My 10 favourite London afternoon teas - 2017 edition

Someone, somewhere in the universe has designated this week national afternoon tea week (only the best week ever to reminisce about afternoons of luxury and who needs more excuse to book a few more?)

It has almost become a blogger cliche, inviting the girls to a few hours of decorous luxury, but one that I rather adore. As I'm getting on in years (feel free to feel sorry for me...) I've swiftly come to the conclusion that I'd rather don a pretty dress to spend a little more on sandwiches and scones, than prop up a pub bar and feel very sorry for myself the next day.

An Ode To Afternoon Tea for #AfternoonTeaWeek (in collaboration with Buyagift)

As a meal, afternoon tea doesn't make a great deal of sense. Delicate slivers of sandwiches, scones slathered with cream (not to mention jam depending on partiality) and a top tier of jewel-like cakes twinkling from a slender stand.

This is even before the champagne menu is presented, and a bouquet of tea flavours is spread before the beautifully manicured guests. Meanwhile, a harpist gently strums in the background and fellow enthusiasts murmur over the gentle tinkle of tea-cups. Oh, and then you get bloke-orientated teas with sliders, hot scotch eggs and a tumbler of ale.

The Luxury Brunch Afternoon Tea at Le Meridien Hotel (warning: this is not a typo)

Brunch is somewhat of a religion in New Zealand, and Afternoon Tea is rather a genteel worship of tinkling tea cups in England. They are both altars that I spend an inordinate amount of time at, both in London and away, and more than once I've declaimed them to be my favourite meals.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Le Meridien but all thoughts, 

flavour sentiments and brunch chants are entirely original.

Somehow, the stars aligned to not only find an afternoon that both Becca (of Runaway Kiwi infamy) and I had free, and coincide with an invite to try out the Brunch Afternoon Tea at Le Meridien Hotel in Piccadilly. Living our best lives indeed.

Genie's Cave Afternoon Tea at Cutter and Squidge

We can show you a world, shining, shimmering, splendid

Tell me, princess, now when did you last let your heart decide?

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of the Genie's Cave Afternoon Tea at Cutter and Squidge

but my lyric wrangling is all very much my own.

We can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder

Down some stairs and underground on a magic carpet ride

An annual afternoon tea at Dalloway Terrace, Bloomsbury Hotel

A year ago we met here. We gathered amidst green boughs, tinkling teacups and marbled table tops. On the table champagne flutes sparkled, delicately dove grey striped crockery nestled arranged just so and green blooms drew the eye to the space left for our afternoon tea towers to occupy.

Disclaimer: We were again invited guests of the Dalloway Terrace at The Bloomsbury Hotel but my (very many meandering) thoughts are still mine.

It is amazing how simultaneously so much, yet so little can change in 365 days .

Hitting the high notes - A limited edition jazz afternoon tea at the Sheraton Grand Hotel Park Lane Hotel

Our evening started as the sun set over the Hyde Park tree canopy. Shaking off my long day at a desk and having sat for a reflective half an hour, I was more than ready to slip into the Sheraton Grand Park Lane hotel, to try out the limited edition Jazz Afternoon Tea with Binny & Aftab.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of the Sheraton Grand Park Lane Hotel
but my verbose words are all mine.

As I sank into the luscious carpet, the harpist gently strummed the final chords of a catchy pop tune (the song escapes me now) and I looked up to see the mischievous grin of Binny float through the door, Cheshire Cat style.

72 hours in Chester

Chester is the first holiday I've ever booked through the power of Instagram alone. We had been looking for somewhere as a long weekend break (well, I say we, but I had actually been put on a travel ban which Mr Kiwi now mostly denies, his baby blues all innocent) when I spotted that a friend of mine had day tripped up to Chester. It was beautiful.

So firing up the laptop, I booked us a cheeky little Cheshire staycation.

Afternoon Tea at the Baglioni Hotel, a chic corner of Kensington

There is no delicate pinky waving of gossamer pastries or wafer-thin slivers of sandwiches that leave your appetite wanting at the Italian style Baglioni Hotel afternoon tea, but a delectable selection of molto bene classics that sets this apart as the Maserati of Kensington teas.

 

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of the Baglioni Hotel but I would definitely take this Afternoon Tea out for another spin on my own dime.

The hotel is a quiet oasis of luxury (well, on the mid-week afternoon that we visited) just across the road from Kensington Palace and Hyde Park, all marble floors and glamorous setting - the perfect place to spend a few hours with good people.

Egerton Hotel: A pawfectly luxurious doggie afternoon tea.

My cutest afternoon tea date (ever) arrived at our Egerton Hotel rendezvous wearing a blue bow tie and his salt & pepper hair suavely combed - just right for a Kensington afternoon tea. 

