Watermill Hotel , Luxury Afternoon Tea

BEST WESTERN The Watermill Hotel, London Road, Bourne End,
Hemel Hempstead,Herts,HP1 2RJ

January 2015 

So it was Monday – I finished work locally (for once) at 3pm , and my lovely neighbour who has been working her socks off since the opening of her new Berkhamsted shop (amazing - check it out https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Emporium/725738040844401?fref=ts) earlier this month had a day off so we thought we should catch up. 

So what better way than 1.4 miles down the road with an afternoon tea!

Couldn’t fault it ! Right from when I called yesterday to book last minute and was asked about which tea we would like : Cream tea , Traditional Afternoon tea, Luxury afternoon Tea or Champagne Tea (we chose luxury),  did we have any dietary requirements, what time would we like and the very nice gentleman said how much they were looking forward to seeing us.  

We arrived to a very quiet hotel , but the receptionist was aware we were coming and greeted us warmly,  seated us in the Riverside restaurant (must be lovely in the summer on the deck) with our table all nicely set with white crockery.

We were given a jug of water,offered a section of teas and then presented with our feast – sandwiches were great - tuna, cheese etc moist and fresh, scones warm and fluffy, really generous pots of jam and clotted cream, and the luxury tea also included mini desserts which I though was a great touch and made a change from more traditional fruit cake and macaroons.   

Tea was a really nice English breakfast tea (there were other choices ) but they did use teabags – the only thing that let it down slightly.  But it was a great cuppa,  hot and strong.

We were the only ones in the restaurant, but it was fine-  all the staff walked past and without exception smiled at us – our waiter stayed behind the bar sorting and looking busy and when we wanted more tea he caught our eye immediately. It’s not a fancy place but for sheer value and taste and service it’s hard to beat.

Having eaten in a famous coffee bar chain at the weekend and had a Panini, coffee and a muffin which was £9.95 it was hard to fault the 11.95 value for money this was. We finished most of it but were stuffed – I didn’t have dinner this evening-  this was a 4pm tea (although just beginning to get peckish now looking at the pics again ! )

I loved the teapot design and the silver 3 tier plate – how gorgeous and contemporary is that ?

 Will definitely revisit here in the summer on a nice day on the deck it would be delightful.

Thankyou Watermill – we had a great couple of hours catching up and supping tea. 

Confessions of a Chocoholic Afternoon Tea, Podium Restaurant LONDON HILTON ON PARK LANE

Confessions of a Chocoholic Afternoon Tea

PODIUM RESTAURANT
LONDON HILTON ON PARK LANE

22 PARK LANE, LONDON, W1K 1BE
January 2015

This was a late Christmas present for my 3 eldest nieces ( will be looking for children’s ones to take my 6 and nearly 2 year old nieces to in the next few years! ) and was a real treat to look forward to in the second week of a cold January. It was also great because I’d booked and paid for it before Christmas on Buy a Gift and had a 2 for 1 offer.

I arrived a little bit early to the Podium restaurant - the staff were so welcoming - lovely Portuguese gentleman who took my coat.  I admit to being slightly biased as met another lovely Portuguese gentleman 28 years ago when I was living and working in Portugal, he was working in a hotel, totally charmed me , made me a coffee and we’ve been married 26 years….

We had a chat about Portugal as he noticed my surname and invited me to sit at the bar or I could wait on my table. I ended up having a G & T at the bar – (good choice of gins, disappointing tonic choice) which is a mark of how comfortable I was, despite travelling extensively around the country for my work over the last few years, I never drink alone and certainly never sit in a bar by myself. But the barman, although very busy was also chatty and kept me company.

I was shown to my table (introduced to a delightful Portuguese waitress on the way) and my nieces arrived.

Immediately the afternoon tea was explained to us – about the teas, the open sandwiches and the chocolate and cakes. I think this is a really important part of the afternoon tea experience – the anticipation of what is to come! We were also given a jug of water and glasses without asking - a nice touch. 

