Back at Conrad St James again .......

22-28 Broadway, London, SW1H 0BH

The second of my teas this month was back to Conrad St James in Westminster. This is my 6^th visit to this hotel for tea – taking along four friends, two of which were totally new to afternoon tea but rather liked the idea of posh sandwiches, great service and the free flowing champagne. We went on a Saturday, a first for me and it was much busier than any other time I've been.

We arrived a little early and they said our table wasn't ready so we happily sat in the bar and ordered drinks – very helpful gin suggestion of Monkey 47 served with sliced plum and fevertree tonic which I hadn't tried before (delicious)

No sooner had we received our drinks, then we were whisked into our table in the food area of the bar. It’s the table I've sat at twice before but this time seemed very dark and the lights above it were blue – a couple of my friends are migraine sufferers and said that the blue light was already affecting them, so we asked to move. 

They were very understanding and moved us back into the bar area, set our table nicely and gave us the tea menus – we chose our tea and then were suddenly served with champagne (we still had our G & Ts )  very quickly followed by our tea so we had 3 drinks in front of us not quite knowing what to sip first …

g and t and champagne and tea 

There was a young lady playing the harp in the corner of the lounge 

The tiered plates were as delightful as ever a great selection including: smoked salmon blinis with caviar and crème fraîche

Mini stilton tartlet, Prawn cocktail with marie rose and lovely finger sandwiches - the roast beef ones were so delicious we asked for extra, and this is where it started to unravel .....

They said it would take 10 minutes to prepare - we said fine we could wait , but then they brought the warm scones. By the time our extra sandwiches arrived (much more than 10 minutes later ) and we'd eaten them, the scones were cold, so I asked if they could be reheated, which they did, but do feel they should have thought of this themselves. 

As ever the scones were perfect and the mixed berry curd quite exquisite. 

The Cakes and pastries were a joy to behold and to eat ... were weren't sure what we were eating but it was all amazing : 

The magic mirror
Salted butter shortbread, yogurt cream, frosted blueberries, sugar shards
Snow Queen's sceptre
Chocolate & pearl sponge, praline ganache dipped in chocolate, snowflake lace
Palace snowflakes
Blackcurrant and cardamom cake, crushed glittering meringue, silver snowflake
Blackberry kisses
Crème patisserie & blackberries

Snowstorm
Coconut cream, mint macaroon, candy floss

We were the last sitting at 5.30 and for the first time in all my visits here I felt rushed, we were told quite firmly when it was our last champers top up, and the bill was brought without us asking for it. 

I do know it says on the website that a sitting is 90 minutes, and we were there still at 7.30pm  and appreciate the free flowing champagne can't go on after the 90 minutes, but for the price £55 (I notice its going up to £65 in Feb ) plus 12 1/2 % service, and the cost of our G and Ts - the bill was over £72.

I've paid this happily in the past (both here and at other places) and for the amount and quality of food and drink it's still good value , but Afternoon Tea is about the experience and the service and sitting with friends over a lovely meal - it just wasn't quite there this time for me. Perhaps going on a Saturday is not the best day when the staff are busy and tired ?