Paws down, this is the cutest afternoon tea I've ever done. Ever. And I shan't be apologising for the litany of puns about to litter this post. #Sorrynotsorry

A handful of unusual London foodie destinations

Do you ever find yourself in an out-of-the-ordinary corner of London, and hankering for bite to eat? How about when you have to run an unusual errand or meet up with a friend halfway between your place and theirs?

Nb: Post contains a couple of blogger invites**/discounts##.

Or even, when your friends have left it up to you as the 'foodie' to pick a venue for dinner in an awkward part of town not known for gourmet credentials? That's when restaurant selection can run a little bit creative and come up some unusual discoveries. (Pssssssst. To jump on the thematic bandwagon, these would make great surprise Valentine's Day spots with partners, friends or family.)

Festive Afternoon Tea at the Langham Hotel, Marylebone

What is it that’s so special about afternoon tea? It’s only a few little sandwiches and a couple of teeny cakes, right?

Nope, nope, nope.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of The Langham Hotel but my (very many) thoughts are only ever my own.

It’s the act of taking a little time out of our busy lives and setting aside a few hours of pure opulence - from taking a simple cream tea in local vintage café to a special afternoon of grand sumptuousness worthy of a princess. Admittedly of late, they haven’t featured so strongly in my calendar (I think even I got a little overwhelmed with them after devising my afternoon tea golden rules) but they definitively have a special place in my heart.

Friday figments and photos: Oops I did it again

In the famous lyrics of Britney Spears;

You see my problem is this / I'm dreaming away
Wishing that heroes, they truly exist / I cry, watching the days
Can't you see I'm a fool in so many ways

But to lose all my senses / That is just so typically me
Baby, oh

Well, that and I got rather too carried away with the fun of blogging, and let drift my favourite section of the blogosphere - remembering to journal life as it comes.

Afternoon Tea Dalloway Terrace Bloomsbury Hotel & a hashtag of bloggers

We gathered amidst green boughs, tinkling teacups and marbled table tops. On the table champagne flutes sparkled, delicately dove grey striped crockery nestled arranged just so and green blooms drew the eye to the space left for our afternoon tea towers to occupy.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of the Dalloway Terrace at The Bloomsbury Hotel but my (very many) thoughts are only ever my own.

A stone’s throw away the hustle and bustle of Tottenham Court Road, we drew our seats on a peaceful, secret terrace undiscovered by the marauding hordes of shoppers nearby. Our beautifully dressed waiters found themselves grinning at the antics of the hashtag of bloggers snapping merrily away at, well, everything as they poured (and re-poured for photos) tea from the gleaming silver teapots and topped up our glasses of Perrier Jouët.

Dining at The Ritz

As well as visiting Claridges for the best afternoon tea we have ever had (if it's good enough for the New Zealand Prime Minister...) and trying out the fresh menu at Fera for our last wedding anniversary, enjoying The Ritz has always been on our ‘to do’ list. Languishing on there for far too long, we decided to seize the day, and book ourselves in for a treat. With no real anniversaries, birthdays or special occasions for months ahead as an excuse, we decided to book it in in spite of having nothing to celebrate. YOLO right?

Having heard on the grapevine from several friends and family over the years that The Ritz's afternoon tea didn’t live up to the iconic status as it should do, we decided to mix things up a little and enjoy dinner instead. We turned it into a little ‘staycation’ weekend – beginning with movies on the Friday, Saturday was breakfast in bed and pottering around an exhibition in the morning before our glamorous dinner, with Sunday spent soaking in sunshine before our appetites led us to a delicious roast dinner. It couldn't have been more perfect.

36 hours in Abu Dhabi

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are man-made constructions of steel towering over sand and manufactured coastline, but there is definitely beauty to be found in the desert cities. Whilst on our protracted stopover, there were 4 things we had wanted to do whilst in the UAE; sleep in the desert, meet up with my cousin, cuddle my friend’s new baby and explore the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Anything more was a bonus.

Whilst you could easily pop over from Dubai to Abu Dhabi as a day trip (the cities are only an hour or so drive from each other), we overnighted in Abu Dhabi in where we crashed a house party (I say crashed, we brought NZ chocolate as my cousin’s guests of honor, apparently invited to help drink the cupboard dry of NZ vodka which we did with nationalistic fervour), ate cake with expat friends and just kinda hung out admiring the city.

Floristry (and afternoon tea) by Lord Hurst, Doncaster Yorkshire

I've spent a lot of time changing trains at Doncaster and hanging out on platforms with hastily snatched coffee watching locomotives roll through this large South Yorkshire market town station. It wasn't until I happened upon a certain (currently) purple haired girl of mischief, one Miss Dannielle of Chicadeedee blogging fame, and was invited to leave said station for an hour or two (ok, actually a house-warming party) that I managed to see a little more than industrial rooftops.

Originally a Roman Fort built in the 1st Century AD, Doncaster was built on the riverbanks of the Don, and is known to most English people for the deep seam of coal and heavy industry. Or as my Northerner puts it "those lads are hard men". Because of this when we popped in for afternoon tea at Lord Hursts, found about 10 minutes walk from the train station in a leafy suburb, we were surprised to say the very least.

It is simply like falling down the rabbit hole to Wonderland. Yorkshire-style.

The Wallace Collection (and a spot of afternoon tea)

Is it just me, or do you simultaneously feel like Peter Pan never wanting to grow up or begin adulting and like a little old lady who frequents art galleries in puzzled wonderment before returning home to her cat? Whilst many people live for tipsy evenings at throbbing nightclubs, I'm really never happier than quietly strolling through hallways lined with majestic artifacts and historical portraiture that tells tales of another time (finishing with a glass of something cheeky obvs.). No? Just me?

  

 

Disclaimer: Access to The Wallace Collection is free, but we were invited guests of The Wallace Restaurant for afternoon tea. My (very many) opinions are only ever my own, and I would never recommend anywhere that I wouldn't happily revisit (again and again and again like I do...)

Even if you aren't willing to admit to the above personality traits publicly, I absolutely know that it is true of many of my good mates. So, in the interests of the culture vultures in us all, we took a little stroll away from the Oxford Street shopping carnage a weekend or two ago, and simply indulged in a little classical opulence. ('We' being the foodie loving, worldwide crew of myself, Jess, Heidi, Madeleine and Manjiri.)

Charing Cross Station + Audrey Hepburn + Afternoon Tea

Did you know that Charing Cross is used to define the centre of London? All those signs that travellers encounter around the world that say "xxx miles to London" point to this station (and more accurately an equestrian statue of Charles I). By that logic, Charing Cross should be infamous, but it seems to be forgotten in the company of Paddington (Bear) Station, King Cross (Platform 9 & 3/4s) Station and Waterloo (hello Abba, you have much to answer for).

Over the years that we've passed by and through Charing Cross as we potter around the English countryside, I've often wondered about the building that sits atop the transport heart of London (see what I did there?) Luckily, a couple of weekends ago, the Amba team at Charing Cross hotel invited a few of us blogging reprobates in for an afternoon of sipping champagne and local culture.

My 10 favourite afternoon teas (2015)

Someone, somewhere in the universe has designated this week as it's national afternoon tea week (though I mean honestly, who needs more excuse to book and reminisce about afternoons of luxury?) It has almost become a blogger cliche, inviting the girls to a few hours of decorous luxury, but one that I rather adore. As I'm getting on in years (feel free to feel sorry for me...) I've swiftly come to the conclusion that I'd rather don a pretty dress to spend a little more on sandwiches and scones, than prop up a pub bar and feel very sorry for myself the next day.

Running this list last year in honour of National Afternoon Tea Week, and as I'm - surprisingly - often asked for recommendations (thank goodness my reputation is for afternoon tea and nothing more scurrilous) or for my favourite, it seemed that another top list was in order. I find the hardest aspect of recommending a tea is that everyone wants something different; some people want opulent luxury, some prefer quirky surrounds, some fancy value for money. #bloggerproblems

Personally, I love flavours that surprise and combinations that tickle the palate - at least a tier or two that showcases the personality of the chef and hotel, good but not oppressively attentive waiter service and fairly generous servings - Emma doesn't share. In fact I got so cross last year, it seemed a great idea to draft a post outlining my 'golden rules of afternoon tea'. After all we could simply pop along to the supermarket for a £1 ham sandwich and a plastic encased cheesecake slice if that's all we were after, but choose instead to open our wallets for something that we hope epitomises the finer side of London life.

Betwixt brunch & tea; Blixen and The Townhouse, Shoreditch London

London’s East End is so up and coming sometimes it can make your teeth hurt. Bearded hipsters with rolled up jeans cuffs, and fashionistas wearing black hoodies with gold lace trim. Microbreweries reviving the old-fashioned flavour of beer, gin-temples opening for office bods to worship at a glass high-altar and sky-rocketing house prices pushing cockney families and their breakfast eels to the edge of town.

Though, it is revitalising a corner of London that could have been left to rot; a community stuck between the silver sky rises of the financial district and the plush suburbs of the circle line bubble. But hey, who needs to read a history lesson from the eyes of an import (that would be me) when there’s important matters at hand, namely brunch, coffee and cake.

 

Lately there have been two haunts catching our attention; one brand new and shiny, one older than the cobblestones. Together they perfectly encapsulate the spirit of Spitalfields. Well, in my humble opinion anyway…