Alice in Wonderland Tea Conrad St James Hotel

Conrad St James Hotel 
22-28 Broadway, London SW1H 0BH


My quiet week finished last week with a themed afternoon tea in London. This was at the Conrad St James hotel who took over the building from the Intercontinental recently. I had already been for three delicious teas there with its old owners (I'm a sucker for champagne especially when it says freeflowing !!) but was pleased to be going back to see how it had changed. 

When researching I was intrigued that they are offering four different seasonal teas this year http://goo.gl/a2uu6q all looking equally delicious and this was the first of them - we booked for the Alice in Wonderland Tea with Free Flowing Champagne on a late Friday afternoon.


We all arrived separately and were shown to our table in Emmeline's lounge (named after Emmeline Pankhurst) which is a quiet and beautifully decorated lounge area with low tables decorated with pink peonies in vases and an array of comfortable sofas and chairs. 

We were immediately served a glass of champagne (always a good start!) and given tea menus. Lots of choices so I asked our charming waiter Mario which he recommended- he suggested the vanilla tea which was a great choice to go with all the morsels to come.

Once we had chosen our teas they brought the savouries on a splendid tiered tray : silver spoons (Curious Oyster shells) with smoked mackerel pate and Stromboli (both totally delicious) 

and a selection of finger sandwiches : Smoked Salmon, egg, cheese and pickle and a club sandwich; sandwiches were generous of filling but just beginning to curl which didn't spoil the taste just the look slightly.

The scones were scrumptious too - wrapped in crisp white napkin, warm and fluffy inside and served with generous portions of jam, cream and - a new favourite of mine - pink grapefruit curd! 

We were already filling up by the time we had eaten all that, had a couple of cups of tea and a few glasses of champagne! 
And then the main event which was almost too pretty to eat ! 

Mario did a splendid job of explaining the various cakes – the jam tarts with the playing cards, the tiny cup cakes with the roses on, the chessboard chocolate cake, the "eat me" earl grey Pannacotta cups… it was all mouth watering and we did struggle to eat it all.

Possibly my least favourite was the elderflower flavoured macaroons – bright blue (I'm always a bit suspicious of very bright food anyway) and that left our lips and fingers blue !!

A special mention must also go to the tableware – shiny cutlery, beautiful white and silver crockery and the teapots … well I'm glad it's not my job to polish them !

It was an absolutely delightful early evening– chatting supping and chilling - we had booked for 5.30 and although it does say on the menu that you have 90 mins, (which is fair enough if there is free flowing champagne) in fact we sat there until 9pm still drinking tea although the champagne had stopped earlier, we didn't feel rushed or hassled so could attempt to get through all the cakes - we failed miserably. 
The staff were charming and the service was second to none – tea and champagne glasses regularly topped up, passing by to check all was good but not in an obtrusive way. At £49 plus 12 ½% service added on,  it's not a cheap option but when you consider how much a glass of champagne costs in London, we probably had a almost a bottle each and really couldn't finish the food,  it's a very fair price.
We finished off our evening in the Blue Boar which is the bar in the hotel – which had live music , more charming staff, a barman with the most splendid beard and a fine bottle of prosecco to serve us with ! What more can you ask for ?
Thoroughly recommend this place for a treat or a girly get together. 
Thank you Conrad St James and the team.  
Anyone else been there ? What were your thoughts?