 We were then given our choice of 5 open sandwiches- smoked salmon & horseradish, honey roast ham & Pommery mustard, prawn cocktail & baby gem lettuce, cucumber cream cheese & chives, egg & cress

One of my nieces is expecting so the lovely lady went off to ask the chef what might not be suitable and came back with suggestions, the rest of us swapped and changed and asked for 2 of this etc and she patiently wrote it all down and took our tea orders  - some really unusual choices and were told we could choose a different one next time if we wanted to.

The sandwiches were delicious – very obviously freshly prepared and made to order, each one really flavoursome. I was a only a little dubious about the egg mayonnaise one (far left) as the egg was a bit too finely chopped for my taste – almost granular rather than chunky which seemed odd texture wise.

Tea was served in white teapots with white crockery and tea strainers - I had The Hilton Royal Englishand the girls had lapsang souchon and a green tea. We all agreed the tea was perfect temperature - annoying when its just warm.

Ooh the scones … a delight – fluffy, warm, scones with a choice of chocolate chip, plain or raisin with a scrumptious praline chocolate spread and of course clotted cream and strawberry jam.

At this point was applauding my decision not to have lunch as our tea was at 5pm and I was already starting to get full up!

However then came the main event.  It was so beautifully presented it seemed a crime to eat it, but this was a meal in itself. 

It’s hard to critique such an array of delicacies – but I think the one thing I would say was that only having one of each thing between 2 meant we had to either pick a cake or split each in half which wasn’t always easy. We chose to split them as none of us wanted to miss out on anything!

I would like to pretend that I remembered these choices off by heart but I did have to go to the website to remember exact ingredients:

Raspberry and white chocolate pastries, Duo of chocolate cake, Miniature fancies, Raspberry and pistachio sable , Citrus and chocolate cake with blood orange foam, White chocolate shortbread lollypop ,  Mandarin and pistachio delice, Chocolate and honeycomb macaroon and  Milk chocolate griotte (never quite worked out what griotte was!) lollypop, the top layer served on a slab of white chocolate.

My favourite was the raspberry and pistachio sable which was exquisite but the citrus and chocolate cake was a close second. It took us a while but we got through it all, just not managing to finish the slab of chocolate!

The dining area was very pleasant – had a calm but buzzy ambience, relaxing background music,  staff were attentive and helpful – always seemed to be someone ready when you looked up to catch an eye.

The attention to detail in the food presentation couldn’t be faulted and we had a delightful afternoon. The 12½ % service added at the end was well worth it- I just hope the staff do actually receive their fair share of it as they truly deserved it !

Thankyou Podium we had a fine time and would be delighted to return !

St Michael's Manor , St Albans ...not as good as we'd hoped ..

Fishpool St, St Albans AL3 4RY
Caron's Birthday tea January 2015

We were very excited about this Afternoon Tea as it was a special birthday treat (we live in Hertfordshire about 7 miles away) for one of the Ladies Who Regularly Take Tea, and the reviews we read were really good. I have been before, about 5 years ago and wasn't that impressed as we were basically left our own (it was a Wednesday I think and no-one else was there)we had to keep finding people every time we wanted anything. But as I say reviews good, its near where we live so wanted it to be good ! 
A charming lady on reception directed us to the lounge area which was a small delightful room  overlooking the lake, low sofas and little white cloth covered tables.   

We told the waiter we had booked for 3 and the waiter literally waved us to a nearby set of chairs, without asking our names, asked if he could take our coats and if we wanted a coffee or a cappuccino or a cup of tea – we said we had booked for afternoon tea and he looked a tad surprised although the table was very obviously set for 3 for tea .  
We were a disappointed  to be plonked on chairs with a table that was too low with some chairs pulled up  – it felt like we had been squeezed in last minute although we had booked and weren’t on a special  offer. 

We felt were in a bit of a corridor, everyone leaving the restaurant had to stroll past us to leave the hotel not near the fireplace and with no view, (but accept that not everyone can have the best seats, although seemed silly that 2 ladies that came after us had been put on the 2 double sofas by the fireplace  perhaps they had the foresight to book that table?) 

