Claridge’s
Brook Street
Mayfair
London
WIK 4HR
Date Visited : 22 Feb 2011
Price: £35.00
GF Price: £35.00
The visit to
the famous five star Claridge’s Hotel in London’s Mayfair for afternoon tea was
an amazing birthday surprise trip. We had
travelled down to London in first class luxury on the train (after some silly
woman stole our reserved seats and flat out refused to budge, leading to us
getting bumped to first class – I should be thanking her really) and after
touring the sights we found our way to the hotel for a much needed rest and
something to eat. I had to make a quick stop around the corner before
we went in to change from my trainers to shoes – it’s a fancy place and I’m not
sure that my muddy, scuffed up trainers would have gone very well in their
pristine dining room and I could hardly walk round London all day in high
heels! Plus I had to look the part as you
never know who you might bump into – Johnny Depp or Elton John might have been
there! That would have been the icing on
the cake but sadly we never saw anyone famous!
The hotel
dining area had beautiful classy decor with high ceilings and chandeliers and
pastel green and white furnishings which matched the striped green and white
crockery. Our table was located next to a huge pot of fresh smelling pink roses,
and just to the right of us were live musicians playing the piano and violin
for our enjoyment.
When the waitress
came she brought us a tea menu which spanned five pages. The choices of teas
ranged from the traditional English, to India, Ceylon, China and Japan. There were
fruit teas, organic teas, decaffeinated, herbal infusions and even a section on
rare teas of the world! After studying the
menu we opted for the really boring, traditional Claridge’s Royal Blend tea –
not very adventurous are we?! But it
made a change from having tea at home – there wasn’t a tea bag in sight! Only
proper tea leaves in here, if you please. Despite playing it safe with the tea,
I have to say it was absolutely delicious – and as an added bonus, you weren’t
allowed to pour it yourself as every time you went for the teapot someone just miraculously
appeared and graciously poured it for you.
Now I know what it’s like to dine like royalty!
We had a
choice of sandwiches which were served on white platters. We chose egg mayonnaise,
chicken, ham and cream cheese and cucumber.
The ham was especially nice as it was lovely thick ham off the bone, as
opposed to that wafer thin stuff you can get from the supermarket. The gluten free sandwiches had the same
fillings and were served on nice soft bread.
When we had finished them they
quickly refilled the platter and would have kept filling it all day if we had
wanted, but we needed to save some room for the cakes!
The cakes came
on a two tiered silver stand. They
looked delicious and it was going to be difficult to eat them all – but I gave
it a good go! There was a raspberry panna cotta topped with fresh fruit, a fresh
fruit filled pastry tart, a small chocolate fudge cake and fruit cake topped
with walnuts. We had two scones each, one
fruit and one apple served with Marco Polo jelly and clotted cream. The gluten free option was the same minus the
pastry tart and sponge cake, but it did include the scones which my guest said
were the best gluten free scones he had ever tasted. The apple one was particularly nice and a made
refreshing change from the usual fruit scone – great job Mr Gordon Ramsay!
This has to be the best afternoon tea I have ever had. The price is much dearer than I would usually be willing to pay, but it was in London and a special occasion. It is quite good value for money though, as the servings were much larger than you usually get with afternoon tea as they are happy to keep bringing you sandwiches until you’re fit to burst – whereas normally, the tiny sandwiches often leave you wanting more. We also all received a small tin of our chosen tea to take home along with the cakes we couldn’t manage to eat – bit of a bonus! My only disappointment was that Johnny Depp hadn’t dropped in for tea…maybe next time...
Ratings: Gluten
Free:
Tea: 9/10
Sandwiches: 10/10 10/10
Cakes: 9/10 10/10
Scones: 10/10 10/10
Service: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
Would I return? Try and stop me!
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