After three afternoon teas in 2007 I thought that it was high (*ahem*) time to go again in 2008. Four Seasons received the ‘Best London Afternoon Tea 2003’ award and the “Award of Excellence” for 2006 by the Tea Guild… so I thought it seemed like a decent venue for our first afternoon tea in 2008.

The Four Seasons Hotel is a luxury resort located in Mayfair just near Hyde Park and its a very beautiful hotel. The afternoon tea is located in The Lounge behind reception. The Lounge is not very large so gives a sense of intimacy to diners. When we arrived there were only a few other diners already eating and it didn’t get much more crowded then that. It certainly wasn’t as busy as The Ritz or Claridges which was actually fairly pleasant. The atmosphere at Four Seasons is also quite nice with a pianist for background music. She was very good playing all sorts of pieces.

The venue offers a wide variety of teas (over 50), a few of which were quite different from other afternoon teas we’ve been to. The Traditional Afternoon Tea offered fairly stock standard sandwiches of Smoked Salmon, Chicken with Mango Chutney, Cucumber and Cream Cheese, Tuna and Red Onion, and Egg and Cress Salad.

In the desserts it was a little more original with Eaton mess crumble, Fruit cake with minted lemon icing, Cherry and chocolate gateau with tonka bean mousse, Peach roulade with roasted pistachios and Mango tiramisu. In all honesty the desserts sounded much more impressive than they tasted! Of course we also received the standard warmed scones with cream and jam and like most scones they were best eaten whilst warm .. once cold they became hard – so hard we could have thrown it at a window and destroyed the whole glass panel!

Overall the afternoon tea at the Four Seasons was pleasant if not outstanding. The food was so-so and though food was re-fillable they were very slow with their top ups. Also, annoyingly, instead of providing us each with tea pots to pour our own tea they kept the tea pots off the table … with the slow service this meant that our cups were almost always empty. That’s not to say that service wasn’t bad when we go it – the waitress was actually quite friendly, if inattentive.

A google search for top afternoon teas in London and guaranteed amongst the venues that your search results throw up will be The Dorchester on Park Lane.

As expected from the posh location, the expensive cars outside, the numerous doormen milling about and the diamonds/gold/jewellery in glassed cases The Dorchester is very swanky. Afternoon Tea is served in The Promenade which is the so-called heart of The Dorchester. The space is long and elongated so you have plenty of space between you and all the other tea-goers. The colours were golden, green and just generally warm and welcoming. The couches/chairs we were escorted to were also very comforting. Our table was seated right next to the grand piano. It was nice to have the piano music playing in the background and I must say the pianist was very friendly! All told it felt quite elegant indeed.

There is a definite format to the afternoon tea set-up which consists of the three traditional “courses” – sandwiches, pastries/cakes, and then scones. However, it has been interesting to note the different twists each venue uses to differentiate themselves.

The Dorchester’s sandwhiches were surprisingly, or maybe not?, traditional with the selection including cucumber and cream cheese, egg mayonnaise, chicken with wholegrain mustard mayonnaise, and smoked salmon. The differentiation came from the waiters/waitresses serving you your sandwiches. I’m not sure if this was to prevent diners over-eating or to give the impression of being constantly waited on. Nothing too exceptional on the flavour front but the chicken sandwich was definitely the clear winner in this bunch for me.

Another differentiation by the Dorchester was to serve a “pre-dessert” parfait of peaches and yoghurt with pepper. An interesting combination.

After our “pre-dessert” the cakes were then brought out together with the scones. The cakes were placed on the top tier of the serving rack and then scones were separately served to us by the waiter before he placed the remaining warmed scones inside cloth napkins on the lower tier of the serving rack. As a result we weren’t sure if we should eat the cakes or the scones first! The scones also came with an amazing clotted cream, mmmm …., and strawberry and “rose”berry jam (though I think after tasting it we think it was actually raspberry jam ..)

The cakes were slightly disappointing with the majority being quite heavy and rich. For once we didn’t even finish them off!

And last, but not least, there is the tea.

In addition to each venue’s own blend, there is normally a range of 20-30 assorted black, green and caffeine-free or herbal teas on offer. The Dorchester was no different and the selection was quite varied and pleasing and was much wider than that at The Lanesborough. The Bangkok green tea blend (lemon grass, ginger and coconut) was refreshing and the Paris black tea blend (fruit, Bergamot and caramel) complimented my cakes and scones nicely.

I’m finally getting the hang of not over-eating or over-drinking at these afternoon tea sessions though I do wonder if it was more from the fact that the food, though no doubting the high quality, was fairly unadventurous? Still, another excellent Sunday afternoon spent with my Afternoon Tea Clique.