plain traditional scone (cream tasted like it was soured or with yoghurt, unusual! )
At this point I had to ask for the tea to be served (not loose leaf-teabag). It began losing points on service at this point. I asked for a clean plate after the quiche as it left savoury squigginess on the plate, which I didn't fancy with the sweet tarts - an unusual request it seems.
Pretty much as soon as we'd finished we needed to leave. No waiters to be seen, so I return to the reception desk to enquire if we could leave because I had pre-paid. I couldn't believe that they asked me to pay a service charge - voluntary of course!
To sum up. The place had really nice views, but had a long way to go to match up to proper afternoon tea.  Was more heavily weighted on dessert and not much savoury.  At full price £32 - way overpriced.

Afternoon tea at the Langham

I have a certain fondness for the Langham Hotel, London. I've been there twice now and was disappointed not to win a 7p ticket to go back for its anniversary a couple of weeks ago.
What is it I like about it? The decor is art deco - black and shiny mirrors with fantastic chandeliers. The service and food is second to none.
The first time I went there for tea I also had the privilege of staying at the hotel. My sister in law was doing a stint on the plinth at Trafalgar Square. The trouble was, we hadn't thought about how we were going to broadcast the music in a public place. The concierge of the hotel ended up looking around for an amplifier for us. Such service!
Last year I returned for a Hen Party. The staff coped perfectly well with a large group. They also brought out a special cake for her off-the-cuff, no prompting.
May I also add that the cocktail bar is fantastic and well worth a try ;-)
It has released this week a new afternoon tea menu - a good reason to return?www.cntraveller.com/recommended/food/best-afternoon-tea-in-london/langham-hotel-london-afternoon-tea

Orient Express

For a landmark birthday I was treated to a trip on the Orient Express, murder mystery event. This appeals to me on several levels which you will get to know: I love the 20's|30's era decor and clothing wise and I like a bit of drama.
Needless to say I was thoroughly looking forward to the day. S & I were togged fitting the occasion and travelled 1st class to Victoria where we would pick up the OE.
At Victoria there was a special check-in area, where the attendant told us which carriage we'd be seated and where complimentary tea was supplied (in a plastic cup!!!). There was also a member of staff that was willing to take pictures.  However a professional photographer might have been nice - would have been willing to pay....and we made our way to the train.
We were allocated to the Perseus carriage where Bob our attendant made us very welcome. The table was set nicely for dinner and it began to feel special. As champagne was served we got to know the others in the carriage. As the train departed, outside the window I was brought back to reality  and back to today seeing the graffiti and ugly buildings.
As dinner was served the mystery unfolded and we got a chance to interrogate the suspects. Dinner exceeded my expectations.  It was truly 1st class - all five courses of it!
We never won the carriage prize for solving the who done it, but we had great fun trying.