Time for Tea....Reform Social & Grill

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea blog post from Tea With Me and Friends, last weekend Lorna and I and a group of friends experienced a new afternoon tea on offer at Reform Social & Grill in London.

I had been told about their vintage afternoon teas with live music inspired by the 40s and 50s, where guests are encouraged to dress for the occasion. Well anyone who has popped by our blog before will know that Lorna and I love a bit of vintage...so we got a group of girls together and put our 50s attire on and headed into London....

Tea With Me and Friends -
ready for a spot of afternoon tea

Now, Lorna and I have visited the Reform Social & Grill on several occasions before and have always enjoyed good food and great service, and so we were looking forward to this afternoon experience. You can either enjoy a vintage afternoon tea with traditional cakes and tea or you can opt for unlimited bubbles (for two hours) with your tea. Any regular visitors to our blog will not be surprised to learn that we opted for the bubbles! 

The tea begins with a seasonal Bellini each - we could choose from peach or raspberry. Our afternoon included live music from singers Verity and Violet, however when they are not performing music from the 40s and 50s is played in the restaurant.

After we had each picked our tea from the varied tea menu, the cake stands were brought out. The tea looked lovely, and we had vintage china instead of the usual white china used for previous afternoon teas.

Vintage afternoon tea
Reform Social & Grill

Two of our guests didn't fancy the salmon sandwiches and the waiter happily substituted these for one of the other varieties. On the sandwich plate was cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon and horseradish, coronation chicken and duck egg mayonnaise.

Afternoon tea sandwiches - Reform Social & Grill

If I'm honest these were not the best sandwiches that we have enjoyed with afternoon tea (although there were crust free and dainty in size!). The fillings were ok, but the bread was rather soggy. The beetroot bread from the salmon sandwich also dyed the sandwiches which we on either side of it. 

We then moved onto the scones - we had one each, which was accompanied with raspberry jam and clotted cream.

Fruity scones - Reform Social & Grill

The scones were lovely - I could have eaten another one really! They were light and fluffy inside and there was plenty of cream for everyone.

We then moved onto the top tier of the cake stand.....the vintage inspired sweet treats.

Vintage inspired cakes - Reform Social & Grill

There was a good selection of cakes and we all got one each - so no sharing here! The selection included lemon pound cake, apple turnovers, mini treacle tarts, jam roly poly pudding and rose petal meringues.

Afternoon tea - Reform Social & Grill

Unfortunately this was a rather disappointing tier, something that we all agreed on. The concept of this tea is wonderful and I was so excited to try all the old fashioned treats - but they just didn't hit the spot for us. The highlight was probably the apple turnover, but the low point is tied between several of the cakes. The treacle tart was a little too small and a little over baked - it was like eating a mouthful of pastry. The meringues were rather buttery....in fact I couldn't tell you that they were flavoured with rose petals.

The service was also sadly lacking on this particular visit, which also surprised me as everyone was always so attentive previously. Both our teacups and our prosecco glasses ran dry several times during the afternoon, resulting in us needing to catch someones eye and request "more please".

The live entertainment however was brilliant, we all enjoyed seat dancing along to the vintage inspired songs that Verity and Violet sang....and they looked beautiful in their outfits....

Vintage inspired entertainment
Verity and Violet

This was a lovely addition to the vintage afternoon tea experience that we thoroughly enjoyed.

You can partake in a vintage afternoon tea, complete with live music on the first Sunday of each month, but the vintage tea itself is served all the time (without the music). The tea will cost you £26.50 each and if you'd like to enjoy unlimited Prosecco it will cost £28.50 each. The food in this tea is limited to what you see in these photos, however if you want to order another plate of anything you can at a charge.

Considering we enjoyed rather good live music with our tea I do think its good value for money, but I would have liked just one more of those scrummy scones.

Have you enjoyed a vintage inspired afternoon tea anywhere? If so we'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna