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 ? 

Laura Ashley The Manor - Afternoon tea in the Cavendish Restaurant

Barnet Lane, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3RE

Well it’s been a sorry old January weather wise but although very busy with the day job and trying very hard to get to the gym and have a dry January, still had time to try out a couple of afternoon teas.

This was the first of them – not far from where I live and a perfect Friday afternoon treat on a miserable cold day. The outside is very impressive, with tudor gabling (is that the right word? ) and wooden frames – and on arrival a blazing fire and comfy sofas in the reception.

It is a hotel and did look very welcoming – very friendly reception staff, and beautifully decorated. We waited for our friend on the sofas in the reception area and read the newspapers provided, feeling very chilled already.

When we were shown into the dining area we were  captivated by the gorgeous looking room – the wallpaper and all the crockery were so tasteful and a gorgeous view out of the window – it was dark but the lights of London were all below twinkling away, sadly was impossible to get a good photo with my phone but did make us think we should come back in the summer for the view.

 We were immediately offered the Twinings box of teas – I do enjoy sniffing the different flavours - and asked for recommendations -  I chose the superfruity tea.

When the food arrived it was of course presented on gorgeous Laura Ashley plates on a silver tiered frame.  

They had also made a good job of alternative sandwiches for my vegetarian companions – imaginative fillings rather than just cheese and egg and a couple of little sweet rolls and tartlets.

non veg choice including mini quiche, smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel , egg mayonaise, tuna and sweetcorn. smoked chicken brioche

Veggie choice - just as delicious! 

The warm scones (huge amounts for 3 of us !) were just right, crispy outside, fluffy inside,  served with lashings of jam and clotted cream and a choice of plain or fruit. 

We struggled to eat that many scones !

The final course of pastries was great, but my only criticism would be that there wasn't three of everything but two of some and one of others so we ended up trying to divide them and that made a bit of a mess !

Super fruity tea and mashed up pastries 

But would find it hard to fault the service or ambience - we of course outstayed our welcome and they were setting up for dinner by the time we left but we were never made to feel rushed. 

Great tea, very reasonably priced, (£24.95) no good for the diet but excellent for the soul ! We will definitely be back .

Library Lounge @the Marriott County Hall - a real treat !

Library Lounge @Marriott County Hall
Some of the Afternoon Tea Ladies set off for a shopping trip to London just after the Christmas jollities and despite that we all agreed we had eaten and drunk far too much over the last few weeks we thought we could manage to eat and drink a little more,  especially if there was tea and bubbles involved. 

We had walked the length and breadth of Oxford Street in pursuit of a particular Radley Handbag and Ted Baker purse (neither of which were found) but the girls did buy some shoes and boots, and I got my Dior make up set I'd been after so all was right with the world. 

Set on the South Bank, next to the London Eye, the outside of the Marriott hotel was very impressive and charmingly decorated for Christmas. The decor inside was very grand, wooden panels, and the pictures on the wall reflected its history of being the seat of the GLC with political satire comics and so on, and had a feel of a gentlemen's club. 

We arrived at 4pm for our 4.30 tea but  were very foot weary and thirsty so hoped we could go in - and sure enough they were more than welcoming and showed us to our table. The Library Lounge room is beautiful - literally in a library with little alcoves between the bookcases where the tables are set out. 

Little tip -ask for a window seat and you have a fine view over the Thames. We hadn't asked and it was busy so not possible to change - we were put into what they called the "gossip table" - very private but felt a little dark we did do a little bit of shuffling of furniture so that we were all looking towards the window and the bright lights.

We were offered the Twinings tea selection with jars to look at and smell and we asked a very helpful waitress to suggest what we might enjoy - I had a late assam and K chose a fruity tea. 

We had booked a free flowing bubbles tea and were delighted to discover it was a Codorniu Brut Cava that we would be drinking - and I don't think our glasses were EVER less than half full, so attentive was the bubble pouring !  

The tea was hot and plentiful too - served in delightful vintage looking china with a tea strainer and sugar tongs ( I do love a sugar tong ). 

So , onto the food - our amuse bouche was brought which was a little mini trifle - we decided to save it to go with the sweet course as our tiered plate had arrived and headed for the savoury sandwiches, but as you can see the candy floss topping had deflated somewhat by the time we got it ! 

It's always a testing point of good service when we get to sandwiches as K really can't stand vinegar or anything pickled or mayonnaised (is that even a word?) but they went and checked and brought her another plate of suitable sarnies without question. 

We had some delightful old favourites (smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber, beef and horseradish) and a seasonable treat of turkey and cranberry, all of which were very very tasty and generously filled.

scones - warm and crunchy topped

More tea, more bubbles and we were ready for the scones; beautifully wrapped in a heavy linen napkin and still warm, we had a savoury and sweet scone each. I think the savoury scone might have been my favourite item of the whole tea chive and lime with a creme fraiche topping to spoon on top and a crunchy cinnamon topped scone with clotted cream and jam. The jam WAS in a pot, but was a large pot of designer jam rather than a tiptree special.  C had another scone they were so lovely ! 

gingerbread lollipop

mince pie anyone? 

Then the patisserie ... well I'm not entirely sure what we were eating although I must stress this is more to do with me not remembering (more bubbles madam?) than the very careful explanation - but all so pretty and delicious fruit tarts, mini mince pies, stollen, snowflake macaroon and gingerbread lollipops. 

It was incredibly relaxed and every single member of staff was not only on the ball with service, they were really charming, and seemed to actually enjoy their work. 

We felt it necessary to have coffee (hic!) before we set off and although we had already paid our very reasonable bill , they happily brought us cappuccinos and continued to top up our glasses. 

We chatted with the delightful Romanian manager of the lounge who told us how they change the menu regularly according to the season and events - so we decided we must come back to try a non festive tea - and next time sit in the window! 

Coffee and MORE bubbles

At 6.39pm  the fire alarms went off and the whole hotel was evacuated - very calmly and efficiently. We had to leave Cava in our glasses undrunk (oh the horror)

Hopefully it wasn't a ruse to stop the 3 sozzled ladies in the Library Lounge running them dry of bubbles - but I did feel sorry for the people outside in the street in their dressing gowns as it was chilling down a little bit! 

We loved this tea and at £39 inc free flowing bubbles was extremely good value for money, as not only was it quite delicious,  there was no fussing about extra costs for sandwiches or coffee and they served decent bubbles too. 

Definitely a place for a celebration or small group outing - i liked that there were no big groups there (they have other rooms) which can sometimes spoil a quiet tea. 

Great Job Library Lounge !