Time for Tea.....Vivi, Centre Point

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we hope you've had a tea-riffic week!

Recently Sheree and I visited a brand new restaurant and bar to try their afternoon tea. As it was still a soft launch period when we visited I thought I would share the photos of our visit, but this won't be a full review article. Soft launches allow new restaurants and bars to try out their menus and make tweaks before they formally open.

Vivi is a 60s inspired restaurant, located in Centre Point near Tottenham Court Road. They offer all-day dining in a beautiful setting, with four different dining / drinking areas. The styling is absolutely gorgeous, with lots of pinks, blues and gold.....I'd love to go back and enjoy a cocktail or two at the bar...…

Afternoon tea is served from 3pm each day and the menu, much like the main dining menu, features retro classics with a twist. Each guest is given their own afternoon tea serving in a funky box (so no fighting over the last cake!) which contains the sweet selection and savouries, scones are served in their own box and there is also a serving of candy floss each....



The savouries are a mix of traditional flavours from salmon to cucumber, from egg to my favourite....coronation chicken! The sandwiches include traditional finger sandwiches, a delicate pinwheel, an open sandwich and a Vivi club sandwich, the selection of shapes and breads is very appealing....



The sweets are served in the top part of the box and includes a mix of retro classics....from Battenberg cake to filled eclairs from Victoria sponge to carrot cake.... there is something for everyone!



You can opt to have a traditional afternoon tea, accompanied by tea from the tea menu. Alternatively you can also enjoy your afternoon tea with a glass of champagne.

Vivi officially opened on Monday 25th February following their soft launch. If you visit for an afternoon tea we'd love to hear your thoughts....leave us a comment!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel 

Time for Tea....Mary Poppins at Aqua Shard

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

There is one afternoon tea that we'd love to try, but its hard to get a reservation on the weekend because it's so popular. With a certain film due out in December I'm sure it's going to get even more popular....

Yes, its the Mary Poppins inspired tea currently being served at Aqua Shard. 

How cute is that cake stand?

Inspired by the Mary Poppins books by P.L Travers, this afternoon tea was launched at the same time as the books were re-launched by Harper Collins. 

Luckily, fellow afternoon tea lover Rachel was treated to the Mary Poppins afternoon tea as part of her recent Birthday celebrations and has shared her experience with us.

Just take a look at the gorgeous crockery....those plates are lovely...

The afternoon tea kicks off with a selection of quintessentially British finger sandwiches:

Cackleberry egg & black truffle sandwich
Ms Kirkham's cheddar, Branston pickle & English mustard ploughman's sandwich
Dingley Dell honey roast ham, mustard mayonnaise & Norfolk rocket cress sandwich
Dressed Devon crab, cucumber & coriander served on a brioche roll
Mini crumpet served warm with Scottish smoked salmon & cream cheese

The crab brioche rolls sound divine!

After guests enjoy homemade scones with clotted cream and either cherry or plum jam they can enjoy the homemade cakes and sweet treats....
'Strike me pink' sponge
Fairground candy floss
Mrs Corry's gingerbread star
Mary's chocolate & cherry hat
The 'back to front zoo' golden syrup tart

Rachel said she enjoyed the experience, all the food was scrummy!

I'd still love to try this afternoon tea for myself - I love the sound of both the sweet and savoury elements. If you happen to enjoy the champagne afternoon tea, you are also offered "medicine" with your champagne in the form of three homemade liqueurs (rum punch, strawberry or lime) which sound scrummy!

To find out more about the Mary Poppins afternoon tea pop by the Aqua Shard website.

A big thank you to Rachel for sharing her afternoon tea photos with us. If you enjoy an afternoon tea we'd love to see your photos too - leave us a message on our Facebook page!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea....The Connaught

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends! Today we have a very elegant afternoon tea experience to share with you, as recently Lorna and I enjoyed a wonderful champagne afternoon tea at The Connaught.

Afternoon tea at The Connaught is served in the bright and modern surroundings of Jean-Georges at The Connaught. The day we visited the sun was shining and we were seated in a window seat, with plenty of room for us to spread out and enjoy our afternoon. We began our afternoon tea adventure with a glass of perfectly chilled champagne and an amuse-bouche - these delicious Smoked Tomato Brioche bites, which were served warm and complimented the champagne....

