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.