Afternoon tea review – The Royal Lancaster hotel London

Afternoon tea review – The Royal Lancaster hotel, London

Originally posted:

Hello friends!
You’ve probably heard the old saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans”.
If you do as the Romans you might experience something new and unexpected. So since I´m in London, I just have to drink Afternoon tea, right?

So I thought – why not try a couple of different places to get a clear idea about how it is done?

I of course started researching for the best place to have afternoon tea in London, long before I even stepped on English land. But to my surprise a lot of places were fully booked!

I originally wanted to go to The Lanesborough, The Savoy, the Ritz and the Rosebery at Mandarin oriental, but since it turned out that I was not the only 45 year old princess who wanted to go to these exact places, my Afternoon tea selection is now based on Google results and availability.

The Royal Lancaster hotel

I’m a bit nervous when going for my first tea. Will I spill the tea? Will I use the wrong fork? Am I properly dressed?

The Royal Lancaster is a 5 star hotel located right next to Hyde Park in London. It was built in the 1960s and in it´s cafe, the Hyde cafe, you can book your self an Afternoon tea.

The hotel lobby is bustling of people when I enter. There seems to be some kind of conference going on. Hyde cafe where the tea is served is located in the lobby and is easy to find.
A waiter guides me to my reserved table and introduces med to Ting who will be my waiter and guide me through the different steps of the ritual.

White marble tables, champagne colored couches and golden tea-trees where the empty cake-stands hang. The Hyde cafe gives a peaceful impression although it´s so close to the bustling lobby.

Look how cute these cake-stand trees are! I wish I served enough cake at home to justify buying one

Before I have time to react my personal waitress Ting takes my napkin and skillfully throws it on to my lap. She asks me if I would like her to go through the procedure before we start. I say yes and she continues to take me through the steps for the tea.

Sandwiches
For my savory sandwiches I chose a green Cherry blossom tea. The scent of it reminds me of bubble gum and I really enjoy it. The sandwiches are small and good and I especially like the Barradale Farm free-range egg sandwich with watercress on brown bread.

The small sandwiches are surprisingly filling

Scones
To the scones I chose the Camellia´s Welcome tea which is a white tea with jasmine and ginger. The taste of it is quite jasmine-y and I like it. The scones are served with clotted cream and jam.

I´ve never had clotted cream before and it tastes milkey and quite strange. The scones are good though, and the jam is marvelous. Ting tells me that the chefs cook a new batch of it every morning.

Jam and clotted cream on the right. Clotted cream is a extra thick cream that har been heated using a steam bath

Sweets
To the sweets I chose the Afternoon tea which is a black tea that has a flowery taste. It goes well with the cute sweets that looks like small works of art.

At the end of the meal I´m so full that I can´t even force my self to finish the sweets! I have to settle for only tasting them all or otherwise my dress will burst in the seams..

I leave Ting a tip and conclude that I love having Afternoon tea!

Score

I´m here on a Friday and the tea costs 45 pounds.
Based on the following parameters I am scoring this Afternoon tea as a 3.5 / 5

Food 3.5
Atmosphere 3
Service 4
First impression 3
Price 4

In the next blogpost were going to have tea at the Nomad hotel!
Stay tuned!

xoxo/Salla V

Originally posted: