For an event/attraction with such a big name Altitude 360 was a bit of a let-down. It would have been a total waste of time had it not been for the stunning views that it’s location has access to. Altitude 360 is located on the 29th Floor of Millbank Tower one of the few high rises and arguably the tallest building sitting alongside the Thames. Millbank Tower is also where my head office used to be!

Altitude 360 offers both afternoon tea (£87.50 for two!) and brunch (£109 + premiums for sitting at the window!) The savvy will look online for vouchers or deals which offer significant discounts (£35 and £39 respectively) which is what I did before visiting. Thank goodness.

Caro and I were early by ten minutes for our 2.30 appointment … but they still made us wait until 2.45 to send us up to the 29th floor. Once we got upstairs there was no hostess to take us to our seat. The second sign that this wasn’t going to be an amazing experience. She did turn up a few minutes later but only after we’d started to wander into the main room. We were then taken to our seating – and I couldn’t believe that the place was practically half empty. It wasn’t a very warm or welcoming environment with white tiling everywhere. I guess its because the room is used for many sorts of functions.

Afternoon tea included unlimited tea and coffee (from a limited selection) but food-wise it was not unlimited. We did get a selection of six different sandwiches, all of which were actually pretty tasty and moist (from the looks of them we had been worried they would be dry.). Cakes were pretty average but the scones were nice though in a criminal move they gave us about a tablespoon full of clotted cream and jam and a dribble of lemon curd! Odd. Scones did come out warm … though of course by the time we got to them they were cold.

Oh and disappointingly tea came as teabags rather than as tea leaves. Hmm. But Caro said the coffee was good.

From a service perspective our waitress was friendly enough, and though it was probably not entirely her fault it took ages for her to bring out our top ups of tea and clotted cream. She was however apologetic about it. On that note, despite the fact the place was half empty, the whole venue was seemingly under-staffed and we couldn’t find out waitress half the time. When we arrived many tables hadn’t even been cleared!

For the afternoon tea alone I can’t imagine anyone would have paid full price for the experience. Nearly £44 for what we had today? Outrageous. The views, however, were stunning. It was indeed a (nearly) 360 degree view around London. We were lucky to be located on the Westminster side of things were most of the cooler buildings and views were. What else can I say except to post a lot of photos of the views:

Altitude 360 is not a typical afternoon tea venue. It is a pretty relaxed atmosphere and therefore it felt a bit much to get too dressed up. Most people had to keep leaving their seats to see the views so this kind of added to the feeling of informality.

Overall I am glad that I was able to take advantage of an offer to get to Altitude 360. Definitely advise you look for some sort of deal as it is otherwise seriously over-priced. There have been a lot of complaints by people on various websites that even the discounted price is a rip-off but it could be argued that at £17.50 per person (the discounted price) is comparable with getting a ticket on the London Eye but with much more sweeping views and also an afternoon tea included. So I guess fair value … but only because of the views.

For Rehana’s birthday I thought it would be a treat for both her and me to visit the Langham for afternoon the Palm Court Brasserie. Supposedly where the tradition of afternoon tea was born – there nothing much of the Langham which was old school at all. The façade of the hotel is currently undergoing some refurbishment, to catch up with what the interior refurb, but inside it’s a whole ‘nother world.

We were slightly early for our booking so we first made a visit to the very posh ladies room. So impressed were we with the restroom that we even stopped to take photos inside! I love the fact that the wash area is its own area (as in you don’t emerge out of the toilet directly into a sink) with plenty of mirrors for everyone to doll themselves up.

Inside the Palm Court Brasserie it is all white and silver and lighting and just generally blingy.

Chairs are plush (although not truly that comfortable for lounging as they are a bit too tall for my legs!)

Unfortunately the Palm Court Brasserie operates one of those you only have the booking for 1.5 or 2 hours type places – which for two girls who haven’t seen each other in a long time and have so much to catch up on was not long at all!

