Time for Tea.....The Arch

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - today we have another new afternoon tea to share with you! Last weekend Becca and I went to The Arch near Marble Arch to try their new Royal Afternoon Tea which celebrates the Queen's 90th Birthday.

The Arch is a family run hotel, located just off Oxford Street near Marble Arch. We enjoyed our afternoon tea in Hunter 486, which was comfortable and stylish. Jing Tea is served at The Arch, there is a great selection to pick from. The china has been especially selected for this afternoon tea.....its so pretty!!

The afternoon tea menu itself is very traditional, very befitting of a Royal Afternoon Tea......

Afternoon tea - The Arch, London

The savoury selection includes a Rare roast beef, horseradish, watercress and crispy shallots open sandwich, a Honey baked ham and piccalilli finger sandwich, an Egg mayonnaise and mustard cress finger sandwich, Stilton cheese straws and Chicken liver parfait served with brioche fingers and a spiced fig chutney. A great selection of savouries - something for everyone!

Afternoon tea savouries - The Arch, London

The sandwiches were all fresh and tasty, although there could have been a little more egg mayonnaise filling. We both really enjoyed the cheese straws, but Becca's favourite was the chicken liver parfait.

Next we enjoyed the scones - we were served a plain and a fruit scone each, served with strawberry jam and clotted cream. Becca is allergic to Strawberries (shocking I know) and so the staff brought out some apricot jam. We were impressed with how the hotel dealt with Becca's food allergies considering there were a lot of strawberries on the menu and I had forgotten to notify the hotel before we arrived.

The scones were big and very tasty - light and fluffy inside, not at all claggy. Now remember that I said Becca really liked the chicken liver parfait.....well she liked it that much that she also enjoyed it on one of her scones! Apparently it tasted really good.....

Scones dressed the Becca way....with chicken liver parfait

Finally we started on the cake selection which included Battenberg cake, a Strawberry and pistachio tart (or raspberry and pistachio for Becca), Macaroons, an Eton mess and a Chocolate orange tea cake.....

Afternoon tea cakes - The Arch, London

My favourite cake was the Battenburg cake - despite the purple colouring instead of the traditional pink. I also enjoyed the chocolate and orange tea cake, although the consistency was a little sticky. This was a good selection of sweet treats, catering for lots of different tastes. Each piece was a generous portion.

All in all this was a lovely afternoon tea - everything was fresh and the flavours were well balanced. We weren't offered additional items, but at £25.00 per person and with really generous portion sizes we had a filling afternoon tea. If like the Queen you are celebrating, you can add a glass of champagne to the afternoon tea - £38.00 per person.

See ...... I told you it was pretty china......

Afternoon tea scones - The Arch, London

The staff at the hotel are all very friendly and knowledgeable about the afternoon tea.

We'd like to thank The Arch for inviting us to try their new afternoon tea. But please remember that this has not affected our taste buds and all opinions expressed in this blog post are our own.

If you'd like to experience this afternoon tea for yourself, its available until the 10th July 2016. For more information pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel