Mum and I's birthdays fall next door to each other, last year was the big 21 and 50 birthdays so this year we kept it a little chilled. However, a tradition curated from last year's celebrations is one we're all partial to sticking to, afternoon tea in London.
The city has seen an influx of afternoon teas, there's the classic hotels who have done it for centuries (The Dorchester I'm looking at you) but not everyone can afford it so everyone twigged on and started doing cheaper ones but with slightly less flair. With so many people enjoying this new British revival it's difficult to know where to go for a quality afternoon tea with something a little bit special.
After some research I used my favourite website www.bookatable.com and found the Park Room and Library in the ground floor of the Grosvenor House Hotel. My Mum reads this blog but I think she'll be happy to know the deal I got for this, it looked good, the reviews were all happy, it became a contender. However, something tipped it into the YES YES category which unfortunately they don't do anymore (I think they cottoned on that it was too good to be true) we had unlimited champagne, yep you heard me unlimited. Now it's only 3 glasses but I can tell you they're not stingy on their pouring of the Pommeray.
We started with our pots of tea, I went for their House Royal Blend, I've become obsessed with Assam tea, and Mum went for the Afternoon Tea, both were slightly sweet but with a really deep taste (look at me pretending to know about tea!)
Along came a palette cleanser of mango and orange glass which was half jelly half juice.
Then arrived the main event...
They're the pictures you want to see! This beautiful array was placed on our table (with a second round of sandwiches and scones to come) we sprung into action trying everything and picking out our favourites.
This has got to be the favourite layer, the raspberry shortcake was melt in the mouth.
Thinking we couldn't eat any more along came the scones, cheese and plain with plenty of jams and thick clotted cream, you know me I'm not exactly going to leave any of it am I!
When I booked I mentioned that it was our birthdays but I wasn't sure what to expect. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a couple of waiters coming towards us and realised the pianist had started to play Happy Birthday, we were presented a fruit tart each with a candle and a lot of singing leaving us with smiles and red faces, it was such a lovely touch and really sweet.
Needless to say, we left there absolutely stuffed! The room is gorgeous, the waiters attentive and lovely, we had such an amazing start to our birthday shenanigans and I hope our afternoon tea tradition never ends!
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