There are two types of Afternoon teas you can indulge in:

The Wonderland Afternoon Tea (which sounds magical but is actually classified as the Classic Afternoon tea) – £35 – which includes:
– Finger sandwiches (Eggs and mustard cress; Beef and mustard with watercress; Smoked salmon and horseradish; Tuna; and Cucumber and cream cheese)
– Scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserve and
– Selection of French pastries and specialist mini cakes (Valrhona Manjari chocolate éclair; Sacher torte; Pistachio and raspberry fruit delice; Bakewell tart)

The Bijoux Afternoon Tea was kind of styled more on the concept of Jewels, Pearls, Diamonds, Rubies, Crystal, Emeralds, and Gold. And the price reflected this too at £42.50. This afternoon tea included:
– More specialty sandwiches (Beef Rossini; Parma ham, roquette and quail’s egg; Devonshire crab and avocado; Smoked salmon and oscietra caviar; and Perigourdine truffled cheese)
– Scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserve – however the scones were Bedford scone; Raisins soaked in Louis Roederer; and Chocolate and marinated orange varieties; and
– Pastries and cakes inspired, as mentioned above, by the finest jewels from the most famous houses: Asprey diamonds; Baccarat eclipse; Chanel pearl; Délices de Cartier; and Bulgari B.zero opera.

Both of course include a choice from a range of teas.

The plus was that we were allowed to select one of each type of afternoon tea so we could share between us … the negative was that I’m not sure that plates were entirely refillable. You would expect that at those prices they should be … but one of our waitresses was a little grumpy and was begrudging about bringing us even one extra sandwich …

Weirdly, or maybe not because we were on a very strict time limit!, they brought everything out at once which meant our once warm scones were not very warm once we actually got to them.

It was all very pretty and the posh sandwiches which came with the Bijoux Afternoon Tea were particularly scrumptious. As an added special touch for Rehana they brought her out a little sweet (kind of like a Ferrero Rocher) complete with candle and a little birthday plaque made of marzipan candy.

Service was very disappointing. The perfect word for it was perfunctory. This was an afternoon tea which had won the award for Top London Afternoon Tea 2010 by the Tea Guild. Yes the settings were luxurious, the afternoon tea itself was very fun and delightful but it was sadly marred by the service. One waitress was friendly but the rest were a bit haughty and seemed more concerned with rushing us out at our appointed time than making us feel welcome. We also struggled to get their attention when tea pots were empty (a level they should never have reached!) and they certainly did not pay much attention to us to ensure we weren’t wanting for anything. Other than the birthday “plate” I wouldn’t have accused the staff at today’s sitting of going the extra mile 🙁

A quintessential experience for a visitor to England is to indulge in afternoon tea. Although the Berkeley’s Prêt-à-Portea is less traditional than most I quite like the fact it has its own spin on afternoon tea and everything is just so pretty!

The season’s designers were Erdem, Paul Smith, Yves Saint Laurent, Jason Wu, Anya Hindmarch, Christopher Kane Jean Paul Gaultier and Sonia Rykiel. Honestly the chefs at the Berkeley must have so much fun interpreting the latest fashions – and because they don’t have to serve the same thing for the entire year it would certainly keep their interests up.

So, what treats did we have today? Including the usual assorted sandwiches and layer of savoury treats including a crab handroll thingy and grilled prawns we had the stars of the afternoon tea:

• Anya Hindmarch light apricot sponge summer “Halen” bag, wrapped in almond marzipan with playful bow
• Paul Smith orange, papaya and pink lavender bavarois top with chocolate bowler hat
• Season’s must-have dog biscuit adorned with chocolate brown studs and white leather glaze
• Yves Saint Laurent soft romantic white chocolate mousse and raspberry custard finished with crunchy meringue scattered with mini strawberries
• Sonia Rykiel nautical vanilla and raspberry jam layered mousse topped with humorous yellow hat
• Belted Jason Wu poppy-seed cocktail dress biscuit embellished with ruffled purple icing
• Erdem dark silky chocolate cake filled with passion fruit and delicate lace
• Christopher Kane pale pink almond macaroon filled with chocolate and elderflower ganache topped with a pink checkerboard
• Jean Paul Gaultier fluorescent cheese cake on almond and oat base accessorized with a bright yellow sugar twirl

Yep – the descriptions are almost as fun as the delicacies themselves!

Apart from going into a sugar coma I think my family really enjoyed the afternoon tea. The also enjoyed the banter we were having with the waiters and waitresses which culminated, once again, in us walking away with cute doggie bags. 😉

Part II of Rache’s birthday present to me was afternoon tea with the girls at the Met Bar. The Afternoon De-Light at the Met Bar offers an interesting and modern twist on the traditional afternoon tea: promising a healthy alternative to the usual calorie-laden afternoon treat, the Met provided us with a selection of cupcakes, sweet and savoury, scones and ‘no-bread sandwiches’. Not a trace of unrefined sugar, flour or full fat anything was supposedly in site.

The afternoon tea started off well with our very fresh teas delivered to our table – so fresh that my ginger tea was literally bits of ginger in water. It was extremely soothing on the throat if not exactly sweet to taste. When we first arrived we were sat at a small table for four but were soon moved to a cosier booth table when one became available (although if you heed my advice our original table with ordinary chairs seemed much more comfortable for seating and eating.)

The food part of the afternoon tea was delivered all in one hit and whilst impressive looking we were disappointed to see that there wasn’t actually one of everything for everyone to try … which wouldn’t have been so much of problem had the “no-bread sandwiches”, cupcakes, cakes and scones actually been fairly easy to share. Additionally, though priced at a fairly hefty-ish price of £25, there were strictly no re-fills either which to me seemed a little on the cheap side. The waiter tried to explain it away as a logistics thing – claiming that the chefs had produced an exact amount based on the bookings only. I wasn’t impressed. Sure the sweets were more than enough for us but we probably could have done with some more of the savoury bearing in mind, as I mentioned earlier, that they weren’t particularly shareable. I wasn’t being greedy honest!

Overall, the experience at The Met was pleasant if not particularly striking experience though sadly this was one afternoon tea where we all actually walked out hungry and craving McDonalds!

So, Rache’s birthday meant we had a good excuse for going out for yet another Afternoon Tea. Heh heh. Searching for an afternoon tea venue which is a little different from the traditional and that I haven’t already experienced was extremely difficult but in the TLS (tea-london-sightseeing) Afternoon Tea at the Swissôtel The Howard I found what I was looking for.

You can literally eat your way around London with this menu …

Located opposite the Temple tube station a benefit of Swissôtel The Howard is that you don’t have to walk or totter far in your shoes! Ha ha! Whether it was the location or relative newness (not sure how long they’ve offered afternoon tea), its clearly not a venue that many people know about – there were a few odd bods around and one big group of girls who arrived when we were about halfway done (though strangely we still ended up leaving after them!)

Due to the fact its not a high profile venue or even that busy we found that getting the attention of wait-staff, to replenish our sandwich stocks of course, was difficult. Though that’s not to say the service was bad when we got it – just a little slow maybe, especially when needing refills on our tea.

At Swissôtel The Howard you can have the ordinary and traditional afternoon tea and supplement it with additional items from the TLS afternoon tea menu if you like. E.g. if you fancy Big Ben it’ll cost you £4, or maybe you wanted Crown Jewels (£2.50). To take the decision-making out of the process we went straight for the TLS afternoon tea with champagne for the birthday gal.

The food/tea all came out at once, even the extra birthday bits for Rache!, so we were confronted with this:

which may not seem like much but somehow we didn’t even get around to eating any of the TLS bit! Takeaway boxes, which were HUGE, were required:

Oh but I didn’t describe the food that we had!

The savoury sandwiches consisted of Smoked Salmon and Horseradish, Coronation Chicken, Cucumber and Minted Crème Fraiche and Honey Roast Ham and Cheese. The scones were plain and fruit and came with strawberry preserve and of course Devonshire clotted cream. The sweet pastries consisted of Macaroons, a Cherry Bakewell Tart, a Fresh Fruit Tartlet, Chocolate Mousse with Orange Jelly and a Seasonal Fruit Smoothie and finally we have the TLS plate which consisted mainly of flavoured shortbreads and chocolates. I like the fact you got two of everything (and additional sandwiches if you wished) so you didn’t have to “share” – I’m so greedy!

Yum!

Capitalising on the recent release of Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton the Sanderson were: “[inviting their] guests to “tumble down the rabbit hole” and enjoy the wonderful world of [their] Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea. The chefs here at Sanderson have toyed with traditional British afternoon tea in the same way that Lewis Carroll played with logic in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; creating an afternoon tea filled with numerous gastronomic adventures.”

Sounds promising no?

We couldn’t get a weekend booking it was apparently so popular, even considering the Sanderson had extended the menu for another month! So, Su Yin and I left work early to make a 4pm booking. When I was making the booking we were warned that we’d only have until 5pm to enjoy the afternoon tea but other groups were still turning up after this time to partake in it. Guess the hotel thought that as long as people were buying they’d be supplying!

When we arrived for our booking we were very surprised to see that the place was packed. Yes with women but we were wondering shouldn’t these women have been at work. Ha ha! Yes I know we ducked out from work early but hey we didn’t leave THAT early. Ladies wot Afternoon Tea!

Service felt a little slow and slack – a pace which was set from the outset. Our waiter took an age to come and greet us after we’d been seated, then the tea took a while to come out, then the afternoon tea tier took its time making its way to our table and they never really made an effort to top our hot water. When we asked a waitress it took her at least 20 minutes to remember to come refresh it. This was the bad. The good was that they got my hint that it was Su Yin’s birthday so they passed the message on to the chefs to decorate one of the plates and put a lit candle in the cup cake.

Disappointingly from a tea perspective the Sanderson didn’t have a unique tea list. Well, it was this or our waiter just couldn’t be bothered getting gone?

But anyway where is the Mad Hatter’s theme you ask?

It was in the rainbow coloured finger sandwhiches which was supposed to consist of (from back to front): Egg mayonnaise and cress on brown bread; Cucumber and Black pepper on beetroot bread; Smoked salmon with cream cheese on green spinach bread; and Ham and English mustard on yellow saffron bread. The colours were very subtle but the flavours were not.

It was also in the Chocolate and Raspberry Crackle (with popping candy!) cupcake and Hazelnut and Passion Fruit Tart topped with White Rabbits pocket watch. Unfortunately they must have run out of the Queen of Hearts Tea Cake. The substitute instead was cup made of chocolate filled with strawberry foam (nooo!!! Foam!!!).

Finally, it was in the Pineapple Lollipop (which turned our mouths from hot to cold) and the Mint Choc-Chip Ice Cream Lollipop (which literally exploded in a single bite).

I really dug the concept of this afternoon tea and I felt it really did quite suit this funky and cool boutique hotel. Apart from the hit and miss service Su Yin and I had a wonderful afternoon.

I thought it would be nice to bring Caro out to an afternoon tea for her birthday. I’d read about the “Chic and Shock” afternoon tea at the Espelette in the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair from Timeout so was eager to try it out with Caro. Afternoon tea is served in the Conservatory which overlooks Carlos Place and Mount Street. When we arrived the place was abuzz with other fellow afternoon tea goers. Interestingly many of them, or the men at least, were kitted out rather casually in jeans and trainers! Still, afternoon tea is I think an opportunity to indulge in my girly girly side (which doesn’t really come out that often!) so I was happy to make an effort!

We were guided to a seat by the window which gave us a view out to a most amazing day. After a quick sneaky mention to the waiter that it was Caro’s birthday we settled down to an afternoon of overeating! Ha!

First of all we started with the tea selection – the variety included the usual variants of black, white and green tea. Whilst Caro opted for a mix of a number of teas with the Connaught Blend (Darjeeling, Lapsang, Keemun and Oolong) I went for a black tea which a hint of lemon, bergamot, caramel and vanilla (a blend called Paris.) If I ever come here again I’d be interested in trying the Caribe blend: Black and green tea infused with hibiscus, guava, coconut and strawberry accentuated with Marigolds and cornflowers. All those flavours!

Served at the same time as our tea were our sandwiches. Two usual suspects in the cucumber and dill cream and egg, mayo and watercress sandwiches and then the two sandwiches with bite: prawns, mayonnaise with chilli and fresh coriander leaves and smoked salmon and wasabi cream. Interesting! My favourite sandwich was definitely the prawn with chilli mayo with the egg and mayo coming a second. I liked the wasabi on the smoked salmon but I’m not a fan of smoked salmon itself.