Champagne and amuse-bouche at The Connaught

Afternoon tea is served on elegant white china - no floral chintz here - which suits the surroundings of the modern lounge. The tea menu provides enough choice without being over complicated, allowing both the tea novice and tea connoisseur to pick a tea to enjoy. The menu includes six black teas, three green teas and five herbal blends to pick from. 

Once we'd finished the scrummy smoked tomato brioche bites, the finger sandwiches were served. 

First of all lets appreciate how beautiful the afternoon tea sandwiches look - perfectly cut with no crusts in sight. The sandwiches were everything you'd want them to be - with fresh, soft bread, plenty of fillings and well balanced flavours.

Afternoon tea sandwiches at The Connaught

The flavours offer a combination of traditional English fillings with South East-Asian flavours:

Cucumber & lime, with Greek yogurt and mint 

Truffle egg mayonnaise, with watercress 

Chipotle smoked salmon, with coriander and spring onions 

Miso mustard ham & aged cheese, with mayonnaise, honey and walnuts 

Coriander coronation chicken, with spiced mayonnaise and chopped nuts

Next up were the scones, which were huge....

Afternoon tea scones at The Connaught

The scones were served with homemade strawberry jam, Cornish clotted cream and my favourite lemon curd (I think lemon curd goes so well with clotted cream). The scones had a good flavour and texture, but I could only manage to eat one as they were rather large.

Finally we have the cake stand - the plain stand allows the cakes to really stand out. The pastries looked really exciting, plus we had cute shortbread dogs with a chocolate fondue to enjoy....

Afternoon tea at The Connaught

The sweet treats from Executive Pastry Chef Nicolas Rouzaud include:

Green apple tart, with apple jelly and basil mousse 

Carrot cake, with walnuts, cream cheese and cinnamon 

Rhubarb, with rhubarb compote and fromage blanc 

St Honoré  - a caramel cream roll with vanilla whipped cream 

Rocher - hazelnut praliné and milk chocolate

Each of these pastries is quite exquisite - they look beautiful and have well balanced flavours. The St Honore was so light with the cutest caramel roll on top and I really enjoyed the apple and basil flavours together in the mini tart. But the best piece for me was the carrot cake, which was moist and flavoursome - definitely the best carrot cake I've had the pleasure of enjoying!

As we were celebrating my birthday I was presented with an extra treat....more of that wonderful carrot cake! I love a personalised plate when you are celebrating something, there is something lovely about seeing your name written in chocolate!

Celebration plate at The Connaught

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Connaught, the service was warm and friendly and the food delicious. A great place to celebrate a birthday or another special occasion. To find out more about the afternoon tea at The Connaught please visit their website.

I will leave you with a warning tale today for anyone who enjoys taking photos of their food....be careful not to drop your camera on your food before you enjoy it. 

This is what a very squashed Rocher looks like.....

Whoops!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna

Time for Tea.....The Intercontinental at The O2

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

We hope you're keeping well!

So, last weekend here in the UK it was Mother's Day and as some of you know, this blog exists from our family tradition of taking mum for a Mother's Day afternoon tea. One problem with last weekend though.....it also happened to be Country 2 Country - a three day country music festival that Lorna and I always attend. It's held at the O2 in London and there are music acts playing throughout the day and into the night.

We fixed our little problem though as we decided to stay at The Intercontinental hotel at the O2 this year.....and they offer an afternoon tea! So we dragged mum up to the O2 to listen to some country music with us and enjoy a spot of afternoon tea!

Intercontinental at the O2 serve their afternoon tea in the Meridian Lounge, overlooking the River Thames and Canary Wharf. We were given a corner table looking straight out onto the Thames, which was like a little oasis in the corner of the lounge....

The afternoon tea was a traditional affair, starting with a selection of finger sandwiches and savouries. The section included:

Honey roasted ham with wholegrain mustard mayonnaise on Pain de Mie
Mature cheddar cheese and pickle on carrot bread
Sliced cucumber and grated radishes with crème fraîche on beetroot bread
Smoked salmon with dill cream cheese on basil bread
Truffle egg mayonnaise on a brioche bun

It was a very pretty sandwich plate, with a variety of colours making it interesting to look at. There was also a variety of flavours to sample. I enjoyed the cucumber and radish more than I thought I would and I enjoyed the cheese and pickle sandwich. I wasn't really a fan of the egg mayonnaise on the brioche bun though, as the sweetness of the bun was rather overpowering.

The sandwiches were fresh and crustless....but take a look at the sizing....why is my ham sandwich so much shorter than the others??