So we ordered our afternoon tea and Karen asked for her usual which was sandwiches with no mayonnaise, mustard or anything with vinegar. He did say the only thing with mayonnaise was the egg sandwiches and Karen could pick out the others from the plate that came or rather begrudgingly asked if she wanted hers on a separate plate to which she said yes please. It’s always a test for us – if they try and get out of doing this it’s obvious the sandwiches are not freshly made and all done in advance so they have to make more specially for fussypants herself! 
The restaurant was right next to where we were and it was very noisy – clearly there had been big Sunday lunch parties and the waiters seemed to be dealing with that AND the afternoon tea lounge with the result that we had to attract attention to ask every time we wanted anything – not once were we asked if everything was ok and did we need anything.  

That said, the food was nice – tea was in colourful pots although made with TEABAGS, (horrors) which is the first for me at an afternoon tea, part of the experience is the whole tea strainer affair , and the waiter just poured us tea straight off without checking it was ready so we all had a very weak first cup. 

Our 3 tier stand of food arrived – on the website there was no menu as such, so we were looking forward to hearing what we were about to eat …but no … no explanation offered , so we had to pick our way through and guess. There was no point asking as the poor waiters were all running about between the restaurant and tea lounge. That said, the sandwiches were top notch: thick, moist bread, generous fillings – cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon, egg mayonnaise, and smoked chicken. 
The scones were warm and tasty but very dry, more of a rock cake consistency – and we had to ask for more cream and jam as there wasn’t even enough for 3 scones let alone the 6 we were given. We also had to ask for more tea (none offered ) and we are fairly sure that what we got back was just in the same teapots with another bag and some water topped up.  

We did ask what the cakes were and a nice young waiter tried to tell us they were raspberry with cranberries on the top – we questioned why the cake was green , so he admitted defeat and went to ask the chef and came back to say it was pistachio with raspberry. None of us finished it (actually I noticed on the other tables most people had left it so perhaps need to rethink that one) 

Lovely raspberry (?again a guess) macaron although had a very soggy bottom (Mary Berry would be incensed) and delicious pot of chocolate mousse with salted caramel base. We discovered the reason for the soggy bottom macaron was because they had stuck it and the pot of mousse to the plate with a bit of caramel !



It sounds like we were being miserable – we really weren’t – we had a lovely time and always enjoy a laugh in each others company and we were perfectly full – flavours were delicious, and were relaxed and we didn’t feel rushed but the waiters were stressed and rushing. 
One small extra thing I also felt a bit sad about was that although it was very evidently Caron’s birthday – cards and presents were given and birthday cards on the table, none of the waiters commented or offered a birthday candle. Normally if I book it I make sure to say it’s a birthday treat (to be honest they normally ask) but as Caron had booked it herself she obviously didn’t say.
I have been here before about 5 years ago, during the week when it was very quiet so thought it would be busier and with better service this time round but this time  our experience may just have been because it was a Sunday and they were too busy with the remnants of Sunday lunch. Its also good value for money – at £17.50 a head (plus service added on) there was more than enough food. 

Would I go back ? Probably not – we are quite keen to try a few more local places out – but it’s hard to beat a London hotel afternoon tea so will be getting on the train back up to London next time.  To be honest it's easy to make a few sandwiches and buy a box of Mr Kipling's finest - what you pay for is someone serving you tea, explaining the sandwiches and pastries like they proudly made them by themselves , the quiet relaxed ambience that one would normally associate with an afternoon tea experience.  
Sadly this isn't what we got. 

Past Afternoon Teas ...

Christmas afternoon tea at mine December 2014. There was no tea drunk !! I had the grand plan of baking and creating sandwiches when it was my turn to host Book Club but was so busy at work Marks and Spencer platter and a selection of pastries and tarts from the Co-op saved the day ! 

The Intercontinental St James was such a treat that I went 3 times in 6 months! 
Not only did they serve  free flow Laurent Perrier Champagne but also it was so delightfully presented in a quiet lounge with excellent service. This was photos from the second time I went for the lovely 30th Vic's birthday - it really was a work of art - this was the Chelsea Flower show tea, we had to eat all of this after we had eaten sandwiches, scones (with lemon curd) and then a special birthday plate at the end.   

Hendricks High Tea Hush Brasserie June 2013. 
We enjoyed this - there was a big group of us and as you can see was served on beautiful crockery with silverware, came with a gin cocktail and the food was beautifully presented on 3 layers. 
If I had one criticism it would be that as we had arrived at slightly different times (we got lost, it's tricky to find ) and some had ordered pre tea drinks,  once everyone arrived they brought out the gin cocktails and the tea and we still all had drinks so we ended up with 3 drinks all at once !
Happily we managed! Food wasn't extensive but delicious. - quite a splendid way to spend a warm afternoon in London.

Not Afternoon Tea at the Oxo Tower - a range of four tasting dessert plates, each paired with a matching cocktail.It's a shame but someone had to do it ! 

We loved this tea with a twist - it wasn't 4 cocktails but a choice of 4 tasting plates with a cocktail so we made sure we tried different ones. The four desserts were filling, and quite exquisite all served on different plates.  We did then have to  try a few more of their extensive cocktail list, so wasn't a cheap option but such a fine view over the river and perfect service !
I think they change the menu regularly - I noticed there was a festive one recently that looked delicious.
definitely worth a visit ! 

 BURGERLICIOUS AFTERNOON TEA at 

BRGR.CO - Soho June 2013 

Unlimited Champagne Festive Afternoon Tea at The Reform Social and Grill, Mandeville Hotel November 2014

Place : Reform Social and Grill,  The Mandeville Hotel, Mandeville Place, The Mandeville Hotel, London 

W1U 2BE

Date: November 2014

June 2010 

This was my third visit here - I came with my 3 nieces in June 2010 -and again with friends a year later they had a unique (in London ) menu of gentlemen's and ladies afternoon teas so we had 2 of each. 

5th cup of tea -June 2010

Sadly we only remembered to take pictures at the end but we certainly enjoyed their take on tea for a gentleman - the cake selection was much the same but the savouries were delicious - with things like sausage rolls and mini steak sandwiches. 

2010 Blue men's crockery (plate) ladies floral pink (cups and saucers ) 

We also loved that the men's tea was served on blue plates and ladies on pink Zandra Rhodes crockery.

Anyway this time they were offering unlimited champagne with a festive tea so it would be churlish not to give it a try ! It wasn't for an occasion, just a Christmas shopping trip in London. 

It was the most horrendous weather- cold and literally rained all the day we went up there, and as it was a Sunday I had to run training on the south west coast the day after so had a suitcase with me (I know very bad planning ) Delighted that the hotel happily looked after my case in the luggage store when we went at 11am explaining our 3pm booking. 

So by the time we had traipsed around the very wet but festive Oxford Street by 3pm we were more than ready for a warm cuppa.

The Reform Social and Grill is inside the Mandeville Hotel, very near Oxford Street, and is based on the idea of a gentlemens club, so has lot of nice little booths, leather seats, wood panelling , flocked wallpaper and has a lovely ambience.

We were greeted by the absolutely charming maître D who seated us conveniently near the ice buckets of champagne - and proceeded to supply us with a glass of very welcome warm spicy mulled wine and ensure champagne glasses were full for the whole 90 minute experience.

As a result I can't comment much on the teas ....although we did love the vintage style cups and saucers which were charmingly mismatched. (obviously broke all the Zandra Rhodes ones!!) 

They were happy to create a separate plate for my fussy friend who doesn't eat any food with "gunk" - mayonnaise mustard dressings etc - this did take a while so I think the sandwiches had been made earlier (to be honest they were a little bit dry, but still tasty

As myself and Caron really do like a savoury plate we did ask for more sandwiches - and had to pay an extra £5.50. If we hadn't been plied with so much champagne I might have objected (I think that's outrageous generally) The sandwiches were nice (sorry don't have a pic) finger sandwiches made with an unusual bread Beetroot and basil and a festive turkey and cranberry being the highlights. I also liked the swapping of the traditional cream cheese and cucumber for goats cheese and cucumber.

