Afternoon Tea

Showing posts with label Afternoon Tea. Show all posts

Afternoon Tea At Dalloway Terrace, The Bloomsbury Hotel

Monday, 13 June 2016

Our long awaited booking for afternoon tea at Dalloway Terrace finally came around, and let me tell you, it was worth the wait! It was pretty good and Andrew even decided that it was the best afternoon tea he's ever had which is quite a bold statement considering some of the places we've visited!

Located in The Bloonsbury hotel, (which was covered in beautiful flowers for their #ChelseainBLOOMsbury campaign) less than a minute from Tottenham Court Road station, Dalloway Terrace is just like a secret garden hidden away from the busy streets of the west end. You wouldn't be blamed for forgetting you were in London altogether with calm and very relaxed atmosphere, the prettieness of the surroundings and a DJ playing jazz style old skool kisstory. Amazing.

Brick walls adorned with trees, a retractable roof & marble tables with wicker chairs and a blanket incase you got cold. It was pretty amazing when the sun was in but ever more so when it came out of the clouds - the perfect place to spend a relaxed Saturday afternoon.

The Drinks

We begun with a glass of skinny prosecco whilst we decided on which tea to have. Has anyone else noticed this new trend of skinny fizz? Is it just a London thing? They only had skinny champagne whilst we were at selfridges earlier this month and now I see it again here. It definitely changes the flavour but it's not bad at all.

As for the tea, we both went for a good old English breakfast in the end.

The Sandwiches

The stand soon arrived, adorned with delicious sandwiches, warm scones and pretty little cakes. You probably know this by now but the sandwiches are usually my favourite part and these varied between a very simple egg mayo and a ham and then a little bit more interesting salmon rillettes, and chicken brioche, all of which were delicious. I actually liked the ham one best which has never happened before. I think it was the simplicity of salted butter, very thin layer of mustard and normal sandwich ham that won me over. The salmon and crab rillettes, were also really lovely as it was something a bit different, texture wise, from the usual.

The Scones

We got one plain and one sultana scone each which is always far too much for me. I love scones and these were delicious, warm and fluffy but I just can't handle them so I settled with drowning the one half that I did have with as much cream and jam as I could possibly fit on it. The jam was oddly quite runny but I think that was the only fault of our whole day so I'll let them off. Everything else was perfect.

The Cakes

On to the cakes. For the first time ever, I enjoyed each and every one on offer - Bloomsbury Cupcake, mango & passion fruit dome, Chocolate éclair & Lemon meringue mousse plus a custard and compote each! It was down to the lovely mix of chocolate desserts, light fruity ones and the custard one as well. My favourite was the mango and passion fruit dome which was a lovely bright yellow with a pretty purple petal on top. It was thick and creamy with intense flavour. I couldn't eat it all in one go but kept coming back for a little taste until it was gone.

We stayed for another hour or so after we finished food as it was just such a lovely setting. Tea at Dalloway Terrace costs £30 or £35 with fizz and £40 with Champagne.

If your looking for someone a bit different from a traditional afternoon tea at a London hotel then I'd definitely recommend trying it here. The amazing food and unique location is definitely worth a visit!

*Our food and drinks were complimentary although all thoughts are 100% my own.

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Monday, 25 April 2016

Tea at The Langham

Last month, The Langham launched their new afternoon tea inspired by classic Wedgwood collections, and I went along to have a little preview! I've been to The Langham for tea in the past and let me tell you, its pretty good!

The new tea has been created by Cherish Finden who is Executive Pastry Chef at The Langham London and the loveliest lady! She was there all evening to talk us though how each dessert came to be and you can see from how to talks about each one just how passionate she is about her job.

The tea is super pretty and fun, decorated with flowers and butterflies just in time for spring! We had the perfect evening to go with it, one of those lovely bright, warm evenings in town you know?

For me, usually the sandwiches are my favourite part of afternoon tea but I was so impressed with some of the delicious cakes that I went back for seconds! The sandwiches although, were pretty amazing with a selection of truffled duck egg brioche, Smoked salmon asparagus and rye, Cucumber with cream cheese and chives, Peppered beef pastrami with red Leicester coleslaw and Corn-fed chicken with golden sultana on carrot bread. The truffled egg was the most delicious - it was so decadent.

