One Aldwych, Covent Garden, London

Visit One Aldwych website HERE
COST: £26.50 each

Having read my review after my first visit to this venue, I was invited back to One Aldwych by their food and beverage manager to sample their improved afternoon tea. I must say, I was very impressed with this focus on customer service and it was clear that they do listen carefully to customer feedback and take it onboard to continually evolve and improve their offering.

On arrival my mum and I were greeted with a glass of champagne and separate menus - one for the traditional gluten full afternoon tea and one for the gluten free option. It made my mum feel very welcome and normal unlike many afternoon tea venues where often the coeliac can be seen as a nuisance and often you get served a rather embarrassing excuse of an afternoon tea. The tea menu hadn't changed since our last visit but then it does already have a large selection of the usual and not so usual teas. During our time there, we didn't once have to ask for a tea top up - service was exceptional.

 Gluten Free Menu

 Gluten "Full" Menu

So on to the food... sandwiches, like last time, were lovely. They offered traditional flavours with a twist as they are served on different subtlety flavoured breads. The gluten free sandwiches were also lovely and it would have been difficult to identify which ones were which. One Aldwych like to offer a contemporary twist and together with the sandwiches served seasonal asparagus with a perfectly cooked hen’s egg. Nice touch!  The scones, however, disappointed again. They were small and quite dry - a bit more butter in the recipe and they would be top notch. The cakes and Eton mess were nice and should the sugar rush hit, a tasty Pimms jelly was served which was very refreshing. The frangipane cake on the gluten free option is definitely worth a mention - fantastic!

 Gluten Free Offering

 Gluten "Full" Offering

Overall, an improved food offering from One Aldwych and I would recommend it. My mum thoroughly recommends it for coeliacs and is trying to get it featured in the Coeliac Society’s magazine. 

London Hilton on Park Lane, Podium Restaurant

Visit The Podium Website HERE
Cost: £25.50 per person

I previously blogged about this in December 2010 and, as it was so good and there was a 25% discount off in August, thought I would go again. This time with Marc. Food again was divine and did not disappoint - especially the cupcakes!!



Unfortunately we were being served by a new waiter who initially served our tea to another table and then didn't offer to top up the water for the entire time we were there... Other than that, I would still definitely recommend here. Probably does help that it is a chocolate afternoon tea...

The Orangery Restaurant, Kensington Palace

Visit The Orangery Restaurant website HERE
COST: From £14.85 each

What better than having afternoon tea on an English summer's day in a royal palace? Seemed that my friends and I weren't the only ones with the same idea... When we arrived, due to a policy of not taking bookings, we had to queue quite a while as it was very busy. Eventually we were shown to a table. The interior is very simple but I think this is to not distract from the stunning architecture that the building has. We were given our menus and after a while, our order was taken. I opted for the Royal champagne tea (£20.45) to be served with their unique chocolate blended tea. And we waited... and waited... we continued to wait while another group who had come in after us were served their tea...



Eventually our tea arrived. It did not disappoint though. Sandwiches were fresh and tasty. Scones were perfect with a citrus twist served with fresh preserve and clotted cream. Cakes were DIVINE! The chocolate eclair, whilst not quite what I envisaged (more a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting), was gorgeous. While you may think chocolate tea might not work, it does. It works very well but then I am just a teeny weeny chocoholic... Overall, the food was great but the service was slow. When paying, we didn't pay the discretionary service charge and our waiter questioned us. It was only then that he told us their dishwasher had broken which meant they couldn't serve the food as quickly as they'd like. If he'd told us that at the beginning, then at least we would have known there would have been a wait and managed our expectations. Instead, the waiting did spoil my experience but I would recommend a visit. Hopefully the dishwasher will be working!

Raffles, Dubai

Visit Raffles Website HERE
Cost: 190AED for 2

Hands up, Dubai is not in the UK and as this blog is dedicated to afternoon tea in the UK, I really shouldn't be putting this on here. However afternoon tea at Raffles in Dubai is too good not to tell you about it. I'm not saying you should go to Dubai just to sample the afternoon tea here, but if you ever find yourself in Dubai, you MUST go!

The afternoon tea at Raffles won top spot for best afternoon tea from Time Out Dubai. Therefore on our trip out there to visit my brother, we all thought it was worth a visit. We arrived to a very grand atrium - giant palm leaves (I think?!), huge ceramic pots (taller than the average human adult...) and classy Egyptian decor. We were sat in their "salon", just over to the left of the main atrium. The sofas were huge and very comfy - we didn't leave for hours! The tea menu was extensive offering some teas I had never heard of. What's great about here is you can try out as many teas as you like.

Four of us went to tea. About 3 members of staff were needed to bring the food out. They brought out a round of sandwiches, the scones and a stand with the cakes on. They then brought out the exact same thing again. Our table was covered... with a vast array of delights. I didn't quite know where to start first....

• the classic sandwiches but with an unusual and beautiful twist on the presentation (cucumber strips tied round the outside of the bread, salmon and cream cheese victoria sponge styled sandwich, layered egg sandwich)
• plain scones
• cheese scones
• raisin scones
• mini cornish pasty type pastries
• home made chocolate bourbon
• fruit tart
• chocolate cupcake
• fruit cake
• macaroon with pipette of coulis (wow!!)
• shortbread



Tea for two....

The pipettes of coulis... AMAZING presentation!

Happy me... even after I devoured most of the food...

Afternoon tea at Raffles Dubai is probably my best experience of afternoon tea so far. Since our trip, I have heard they have put a fashion spin on it (Berkeley hotel-esque), so I may well return when we go to Dubai next time... Ok, definitely return!!





Soho's Secret Tea Room - Soho

Visit Soho's Secret Tea Room Website HERE
Cost: ~ £14 per person

Tucked away upstairs at The Coach and Horses pub, you literally have to walk through the bar and go 'behind' the scenes to find this inspired vintage style tea room. You sit down at non-matching wooden chairs and lace doilies with an accompaniment of 1940's music and feel like you have stepped back in time. Tea is served in an assortment of individual tea pots that date back to the era, some being more pretty than practical...

First up you are served the traditional assortment of sandwiches - freshly made, soft bread and very tasty. Then came the scones. These were large and beautifully fluffy, served with fresh preserve and clotted cream. Next up we had to choose what slice of cake we wanted from the assortment (HINT: have afternoon tea early and you get the biggest choice of cake as the cakes are freshly made each day and you get to choose from what is left...) I went for their cappucicno cake - a massive slice that tasted YUMMY. You'd think it would finish there but we then got to choose a cupcake each. I went for chocolate (obviously...) and perhaps should have made the decision to take it home with me like everyone else did. But no, my eyes were bigger than the room I had left in my tummy and I consumed the lot. I just about made it out of the tea rooms, down the stairs...

Overall, a delightful venue for afternoon tea, excellent value for money and tasty home-made and home-baked goodies. Definitely recommend!

Montague on The Gardens - Bloomsbury

Visit the Montague on The Gardens Website HERE
Cost: £23.50 per person
Having had a good experience at The Atheneum, an award winner from the UK tea council, I felt I should try other afternoon tea award winners in London.

Arriving at The Montague, my friend Mandy and I were greeted with a warm welcome and a lovely relaxed atmosphere in the conservatory of the hotel. We were given a menu for afternoon tea and then an amazing assortment of tea caddies with the teas in that you could smell and see to help you choose the tea you wanted. Once chosen, tea was served swiftly in nifty tea pots that had a mechanism to pull once the correct brewing time had been given. We were informed of the correct brewing time by a timer (unfortunately branded by twinings, but I shall forgive this fact...). The tea tasted lovely but it was a shame that I was served a tea I hadn't actually ordered... Rather than taking it away and replacing it with the tea I had ordered, the waitress simply said that I could have my original tea when I had finished the one she had served. Hmmm, not quite what I was expecting...

Anyhow onto the food. Sandwiches were served first, separate to the scones and cakes. I have to say, they weren't particularly special and the salmon was in fact quite salty. Then came the cakes. A BIG disappointment. There was some very random sponge cupcake type 'thing' (it wasn't actually a capcake) that had a bright pink frosting on with desiccated coconut sprinkled on. Not nice. There were mini pastries including what I thought would be a nice chocolate eclair. It was not fresh and appeared to have been defrosted... Oh and jam was from those mini glass jars. Yes, I am a snob but when paying £25, you should expect freshly made preserves.