The Scones were very nice – fluffy and warm, and the cakes : 

Battenberg, Mini pie crumble, Chocolate yule log, Christmas cake, Scones, clotted cream, jam were also quite delicious - the frosted Satsuma was a lovely touch!

All in all it’s hard to beat for value - as soon as free flowing champagne is included at London prices it becomes a real bargain. This was served in a very traditional way,  but you couldn't fault the charming staff and service, and they are happy for you to take your time over your tea (the freeflowing champagne is only for 90 mins though, officially but I was slightly wobbly on my way to the train station!)

Definitely would go back - in fact planning to revisit the Gentleman's tea with my brother for his birthday in Feb - watch this space for his guest blog he has promised to write ! 

Amazing afternoon Tea for birthday December 2014 - Hotel Cafe Royale , Regent Street. London

Place: Hotel Cafe Royale, Regent Street, London 
Date : December 2014

Last week, for the birthday of my college friend and myself (our birthdays are a day apart - terrible time to have birthdays, last week of December, trains all a mess going into London, no one wants to eat etc) I was tasked with the job of booking tea for us . 
It's always tempting to go somewhere you've been before but I always check through offers from various sites to see if there's somewhere new. I had wanted to go here for ages but was a bit put off by the high end price so was very tempted by the Champagne High Society Afternoon Tea for Two , £60 offer on http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/, even though there was 3 of us going, it still was a bargain looking at the menu and included a glass of champagne which is always a bonus!

Our tea was booked in the Oscar Wilde Bar and we were immediately impressed by the beautiful gilded and mirrored room, and stunning ceiling. 

We were told as we were seated that we were in the special corner of the restaurant where Oscar used to sit and entertain his lovers. 
The staff could not have been more charming and attentive, enquiring about any dietary needs, explaining each course - and starting us off with a crisp cold glass of Verve Cliqout. The pianist was tinkling away and we felt we were in for a good afternoon! 
Good selection of teas , I always go for English breakfast tea ( I had the 1865 blend)  both the girls chose Celestine which they said was delicious, with a vanilla pod.

Jo and her Savoury Muffin

Our food started with an amuse bouche of a Savoury Muffin (Miranda would not be impressed !!) with a tiny vial of apple juice to inject into it before eating. Nice flavour and a perfect start to the meal 

The Savoury selection was one of the best I have experienced. - I do get irritated when you get a just a few white bread unimaginative finger sandwiches but this was far removed from that : 
Wild boar, crackling, pickled apple and mustard bun
Goat’s cheese puff and wine jelly
Mary Rose prawn cocktail
London Cure smoked salmon bagel and quail’s egg
Cucumber and cream cheese finger sandwich
Presented handsomely on a slate 3 tier stand - every mouthful was, well, mouth watering, very fresh tasting with generous fillings and toppings. 






We didn't quite finish as knew we had more to come - but were then presented with a palate cleanser of a Fruit consommé and mulled wine marshmallows. 

The marshmallows ... oh my goodness - delightful little mouthful - perfect for getting us ready for our sweet course!  

The sweet course - warm scones with jam , lemon curd and clotted cream 
and from left 
“Opéra 1865”
Absinthe Green Fairy macaroon
Pear William Regent
Caramel and lime choux buns, 
apple crumble flower pot
Mini mince pies

The mince pies defeated us ( think we all felt that we'd had enough over the last few weeks) and we did have to decline the offer of Hotel Café Royal Christmas cake or 
lemon drizzle cake.



 As a final lovely touch as it was our birthdays, the pianist suddenly broke into a rendition of happy birthday  and they brought us out some birthday bonbons, which sadly we just couldn't do justice to

So overall - this was one of the best teas I have had in terms of service, the room was magnificent and the food quite exquisite. It was a lovely treat for a birthday , but at £60 a head (as it would have been had we not had the offer) you really need to go along hungry and be prepared to spend a couple of hours eating and just enjoy the historical atmosphere.