As for those desserts - They were all lovely but I'm just going to chat to you about my top three! Butterfly Bloom was salted caramel so obvs I was going to love that. A shortbread tower held together with caramel, decorated with white butterflies and the prettiest pattern down the sides.

The macaroon was mini but it packed a punch in the flavour department! Wild strawberry with pistachio cream hidden inside with the print on the front replicating the ‘Wedgwood Wild Strawberry’ design.

I also really loved the ‘Hathaway Rose’ which I thought was just a pretty victoria sponge slice but as I tasted it, I was hit with refreshing lemon in the sponge with a raspberry and lime jam. It was really delicious

Of course there were scones in between and The Langham have that down to a T! The scones here are always good! Cherish has a great team behind her at the Langham and it was great to be able to meet them and give them a round of applause for the amazing food they'd created afterwards!

For the rest of the evening, we were treated to endless plates of food all washed down with champagne - I didnt ever want to leave!

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Wednesday, 27 May 2015

I had a pretty jam packed bank holiday thanks to Andrew! I had booked us a hotel in Marble Arch so he decided to make a whole weekend out of it and booked some super fun things for us to do while we were there. He didn't tell me about any of them so they were all a lovely surprise!

On Friday after work, he met me on oxford street and we wandered the back streets until we came across Grovsner square. We had dinner at Maze, Gordon Ramsey restaurants in Mayfair. Three courses and lots of cocktails, everything was delicious, including the drinks. I started with a terrine followed by the lamb and Andrew had giant garlic prawns and then a steak. Of course I had the chocolate tart for dessert too while Andrew had another cocktail. It was all very posh and expensive but it is somewhere we have spoken about going to before and we both really enjoyed the whole experience. We were so full afterwards that we decided to get ourselves an uber home. Andrew picked so well - it was a really great night!

The next morning we were up early and on the train for the next surprise. We ended up at Charing Cross station which isn't somewhere I go that often so I had no idea what was in store! Half way down the road I saw it! I didn't even realise he was listening to me when I mentioned the Afternoon Tea Tour Bus once, months ago but obviously he was because he had booked us on it for the afternoon! We have been wanting to do some more touristy things lately so this was perfect for us. More yummy food and lots of laughing at each other trying to pour milk into our tea on a moving bus plus we got to see some more sights of London from the top of a bus! So much fun!

It was such a warm day that when we got off of the bus I really didn't want to get on the tube so I convinced Andrew to that we should walk to Marble Arch. Finally after an hour of walking, we came across the hotel. The entrance is around the back but what I didnt realise is it acutally sits on oxford street - right opposite Primark which puts it in a pretty amazing location for anyone whos visiting London.

The hotel has just had over £26million spent on it which (after the odd entrace and up the escalator) you could see- the place looked brand new and everything was sparkling clean. The lobby area had a strange old fashioned feel to it but everything, you could tell was brand new - it reminded me of being on a posh old cruise ship.

And then we were off to our room on the 7th floor and we were impressed. The big windows left the room filled with natural light making it bright and airy, it was already very spacious as it is. There was a little note left for me with some chocolates. The bed was big and very comfortable which to be fair, is the most important thing when staying in a hotel. I was very impressed to see plug sockets everywhere with a socket and two USB charging ports within reach of the bed. There was also super fast free wifi and a Nespresso coffee machine.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in bed watching Harry Potter! I love when they are on TV because I never ever remember what happens in the end so its always like watching it for the first time!

As part of our room, we had been given access to The Executive Lounge which is something we hadn't experienced before so of course we went exploring to see what it was. Located on the 2nd floor and you needed your special key to get, which we were given at check in. It was a relaxing lounge with a bar full of drinks and canapes, all free as part of the executive room that we had. We stopped off for some champagne and snacks while we discussed what we wanted to do for the evening.

We decided on a Chinese, which ordered to the room and a night in with Britians Got Talent. I also wanted to use my new bath bomb from the Oxford Street Lush. I picked up Intergalactic because it smelt so fresh and minty - hotel stays are the perfect opportunity for a bath bomb!

It was getting pretty late when I decided I wanted to have a bath but for some off reason I couldn't get the plug to stay in. We called down and they said they would sent someone up soon but by the time the arrived an hour later, I just wanted to go to bed, plus he couldnt fix it either. It was a real shame as I called up twice during the week to ensure we would have a bath with our room. I'm sure it will get used soon so watch out for a review!

The next morning we woke up super early to the lovely sunshine! After a quick shower, we went down to breakfast - I didn't eat too much because we had a BBQ later that day but I couldn't resist a couple pieces of bacon to go with my healthy melon!

Check out was quick and easy and soon enough we were off back to Essex for some sunshine with our friends and their family! Andrew even got burnt!

Our stay at the Thistle hotel was complementarity although, as always, all comments are 100% honest. Apart from the bath incident, we had an amazing stay and would be very happy to stay there again.

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

I love a good afternoon tea. There's just something so regal about it. I love pretending I'm posh for the afternoon, stuffing my face with sandwiches and drinking properly brewed tea. Our visit to Lancaster London was one of the best.

It made a lovely change for us to be dotted around the lounge on sofas and armchairs rather that at a table, it made it much more of a relaxing environment. The waiters added to that by pouring the tea for you and checking that we had all that we could want. Andrew and I ordered 3 extra rounds of sandwiches and a second pot of tea each so it was nice not to have to struggle to get someones attention every time we needed something.

The food itself was really high quality and very tasty. The sandwiches were all very generously filled and the salmon, we were told, was smoked in house so it was as fresh as possible. These was a mini Yorkshires filled with roasted beef which was a nice little addition and the scones are put in the oven on demand so they are still warm when we ate them. They were perfect size for me, I never manage to finish a full sized scone and everything is cuter when it's mini - right?

We both really enjoyed our afternoon at Lancaster London and would rate it as one of our favorite places in London for tea!

Afternoon Tea at Lancaster London starts at £30 pp and with a glass of Laurent Perrier at £40 pp. In January and February they are offering 25% off new bookings so don’t miss out. For more information visit lancasterlondon.com.

*Lancaster London kindly invited us for a complementary afternoon tea in return for my review. All opinions are 100% honest.

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Friday, 9 January 2015

If you know me well, you'll know that I love afternoon tea. I think I've made Andrew come with me just one too many times as really doesn't enjoy it anymore so when Georgia comes back to London every now and again, I finally had a good excuse and some good company to take along to tea - Although this time it wasn't any old normal afternoon tea.

Afternoon Tea…with a playful twist and a tail

Afternoon tea at the playboy club* is held between 5-7pm, Tuesday through until Saturday. We popped along after work (back when I had a job) nice and early at 5.30, the place was empty at that point which was quite nice!

We were sat down and along came one of the lovely bunnies with menus for us. She was a really great waitress, very friendly and accommodating the whole way through - as well as calling us both "Darrrrhlings" at every opportunity.

Firstly, like a normal afternoon tea, you pick which tea you'd like although this time they were tea cocktails. Georgia and I both picked different cocktails, I went for fruity and she went for spicy - we both loved what we picked and hated each others which shows how well the titles suited out tastes. They both came served in pretty metal tea pots.

As for the food, that was also lovely. You get a set of sandwiches and rolls each and a collection of pretty cakes. Georgia went straight in for the desserts, going on about how good the strawberry one was for the rest of the meal while I got started on the sandwiches haha. The sandwiches are strangely my favourite part of an afternoon tea and I loved them as usual, especially the egg one this time. Georgia ate both the macaroons so I have no comment on those although everything I did try was very tasty, especially the chocolate bunny cake.

It was a great place to catch up and have a good chat in a lovely, relaxed atmosphere. After tea, we finished off with some super strength cocktails and then sat there chatting some more.

Where's Your Favorite Afternoon Tea?

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