After a second round of sandwiches (which we didn’t in all honesty need) it was on to pastries which are always the highlight of the afternoon tea. We had quite a few to choose from so we decided that we’d split everything to try it and then if we wanted anything else we’d just ask for more. Our pastries, starting from the bottom layer and working up were: Tirgre, marzipan and chocolate sponge cake topped with caramelized rice crispies, Praline cream with and hazelnut crumble, Tarte Montblanc, then Tiramisu tart, coffee financier and mascarpone mousse, Lime bar, milk and almond glaze topped with hazelnut gianduja cream, and Choux paste with caramel pastry cream and finally on top a shot glass of Coca Cola jelly and marinated pink grapefruit in whiskey along with our clotted cream for our warmed plain and apricot scones. We also got a variety of jellies to go with our scones: strawberry, chestnut, orange and marmalade.

Do you think that once we went through the above that we felt like seconds? Ha! Not at all – were so stuffed but then they brought a little plate for Caro and, though we’d forgotten about it, our final round: cakes! Slices of chocolate cake with a Gianduja glaze and lemon cake with ginger and Earl grey tea. I wish I’d been less full to do justice to the cakes.

We had a lovely time at the Esplette though surprisingly the waiter who we’d been assigned was a little bit remiss in his attention. I think he was caught up trying to keep on top of the big group of women that were seated next to us. Other than that though the other waitresses and waiters were fine. On a clear day like today the Conservatory was a perfect setting for an afternoon tea – light and airy and a good slightly buzzy atmosphere.

Note also that afternoon tea here is definitely at the higher end of the scale (£35 before service and sans champagne!)

After the unusual experience that was Prêt-à-Portea at The Berkeley today Akhlaq, Batool and I rocked up to experience a more traditional afternoon tea at Brown’s Hotel. The Tea Guild awarded The English Team Room at Brown’s Hotel as the best place in London to enjoy afternoon tea in 2009. Did it live up to these expectations?

The Room is apparently steeped in history (with Brown’s being London’s first ever hotel, the site of where Alexander Graham Bell made the UK’s first telephone call in 1876 and also where Rudyard Kipling apparently wrote The Jungle Book). Opened in 1837 its probably fair to say that the Room, and the Hotel, has changed significantly since then, especially after a £24m restoration in 2005.

Apparently they can seat 70+ people in the room but they have split the room so it doesn’t seem like one giant space and therefore seems a fair bit more intimate. Having said that the room was still quite buzzy. Ratio of Ladies to Men: 12:1. Heh heh.

We were led to a corner seat in the first room which was more like sitting on a lounge than a regular table and chair. The seating was a bit awkward as it felt like the table was quite low so we were leaning over it a bit. Our seating location was good as we could look out on the room but unfortunately it somehow meant that service was a little on the slow and absent side (throughout and when we were wanting to get the bill.) I was actually surprised as I thought that would be the top priority. At least it didn’t feel stuffy.

Tea selection is as varied as any other afternoon tea place including traditional blends as well as several infusions. You’re also welcome to try several blends if you’re of the mind – which I was. Heh heh. I like the fact that you are also given an extra pot of hot water to water down your tea when it starts to steep too much.

Our cake stand had the traditional sandwiches on the lower tier, warm scones (covered in a tea towel to maintain warmth) and pastries on the top tier. All tiers are replaceable if you can fit it in. You should also make room for cake because after you’re done with your cake stand you get to try slices of that day’s baked cakes. Its almost too much!

So did Brown’s Afternoon Tea live up to expectations? I felt not although I think that’s because of the service. When we got it the service was fantastic but getting it proved to be extremely difficult. I would like to say that the reason for that was because it was slightly awkward to get to our table but then its not like they always have that problem. I just think our waitress wasn’t doing the rounds she should have been doing. Otherwise it was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Atmosphere-wise it was nice with the baby grand piping music softly in the background, the relaxed feel of the lounged seating around the border of the room and it did feel at all stuffy. The tea and food was as expected and whilst not as exciting to the eye or palette as other places I’ve been to ticked all the boxes it needed to. I also liked the added touch of the sample tea you’re given at the end to take away with you.

Oh, look how posh the toilets are!