At this point I'll note that our tea was refreshed regularly throughout the afternoon tea and we were given the opportunity to change our tea choice.

When we had finished our savouries the afternoon tea stand was served.....queue photo of Lorna waving at me through the top tier....

We started with the scones at the bottom of the stand, which were served with clotted cream and two different preserves. The scones were served warm, they were a good size and had a lovely colour - they looked very appealing against the white plates.

We weren't a fan of the preserves (one was strawberry and the other apricot), which seemed to lack flavour, but the scones themselves had a great texture and were not at all claggy.

We were served two scones each - one plain and one fruit. There was also plenty of cream and preserve for all three of us. 

Finally we moved onto the sweet treats, which were very pretty....

This pretty sweet selection included

Blackberry Bonbon Torte

Plum and Custard Verrine

Pear and Apple Tart

Spiced Chocolate Pyramid

Quince macaroon

The stand out item for me was the chocolate pyramid - the cake was moist and light, with layers of ganache. Each item looked beautiful, a lot of thought had gone into the presentation of this afternoon tea.

I also want to compliment the Meridian Lounge on how welcoming they are and how knowledgeable their staff were about the teas. One server in particular helped mum with her choice of tea, suggesting different ways to sweeten the tea. She also came back during the afternoon to see whether mum was enjoying her tea. It was refreshing to be served by someone who actually knew about tea and the different ways to enjoy it. 

Probably not the first choice for many people because of the location, but the Intercontinental at the O2 offers a well priced afternoon tea, with excellent service. If you'd like to know more about their afternoon tea, pop by their website

If you treated your mum to a Mother's Day afternoon tea last weekend, we'd love to hear all about it. Leave a comment on the blog, or get in touch on Facebook!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea.....The Balcon at Sofitel St James

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're having a tea-riffic day!

Last weekend I treated my lovely fried Alex to a belated Birthday afternoon tea at The Balcon in Sofitel St James. As this was a special occasion I wanted a special afternoon tea and this one included free flowing champagne along with the sweet treats and finger sandwiches - just perfect!

As our bubbles were poured we were left with the tea samples to explore - the jars allow you to smell the leaves and all the descriptions can be found in the menu.

Once we'd selected our teas the afternoon tea stand and sandwiches were brought out to us. The sandwiches came on a separate plate and the scones were served warm. The stand included three different scones, which were accompanied by clotted cream, rose scented strawberry jam and lemon curd. Plus a selection of four good sized pastries.

The stand was simple but elegant, very befitting of the surroundings. The sandwiches were presented on a simple white plate, there were a selection of four fillings....

The sandwich fillings included egg mayonnaise, cheese and tomato, a smoked chicken and a salmon and cucumber sandwich. The bread was all fresh and squidgy and not a crust in sight. I particularly enjoyed the tomato bread that came with the chicken sandwich. 

The sandwiches were also quite unique as they were triple-decker sandwiches....

The bread was thin enough that the sandwiches were still dainty and delicate, but the extra bread also meant that the sandwich did not become soggy. A great idea! I think my favourite filling was the egg mayonnaise sandwich, which was filled well and tasted wonderful.

Next we moved onto the scones - there was a chocolate chip scone, a plain scone and a fruit scone to enjoy.

The scones were a good size (although we only ate two each) and they were a great texture - not at all claggy. The lemon curd was lovely with the clotted cream and I really enjoyed the rose scented strawberry jam.

Moving onto the pastries at the top of the stand....

We had four pastries to enjoy between us, but they were big enough for us to cut in two and share. Now I have to admit that I can only remember three of the four pastries (sorry!), there was an Opera cake, a raspberry macaroon and a matcha tea slice. My favourite one was the Opera cake.

I had also mentioned when making my reservation that it was Alex's Birthday and the staff very kindly presented another plate of pastries to Alex, singing her a rendition of Happy Birthday.

All in all this was a rather lovely afternoon tea, we enjoyed champagne throughout the afternoon tea and were altered to when the 90 minute time frame was going to run out. The Balcon is a beautiful space and I liked the modern but simple feel.

If you'd like to find out more about the afternoon tea at The Balcon pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel 

Time for Tea....Millennium Hotel, Mayfair

Afternoon tea - Millennium Hotel Mayfair

Hello there,


Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're tea-riffic today!

Recently Becca and I visited the Millennium Hotel Mayfair for a spot of afternoon tea. We'd booked a special offer online, giving us 2 for 1 on their celebration afternoon tea, which included a glass of bubbles.