To complete the afternoon, we were joined by what I can only presume were the marketing/sales team of the hotel who had chosen that time of day to show a large corporate group around the hotel and had chosen the conservatory to spend a good ten minutes talking to their clients about the facilities that were on offer for functions. This completely ruined whatever atmosphere was left and the postive experience we had had at The Montague.

All in all, a very disappointing experience. The website makes it look great. The award that has been won should make it great. Perhaps we went on an off day? One good thing though, their food and beverage manager was keen to put things right and I couldn't fault their service after the event had happened - shame that service and quality wasn't shown duing the afternoon.

Didn't live up to expectations...

I've been a little quiet lately...

I've come to realise that life as a teacher is tougher than I had ever imagined. I just about have time to sample afternoon tea in the holidays with friends and family but not quite enough time to blog about them. So apologies for the big gap in my reviews and for the barrage of reviews that I will put up over the next few weeks... Just how great are the summer holidays?

Oh and by the way it's afternoon tea week this month and http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=11&id=87&Itemid=16 is offering upto 25% off at some venues across the UK. I might just have taken up some of the offers...

One Aldwych, Covent Garden, London

Visit One Aldwych website HERE
COST: £26.50 each

Tea at One Aldwych offered a contemporary twist on the classic afternoon tea. The hotel is in a rather grand building but the clean, simple lines of the decor make it slightly sterile which affected my overall experience of this tea. I went with my mum who suffers from coeliac disease so I had phoned ahead enquiring about the option of a gluten free afternoon tea (no mean feat considering every element normally contains flour!). They seemed very accommodating and explained they are able to offer a fully gluten free option. 

 On arrival, we were able to take our seats immediately and were served the entire offering in one go on a modern tea stand. This allowed me to mix up the savoury and sweet during the tea so I wasn't left with a sugar high. The savoury options were very good, fresh sandwiches together with an unusual addition of a quail scotch egg and welsh rarebit. However, I was rather disappointed with the sweet options. The scones were quite small and dry and I was unsure if the cakes were homemade - they were quite dense and stodgy. As for the gluten free option, my mum was also disappointed. The bread they had used to make the sandwiches needed to be toasted and the cakes weren't worth the calories.


Overall, I don't think the offering quite lives up to the price commanded for the tea. It looks much nicer than it actually tastes.

Atheneum, Piccadilly, London

Visit The Atheneum Website HERE
COST: £28:50 each
The afternoon tea at Atheneum won an award of excellence from the Tea Guild in 2010. I therefore just had to try it out.

From the outside, Atheneum really stands out in Piccadilly. It's the ivy covered building which is starting to resemble a jungle (or maybe even The Rainforest Cafe...?). Inside, it oozes quirky sophistication. As I was a little early, I was shown through to their bar area decked out with pink satin covered walls. When the clock struck three, my friend and I were then taken to their garden room where you sit in your own personal lounge area and are greeted by a beautifully laid table and substantial tea menu.

The one thing that stands out about this afternoon tea is choice. A waiter brought over a platter of sandwiches and we chose exactly which ones we wanted and how many (with no wasted sandwiches). You can even have seconds and thirds (maybe more, but we needed to leave room for cakes!). Scones with an orange blossom twist were lovely, with homemade preserves and lemon curd. We are also served up some warm toasted crumpets. Then came the cakes trolley. Instead of being given a selection of cakes on a cake stand, we had a whole cake trolley wheeled to us and again we got to choose the cakes that we actually wanted rather than what, in some tea rooms, are just given to you. A nice touch.

Overall a lovely experience. Probably helped by the 20% discount offer we enjoyed. It's all about choice and I would definitely return.

Crazy Bear, Beaconsfield

Visit The Crazy Bear website HERE
COST: £29 for two people
The Crazy Bear in Beaconsfield is all about the ambience.  Luxurious and quirky, the interiors offer a classy yet cosy atmosphere for afternoon tea. 

Tea, sandwiches and the cakes are all served together allowing you to pick and choose what to eat throughout the whole occasion. The sandwiches on offer included smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese and egg mayonnaise. They were yummy! Two scones were on offer, one each, and served with jam in pots (probably my main criticism of the whole offering). Cakes were lovely - a cupcake, apple and walnut cake and a rich, moist, dark chocolate brownie. Will definitely return here.