London: Afternoon tea!

Maybe it's just me, but there's something endearing about eating all things miniature. Yet I'm always surprised by how full I get whenever I go out with my friends for afternoon tea. How can a couple of tiny things full up my stomach ever so suddenly? The thing is that finding a reasonably affordable tea room (with decent food!) can be challenging at times. Does anyone really want to pay £20-40 per person for a couple of scones, sandwiches, and some sweets?

I had originally planned to do the ultimate afternoon tea experience for my birthday, then realising that Heston would be even better, so I only had it a couple of times before leaving London. I did have it once in New York and absolutely loved it (obviously that will be discussed in further detail later).

Time for Tea

110 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JN (Closest tube: Shoreditch High St)

The first outing I had was with an ex-flatmate of mine, who had suggested an outing for tea for a catch up! She had told me that she walked past this place a few times and it had always been closed, which she later realised that maybe it was closed on the weekdays and open only on the weekends. It actually took us a bit of time trying to find the tea room since we walked past it maybe once or twice (even with the use of the GPS on my phone, which makes me sound like a bit of a ditz...). The decor of this tea room is almost like wandering through a time warp to the 1940's. It's small, cosy and pretty eccentric in a pretty awesome way. My photos don't really do it justice, but if you google the place you'll know what I'm talking about.

We ordered the full set of tea for two with the option of loose-leaf tea or a glass of refreshing, homemade lemonade, but they were nice enough to give us both (which are both excellent, by the way). The sandwiches were simply filled with just cucumber, the scones were accompanied with clotted cream and jam, and the baked goods consisted of victoria sponges and lemon syrup cakes. Cucumber sandwiches are quintessentially English and I previously never saw the appeal of eating such a sandwich since cucumbers are relatively flavourless. But taking the whole meal into account, it's quite appropriate to have something light before stuffing your mouth with scones and cakes.

The scones are the highlight of the entire tea set. The combination of clotted cream and jam accompanying a light fluffy scone wins every times. I enjoyed the actual sponge part from the victoria sponge, but the cream filling inside was so overwhelmingly sweet that I had to get rid of the cream and jam filling and filled it with the clotted cream and jam that accompanied the scones. I'm not a huge fan of lemon in desserts (with the exception of a cold lemon souffle that I ate in the Midlands for Christmas) but the lemon cakes were surprisingly decent, though a tad bit heavy. 

For £8 per person, it is well worth the price. With the exception of the cream filling of the sponge, Time for Tea provide pretty decent food and drinks. The atmosphere is great and the people that work there are accommodating and friendly.

Tea and Tattle

41 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PE  (Closest tube stations: Holborn or Tottenham Court Road)

Tea and Tattle came about as I had a Tastecard 30 day trial (thanks to my friend who told me about it) and this was the only tea room that was offered. Inspired by my trip to Time for Tea, I made a booking for my friend and I as she had never experienced afternoon tea before. Hidden away in the basement of a small bookshop opposite the British Museum, the best way to describe Tea and Tattle is that it is tiny and quaint. If it wasn't for Tastecard, I probably would have never known it was there. Four tea-for-two set menus are available on the menu, and we went with the traditional tea set that came with two teas, two sandwiches, two scones, and two cakes (£29.50). We were asked if we would like a complimentary glass of lemonade as well, which we didn't hesitate to accept. 

The great thing about Tea and Tattle is that you're able to select what tea you want, what sandwiches you want with whatever type of bread you'd like, what jam you'd like for your scone, and what cake you want. For someone indecisive like me, it's kind of the best nightmare you could hope for. Instead of the traditional afternoon tea platter, everything was provided as if they were separate courses, i.e. sandwiches first, then the scones, and the cakes at the end.

For the sandwiches, I chose the parma ham, rocket and red onion marmalade option (£4.40, if you order sandwiches only). Not only fantastic, but rather filling. I wasn't imagining them to be of such size, because they're a bit larger than the sandwiches I've had previously at other tea rooms. Not that I minded though. There was only one person working on the day and the sandwiches were made to order, so it took a bit of time. But all good things come to those who wait, right? They have a pretty nice variety of sandwich fillings, so it would even be hard for the pickiest of people to be dissatisfied.

Following the sandwiches, there were the scones which were accompanied with clotted cream and a jam/marmalade of your choice (£3 on its own). The scones were fine. I chose the Raspberry & Vanilla jam which was utterly delicious and made a good scone great. While some people might prefer it, a little wee thing that annoyed me was that they sliced the scones in half and put the cream and jam on before serving them to us. I would have liked to do that myself, just so I could control the amount of cream and jam there was on the scone. I guess it saves them from cleaning silly fiddly dishes. With that being said, the scone was great. The jam in particular was the highlight.

By the time we ate our scones, we were stuffed. But I wanted my cake (£3 on its own). Or at least a spoonful of it. I made sure that my friend got her cake as well. She barely ate her own slice because she was so full, but like I've said in previous updates, I've always got some kind of room for cake (okay I was really really full and probably didn't even have room, but I was clearly in denial). I asked for the victoria sponge, just to see whether I was actually going to finally enjoy one. I wanted boring chocolate actually, which I regret not ordering. Sigh. Anyway. I guess after three attempts of victoria sponge, as a whole I just don't like it that much. The 'sponge' component is fine, but the filling is just way too sweet for me. Too much sugar in the cream. I originally didn't think it was supposed to be that sweet, but I guess I was wrong. My friend's coffee and walnut cake looked and tasted much better than mine actually...

For my pot of tea (£3.20 per person, on its own), I selected the camomile which was decent. You'd be surprised by how much tea that pot can fill. It lasted me till the end of my meal and I drink my tea pretty fast! The glass of homemade lemonade was not as good as the one from Time for Tea but still very decent.

With a Tastecard, it was supposed to be 50% off, but ended up paying just a little bit over £20 as the server told us that something in the tea set was excluded from the discount. It didn't really bother us. No doubt that the tea set was excellent value for money with overly generous serving sizes, but for the most part, everything tasted pretty well. Service was okay, not great. The waiter forgot to serve us lemonade at the beginning and only remembered once he came over to take away our empty plates (which initially had scones on them), but otherwise can't complain. If you want variety, there is no doubt that this is a good option to go to!

Daylesford Cafe @ Selfridges
Rooftop of Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, W1A 1AB (Closest tube station: Bond Street)

This one was a bit of an accident. It was my friend's birthday and I had actually taken her out to the Providores and Tapas Room for brunch. Hours later she wanted a break and in turn I had suggested mini golf at Selfridges, however, they were pretty full so we decided to go the Daylesford Cafe on the rooftop to have a bit of bite to eat. For you organic eaters, this café is 100% organic. We didn't want to eat too much because we were going out later for her second birthday dinner of the weekend. It was still pretty busy around 3.30 and decided to order the afternoon tea for one, with a pot of tea (£17.95). We decided to shared the afternoon tea between the two of us, while I drank tea and she ordered a separate coffee.

Even for one person, I was quite disappointed about the size of the selection, especially considering its price. Maybe one or two more items would justify the price? Okay sure, its location suggests that it was never going to be an economical meal but still?!? Presented on some kind of crate, there was a fruit scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam, a slice of bakewell tart, and two finger rolls - one with smoked salmon and cucumber, the other with egg mayonnaise.

When you go out for afternoon tea, sometimes you expect such inflated prices. In fact, afternoon tea are one of the few meals where inflated prices are considered acceptable by some people (I don't think I'm one of them...otherwise I would have gone all out by heading to The Langham in London). With such inflated prices you'd think that it comes with an expected standard. Quality control. While the filling of the finger rolls were decent, the rolls itself were a bit hard. Cutting them in half to share was a bit of a nightmare.The scone was a tad dry too and could only be rectified with lots of clotted cream and jam (sorry stomach).

The service was perfectly fine – polite and attentive wait staff – but when the food doesn't hold to a certain standard, there's a bit of a problem.

Hope you've enjoyed reading this post! The next three updates are going to look at the rest of my time in London. Merging lots and lots of restaurants and eateries into three posts. I only just realise by organising myself with these three updates that it seems like I did a lot of eating out in London. When did I stay in and cook exactly? (A lot actually, but it doesn't seem like it. Whoops).