High Tea
London is exactly how I imagined it to be; it’s just so English. Such a beautiful and wonderful city. When in London do as the Londonites do- enjoy a blissful afternoon tea!
The afternoon tea in London that I had the absolute pleasure of attending was the most high class experience I have ever had. It was very different from the tea we enjoyed in the Cotswolds. My sister and I went to Hotel Cafe Royal and man it was boujee. There is a dress code to follow so no jeans or sweats please. It was very fun to dress to the 9’s and be treated like royalty. This place requires a reservation; there are definitely no last minute walk-ins. But London is full of places to enjoy an afternoon tea. You can casually dine in and enjoy one or if you want to get all dressed up you can opt for the one I had at the Hotel Cafe Royal.
The Experience vs. The Food
This was quite the experience I will say. The hotel was glamorous as well as the dining area that was once called the Oscar Wilde Lounge. As soon as you enter you are ushered to your table and greeted with a menu of teas, which you have the option of choosing and changing throughout your time there. Once you choose your first tea they bring you a pot and pour it for you. They keep refilling your tea as you drink it. They were very attentive, I felt very important and classy, I felt like I was part of the Royal family. So you get what you pay for and now I know why this is £75 per person.
Next, the tea sandwiches and an appetizer were brought to us on a platter. The appetizer was a single Parmigiano Reggiano Palmier (which was delightful) and the sandwiches consisted of Smoked Salmon, Egg and Truffle, Roast Beef, and Curried Chicken. My sister and I were not the biggest fans of the sandwiches. I tried a bite of everyone but was unable to finish any of the sandwiches. They were just not my cup of tea (pun intended).
After we had finished out sandwiches it was dessert time! Scones (plain and raisin) with clotted cream and an assortment of jams arrived along with their sweet delicacies. The scones and clotted cream were not as good as the ones I had at the Old Bakery Tearoom, just thinking about those ones makes me salivate. As for the other desserts they too were nothing very special. I was disappointed in the taste and flavor of the food at the Hotel Cafe Royal but the experience definitely made it all worthwhile. The tea was probably my most favorite thing I had while here. It was fun to pick and try different types of tea throughout the experience.
I loved dressing up, being surrounded by fancy things and being treated as a V.I.P. This is something I would 100% do again but I would probably try a different place to have tea. That’s not to say I didn’t have an amazing time, this was one of my favorite things I did while over in the UK. The experience definitely outweighed the food on this one, but it was worth it.
But we are here to rate this food so with keeping that in mind….
Verdict: Nay
