Afternoon tea at The Savoy

I've been dying to post that title for ages "afternoon tea at the Savoy" and it didn't disappoint.
We were seated in the Beauford Bar area, adjacent to the Thames Foyer,  decorated in a stunning art deco style - black and gold. Absolutely loved it. From where we were seated we could still hear the tinkling of the piano and see the goings on in the main tea area.
The tea selection was good. B really liked the lemon verbana, which had a slight peppermint taste too. After my most recent escapade I was pleased to see tea strainers and attentive tea waitresses.
It was able to cater for dietary requests, but the selection didn't look as tasty as the standard afternoon tea - B wished that she'd blown her special diet. The standard sandwiches were good, but not amazingly special.  It did however excel with the patisseries which were very cute and tasty. The scones were nice and were accompanied by the best jam I've ever had!
All in all - I was blown away with the decor, tea was very pleasant and given half a chance, I'd be very pleased to return.

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.