Time for Tea....Quaglinos, London

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

Recently Lorna and I visited Quaglinos in St James, London to try their Prohibition Afternoon Tea. Dating back to 1929, Quaglinos has a 1920s look and feel, some the stylish interior to the uniform the waitresses wear, this place just oozes glamour.

Afternoon tea is served in the bar rather than the restaurant and be warned - it gets very busy. You need to book this tea in advance, and the restaurant will request credit card details from guests to guarantee the booking.

This afternoon tea begins with a cocktail from a selection of three...

I opted for the fruity "Raspberry Ricky", while Lorna went for the more masculine "Manhattan Under Smoke". Both cocktails were well made and enjoyable. 

The afternoon tea stand continues with the art deco feel...

The savouries included:

Egg & baby cress, disc brioche toast

Prawn cocktail & baby gem leaf

Chicken & basil on white bread

Smoked salmon rosti

Cured ham grissini

The fairly surprising thing about the savoury items was that the majority of the items came with a toasted bread element. The rosti and brioche toast we expected to be toasted, but the white bread in the square chicken sandwich was also toasted.....and the little roll that contained the prawns was basically rock hard. Although this plate looked attractive and very appealing, it was a bit of a let down. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with a good old fashioned finger sandwich on fresh bread!

Next came the scones....

We had one each, served with butter a small blob of clotted cream and one pot (yes just one) of preserve. What you see in the photo above is literally what you get! 

Ignoring the fact that there was limited dressing for our scones, once we tried to cut into them we came across another issue....they were so crumbly....

Lorna made a right mess of her scone!

Once we managed to cut into them, the scones were ok - nothing overly special though. We moved swiftly onto the sweet treats on the top tier of the stand, which looked a lot more promising....

The sweets included a varied selection:

Bitter chocolate marquise

Pear tart

Lemoncello posset

Macaroons

Crackled coffee choux

These were all ok, but probably looked a bit better than they tasted. The stand out item was the crackled coffee choux, which was light and delicately flavoured. It was so well made - I could have eaten loads of them!

This afternoon tea is available for £29.50 per person for cocktail tea or you can upgrade to a 

Veuve Clicquot champagne tea £34.50 per person (includes a flute of champagne per guest). There are no refills available and although the service was good when we first arrived it went rapidly downhill as the bar filled up.

For more information about this afternoon tea visit the Quaglinos website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea.....1920s style at Byfleet Manor

Hello there,

Welcome back to another afternoon tea post from Tea With Me and Friends - this time we have a very special afternoon tea adventure to share with you.

If you have visited our blog before you will probably remember hearing about The Secret Tea Society which both Lorna and I are members of. Its a group of like minded ladies who meet at tea events across London and Surrey to indulge in our afternoon tea passion and have a good natter. I have been a member for a while now and have been to several events, I have to say that it's a wonderful group to belong to. Our tea leader Claire is wonderful and arranges the most amazing tea events for us.....and the other ladies are all so friendly and welcoming. To read more about The Secret Tea Society or to join us visit the website!

This particular tea affair was rather special as we were gathering together to celebrate the first Birthday of The Secret Tea Society....and what a wonderful experience it was. Claire arranged a 1920s afternoon tea party at Byfleet Manor in Surrey for us. Now if you are a fan of Downton Abbey you may just recognise the inside of Byfleet Manor, as it currently features in the TV programme as Dowager Violet's House.

The beautiful Byfleet Manor

Byfleet Manor is beautiful both inside and out, with extensive gardens. With the perfect theme and setting, the guests needed to look the part too dressing in 1920s style attire.....

Some of the gorgeous Secret Tea Society ladies
enjoying tea at Byfleet Manor

As it was a Birthday celebration each Tea Society member at the event received a gift - a beautifully decorated biscuit by Clare's Cakes and some wonderful loose leaf tea. Thank you Claire for such a thoughtful gift (I still haven't eaten the biscuit - its far too pretty!)......

Then the feast began....we were served tea in pretty vintage teacups and ate the daintiest sandwiches and pastries on vintage china. Here is the cake stand that was presented to the table.....

Afternoon tea at Byfleet Manor

Let's start with a closer look at those wonderful sandwiches.....

Dainty afternoon tea sandwiches

We enjoyed a wonderful traditional selection of afternoon tea sandwiches including cucumber, chicken, my favourite egg mayonnaise and salmon - served on both brown and white bread. The sandwiches were delightful - very fresh and tasty and no crusts in sight!

The scones were served on a glass cake stand, dusted with icing sugar and accompanied by fresh strawberries.....

Fresh scones - Byfleet Manor

We had one large scone each, which was generously fruited and served with clotted cream and strawberry preserve. I enjoyed my scone very much - it was light and fluffy.

Moving back to the main cake stand we have a layer of pastries and cakes to enjoy....

Fresh fruit pastries - Byfleet Manor

The cakes with the blackberries on top were circles of light vanilla sponge sandwiched together with scrummy lemon curd (a personal favourite!). The treats with the raspberries on top were pastry filled with cream and preserve - also very nice.

At this point we may have been getting full, but we still had the top layer of the cake stand to enjoy.....

Sweet treats - Byfleet Manor

This layer included a wonderful selection of sweet treats, including mini toffee tarts, fruit tarts and mini pieces of chocolate brownie - all perfectly sized to be enjoyed by ladies!

Finally, we each had a mini strawberry trifle - served in a little shot glass....

The trifle was light and refreshing, and I thought it was a lovely addition to afternoon tea.

As I mentioned earlier I thoroughly enjoyed the vanilla sponge with lemon curd, which not only tasted wonderful but was also beautifully presented.....

I really enjoyed all the food which was served at this afternoon tea - it was all fresh and both looked and tasted wonderful. 

We finished the afternoon with an awards ceremony - celebrating our favourite venues and also some special members of the Secret Tea Society. The certificate below belongs to the lovely Monique Lowe from Toasted Glass (amazing hand painted glassware) who has rather impressively only missed one of the tea events since the beginning of the Secret Tea Society!

Award time - Secret Tea Society

The whole experience was so enjoyable and totally unique! Byfleet Manor is a beautiful venue, styled authentically and Julie the owner is a wonderful hostess.

Byfleet Manor is a private residence which periodically offers events to the public - the next being a 1920s Murder Mystery Afternoon Tea. For more information pop by their website.

A big thank you to Clarie for arranging this afternoon tea - I am looking forward to the next one!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel