Time for Tea....Boyds London

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends, this week I was very lucky to be invited to the afternoon tea launch at Boyds Brasserie in London. I was a guest of both Boyds and Square Meals, along with a group of lovely food bloggers.

I had seen a photo of the new afternoon tea which launched on the 7th July and was keen to try it out for myself.....

Afternoon tea - Boyds London
Photo from website

Not your usual afternoon tea venue, Boyds is a restaurant located a very short stroll from Trafalgar Square on Northumberland Avenue. Boyds is very proud of it's British menu, sourcing everything from within Great Britain. It's interior is rather glamorous, but also relaxed - a nice environment to enjoy a spot of tea in!

Your afternoon tea at Boyds is served on plain white china and glass serving plates - which gives the tea a modern feel. The menu however, is quite traditional with a slight quirky start and finish!

Afternoon Tea China & Menu

The afternoon tea feast at Boyds begins with traditional sandwiches...but also a serving of potted shrimp. I have never seen this on an afternoon tea menu before, but I am pleased to report that it made a lovely addition.....

Afternoon Tea - Potted Shrimps - Boyds

The potted shrimp was light and flavoured well and the crisp bread made a perfect accompaniment. It was a rather fresh and scrummy way to start the meal. The potted shrimp was served alongside a traditional sandwich platter....

Afternoon Tea Sandwiches - Boyds

As you'll notice there wasn't a controversial hint of crust in sight....I can also confirm that the bread was soft and fresh. The fillings included a lovely egg mayonnaise and watercress served on white bread, smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill served on brown and salted beef with pickled cucumber and Dijon also on brown bread.

I really enjoyed the egg sandwich and also the salmon, unfortunately the salted beef wasn't for me - I am not a huge fan of pickled things or Dijon...but my fellow diners all seemed to enjoy it.

Once we had enjoyed the savoury elements, we were served the sweets on a two tier cake stand....

The Sweets at Boyds!

The scones are served with clotted cream and strawberry preserve, these are followed by a lovely selection of perfectly sized cakes and pastries.

Scones ...dressed the Tea With Me and Friends way!

Although the scones weren't served warm, they were a good size and perfectly fluffy in the middle. Not claggy in texture at all. I enjoyed both the cream and dollop of jam and am pleased to report that there was plenty of both on offer! As you can imagine....bringing a group of food bloggers together brought about debate regarding the "correct" way to dress your scones. Regular readers will know which way I fought!

Perfectly Sized Afternoon Tea Sweets - Boyds

The sweet selection included a wonderful piece of fruit cake, which was full of flavour but not at all heavy. There was also a bite sized eclair, which was so light, a fresh strawberry tart and a piece of lemon drizzle cake. My favourite items were the eclair and the fruit cake - which surprised me! I made the mistake of leaving my piece of lemon drizzle to last, unfortunately this meant the air had got to the cake a little by the time I ate it and it was a little dry. The flavour however was wonderful. 

All of the items were a good size and easy to eat. I enjoyed all the flavours - all in all it was a very nice sweet plate!

Finally, there is one last item to finish the afternoon tea experience.....

Mini ice creams - Boyds

Yes, they are cute little ice cream cones! 

I really enjoyed the chocolate wafer combined with the vanilla ice cream....and the use of "hundreds and thousands" adds a fun element. They were really scrummy and a lovely end to the afternoon tea.

This afternoon tea costs £19.90 per person with tea, if you want a treat you can include a glass of champagne for £29.90 per person. I think this is a good value afternoon tea, full of scrummy items. For more information please visit the Boyds website.

A group of food bloggers....identifiable by the
amount of cameras/mobiles on the table!

I'd like to thank Boyds and Square Meal for their hospitality - we were all well looked after, and it was brilliant to talk to some other food bloggers. Although I was a guest at this event, this has not clouded my judgement and all opinions expressed in this article are my own.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel