Time for Tea.....Rosewood London

Hello there,

This weekend Lorna and I were lucky enough to be invited to sample the afternoon tea at the newly opened Rosewood London hotel in Holborn (a two minute stroll from the tube station). I know of the hotel because I have viewed their event space previously and I knew that the hotel itself is very elegant and oozed opulence, so we were very keen to experience their afternoon tea offering.

The Rosewood London opened in October 2013 following a refurbishment of the previous hotel on the site. The hotel celebrates the local area and allows guests to enjoy luxurious surroundings. As Lorna and I arrived at the hotel quite early, we headed into Scarfes Bar for a cocktail first....well it would be rude not too!

The bar is beautiful...full of comfy seating, a roaring fire and a large collection of antique books. They have a good cocktail list, offering an unusual selection of cocktails.

Cocktails at Scarfes Bar, Rosewood London

We managed to spend an hour in the bar very easily, and before we knew it, it was time to head to The Mirror Room to enjoy a spot of tea. The Mirror Room is truly elegant, with lots of seating for both couples and larger groups. At one end there is yet another fire and also the cake table. The room is kept quite dark, with the atmosphere being driven by candles on the tables, soft lighting and slightly controversially piped music.

The elegant Mirror Room
Rosewood London

 Now, usually I take photos of the menu to remind myself post tea of the selection we indulged in....but this time I did not so we will have to rely on my memory!

After being seated we had the choice of a champagne afternoon tea at £49.00 each or the traditional afternoon tea at £39.00 each. Having already indulged in a cocktail we opted for the traditional tea. 

We also needed to select tea from the selection on the menu, there were several black teas, a white tea, green teas, a yellow tea and herbal infusions to pick from. I opted for the delicate white tea and Lorna went with their yellow tea. Teas were served in individual glass teapots, which suited the modern surroundings of the Mirror Room.

Once tea was served we were brought our sandwich selection on a rather cute stand.....

Afternoon tea sandwiches
Rosewood London

Now, I have to say that these were the most dainty looking creations that I have seen in a while. Perfect rectangles and not a crust in sight - they were nearly perfect, except the bread was a tiny bit dry on the top. We enjoyed a cream cheese, radish and black pepper sandwich (sounds a tad bit weird, but tasted wonderful), a cheese, ham and smoked butter sandwich and the most amazing egg mayonnaise sandwich I have ever eaten! I think it may have also had some onion in either the egg mixture or the bread....it was delicious! 

In fact all three fillings were lovely, and the softer fillings were actually pipped into the sandwich - adding to their beauty! Take a look at this egg sandwich.....

Afternoon tea sandwich - Rosewood London

Now, here lies a little disappointment for me....as I would have loved another one (or two) of those sandwiches. However, while I was away from the table the waiter whisked our empty sandwich stand away and returned with the scones without asking Lorna if we would like more sandwiches. I did question this after our tea with another waitress and she assured me that we should have been offered more sandwiches....so if you do indulge in tea at the Rosewood London and fancy more sandwiches, don't be shy to ask for them if they are not offered!

The scones were served warm.....really warm....as if they were fresh out of the oven. They were served with clotted cream, lemon curd and strawberry jam....all served in silver pots or containers.....

Warm scones - Rosewood London

Now, my disappointment at not having a second helping of those tasty sandwiches was eased by the fact that there scones were amazing! We had two, very good sized scones - one plain and one fruity. The scones looked lovely, with a good glaze on the top. They had a lovely crunchy exterior, but were light and fluffy inside. The lemon curd was tart and zingy, a taste explosion! The strawberry jam was equally as good, really fresh and sweet. 

Once we had finished our scones, the sweet treats were brought out on another beautiful cake stand.....

Sweet treats
Rosewood London

Now this is where tea got a little controversial again, if you look closely there is an amazing selection of sweet treats on that stand. There were six different items, plus petite fours.....but they were all different! Now I don't know about you, but I hate that conversation about who is going to eat each sweet treat at tea when there is a selection like this! However, all the sweets were a good size and so Lorna and I decided to split each one, making sure we could both try them all!

Afternoon tea sweets - Rosewood London

The selection of sweets was divided into distinct flavours, with a top fruity tier which included an amazing raspberry macaroon. A zingy citrus tier which featured a passion fruit eclair. And finally a chocolate selection featuring a rather scrummy piece of Opera cake.

Afternoon tea sweets - Rosewood London

The sweet treats all tasted divine, the textures were great and everything was so fresh. Once we'd demolished all the sweets we were offered more cakes, we could either enjoy something from the selection we had already enjoyed, or we could have something different! Yes, it turns out that there were even more sweets to try!

Now being ever so slightly greedy, I decided that I did want to squeeze one more thing in (I have no idea how!) and I took a recommendation from the waitress. 

She brought me a rather large piece of passion fruit cake.....

Afternoon tea - Rosewood London

This was also amazing, very zingy and light....but I couldn't finish the whole piece!

All in all this was a wonderful afternoon tea, everything tasted wonderful and there was a great variety. I was a little bit disappointed that we weren't offered more sandwiches and it took a while for the waiter to notice that our teapots were empty, but all the waiters and waitresses in the Mirror Room were extremely friendly and professional.

At £39.00 for the traditional tea, this is a treat, but I think its worth it. The surroundings are wonderful and the afternoon tea is very tasty, we definitely enjoyed our glamorous afternoon!

I'd like to thank the Rosewood London for their kind hospitality.

Thank you for popping by today,
Rachel