On first impressions, Avista Restaurant (where tea is served) is light, bright and the staff are friendly. We arrived 30 minutes early for our reservation (due to the cold), but we were seated quickly, given a spacious booth on one side of the restaurant.

Once seated, Becca's dietary requirements were reconfirmed (no butter in the sandwiches and no strawberries), we picked our tea and the champagne was brought out to us. So far, so good!

Next our afternoon tea stand was brought out to us....

The celebration tea costs £49.50 per person, so its not the cheapest of experiences and we were surprised that there were no mention of additional servings. In fact although there were two servings of sandwiches and scones, apart from the cake there was only one serving of each sweet. 

Afternoon tea - Millennium Hotel Mayfair

Becca and I had separate sandwich plates, one with butter one without. 

The sandwiches were fresh and there were no crusts to report. The fillings were very traditional - egg mayonnaise, cucumber, salmon and chicken.  We both would have enjoyed a second chicken sandwich!

Afternoon tea - Millennium Hotel Mayfair

Next we moved onto the scones, which were served warm and smelt wonderful!

We had mixed berry preserve, lemon curd and clotted cream to dress our scones. As you can see the scones were a good size....

Afternoon tea - Millennium Hotel Mayfair

The scones were a good texture and made a good base for the cream and jam. I didn't really like the mixed berry preserve - it was a tad bit sour. The lemon curd was delicious though.

Finally we moved onto the sweet plate, which was very chocolate based...

Afternoon tea - Millennium Hotel Mayfair

Now although this plate looks pretty enough, it was rather disappointing. We started on the chocolate and orange cake first (as there were two slices), the flavour was lovely but the texture was incredibly dry - I'm glad the slices were small!

All the other diners had a small fruit tart on their plate....on ours this seemed to have been replaced by a small pile of berries - which our waitress called a "fruit salad". I'm not sure why we weren't given the tart, the others didn't appear to have strawberries on. Even if this was the reason, I'm not sure why I wasn't given a tart and Becca given the "fruit salad" - we were very explicit that the dietary requirements only applied to one person. The other weird item on our plate was the "eton mess", which was essentially cream and meringue. We mixed lemon curd into this to give it some flavour. Again, the strawberries had been removed....but I'm not sure why raspberries weren't used instead!

The other two items were chocolate mouse of one kind or another. Neither were particularly nice and we were left feeling very disappointed.  

Afternoon tea - Millennium Hotel Mayfair

We were only given the opportunity to refill our teapots once during the whole experience - something I regretted declining later in the meal! And at no point did anyone ask us whether we were enjoying the food or if we wanted anything else.

As we had a 2 for 1 offer, we paid just under £30 each for this, which included a glass of champagne. I would suggest that this was even a little pricey for the afternoon tea we were served - but it definitely wasn't worth the £50 price tag it had on the menu.

The restaurant was a nice space, the staff were all professional and friendly and the food we ate was OK - but it wasn't a 5 star afternoon tea experience. 

If you'd like to know more about the Millennium Hotel Mayfair, please pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Afternoon Tea News - Valentine' Special 2017

Hello there,

We are just days from Valentine's day 2017 and we thought it was perfect time to take a peek at some of the sweet treats being served in hotels this year....prepare to drool!

The Love Knot's Valentine's afternoon tea from Conrad St James....

The sweet treats include a Chocolate & red velvet cake, a Frosted rose & vanilla viennese, a Strawberry & yoghurt marble mousse and Sweet vegetable cake with a "love letter", meringue kisses & petals.

Valentine's at The Langham....

Diners can indulge their sweet tooth with:

White chocolate mousse, mango and passion fruit jelly and dark chocolate sable

Strawberry and white balsamic

Victoria sponge

Heart shape cinnamon shortbread cookie

English rose and lychee log

64% dark chocolate, raspberry and almond

How about the Valentine's Wyld Tea at the Mondrain....

This feast includes a glass of Perrier Jouet Rose on arrival and a Gin and raspberry macaroon to take away with a Valentines note.

Valentine's at the Hilton Bath City....

This sweet afternoon tea adventure is accompanied by a glass of Sparkling Rose.

I love the afternoon tea stand!

Fancy something a little bit different, how about afternoon tea at the Daawat Indian Restaurant...

The savouries here include: 

Beetroot gravlax in malted bloomer

Tomato wrap filled with chicken tikka and mint chutney

Paneer pakora on potato-stuffed flatbread

Cucumber and cream cheese on white bloomer

I love how colourful this afternoon tea is!

Finally we have the Valentine's afternoon tea at Amba Hotel, Marble Arch...

The sweet treats here include heart-shaped chocolate sponge, raspberry mousse cake, strawberry shortbread and macaroons.

We hope you've enjoyed our round up of some of the Valentine afternoon teas on offer this February. If you enjoy a Valentine's afternoon tea anywhere this year we'd love to hear all about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea.... Jumeirah Carlton Tower

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're having an excellent day.

Last week Lorna and I decided to treat ourselves to our first afternoon tea of 2017 - we decided we wanted to visit somewhere we hadn't been before.....and we wanted some champagne with our tea! We have featured the Jumeirah Carlton Tower afternoon tea on the blog before, but only as a news article, their afternoon tea offerings always look enticing so we decided to pay them a visit.

Afternoon tea is served in Chinoiserie, an informal dining space in the lobby of the hotel. It's an elegant space, but it gets busy so make sure you book ahead if you want to experience afternoon tea here. We opted to enjoy their champagne afternoon tea.....which I think you'll agree looks rather lovely....

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

There is a good selection of teas to pick from and the servers are happy to help you with your selection. Our champagne was served with a small bowl of strawberries, which all arrived before the tea stand.

Every item on the tea stand was explained to us, with the waiter enthusiastically talking about each treat. We were informed that we could have  second helpings if we wanted.

So far so good! Now let's take a closer look at the savoury items....

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

The selection included:

Roast rib of Aberdeen Angus in a brioche bun with watercress and creamed horseradish

Loch Fyne smoked salmon bridge roll with citrus and chive cream cheese

Keens cheddar on wholemeal bread with spiced tomato chutney

Although the rolls were a little larger than standard finger sandwiches they were so light in texture they didn't leave you feeling too full. All the bread was fresh and the fillings in proportion. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the cheese sandwich (I had more than one!) - testament to simple things being great! I also loved that they had rounded the corners of the bread...

Afternoon tea savouries - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

After the savoury items we moved onto the scones....which were huge....

Afternoon tea scones - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

We had two plain and two fruit each, served with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Despite their size, these scones had such a lovely, light texture - not even a hint of clagginess!

The scones didn't crumble as you cut them and had a good flavour.

Can you see Lorna in the background dressing her scone?

Finally we made it to my favourite bit of afternoon tea....the sweet treats, which were nestled in the middle of this cake stand at perfect eye level.

The cakes were all attractive in appearance, I liked the variety of shapes and colours and couldn't wait to tuck in! The selection included:

Jaffa chocolate delice with caramelised hazelnuts and kumquat confit

Mini mango and lime dome, coconut macaroon

White chocolate and passion fruit éclair

Blackberry and apple meringue tart

(is your mouth watering yet??)

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

We decided to work our way across the stand from left to right, saving the mango and line dome until last as it sounded amazing!

Each sweet treat was well made and tasted fresh. The flavours were well balanced both within each item and across the cake stand, I love the fruit theme.

I loved the lightness of the eclair, the white chocolate worked so well with the passion fruit. Again the pastry was light and non-intrusive, and I loved the appearance of the eclair....

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

My least favourite item was the Blackberry and apple meringue tart as I couldn't really taste the apple, but I loved the pastry which was light and buttery and it looked so pretty with glitter on the blackberries.....

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

The Jaffa chocolate delice was scrummy, I love chocolate and orange as a flavour combo! The flavours were light and not at all artificial and despite being quite large this sweet treat was incredibly light in texture....

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

Finally we had the mango and lime dome, which was definitely my favourite. 

w on reflection I thought the flavours were passion fruit and lime rather than mango (not sure what that says about my taste bud!), but that still doesn't alter my opinion of this sweet treat. It was light in texture and full of  flavours that weren't over powering. The coconut macaroon on the bottom complimented the dome well and there was the cutest mini macaroon on the top.... 

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

The service in Chinoiserie left us a little confused - it took a while to get someones attention, but when you did everything happened really quickly. So, I can't really say that the service was slow, it was just a little disjointed. All the waiting staff were really friendly and made us feel very welcome. 

We would definitely visit Jumeirah Carlton Tower for afternoon tea again, the whole experience was relaxing and the food was wonderful.

Afternoon tea - Jumeirah Carlton Tower

For more information about the afternoon tea at Jumeirah Carlton Tower pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna