Afternoon tea in Mayfair don't you know...

It's been a wee while since my last tea and cake.  I need to cut down on cake, sadly.  As it was my lovely friend Liyu's special birthday I was happy to break my cake-fasting for one night only.  We met at the Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair for a traditional afternoon tea.  Now, as a supposed tea and cake lover, I have to admit I have only been to one traditional tea before and am not au fait with the protocol that surrounds these events.  It can feel a bit intimidating but there were lots of families around so it didn't feel overly snooty.  The staff were friendly and I didn't feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (you know, when she goes to the posh shops and they look down on her, I was wearing a dress from Peacocks and was convinced they'd know).  This place had a lot to live up to, as for the last three years it has won an "Award for Excellence " from the Tea Guild (Tea Guild??  How does one get to work for them?).  The setting was lovely, in a conservatory at the back of the hotel.  It was all set-up to be the creme de la creme of afternoon teas, but sadly in practice they didn't quite live up to my expectations (or should I say my wallet's expectations?). 


We were given a menu of teas and rather unimaginatively recommended the "afternoon" blend.  I wanted to be adventurous, and despite my day dreams of taking the toy train up to Darjeeling I've never been, or had its tea, so this would be my opportunity.  Sadly I didn't like it and had to put a sugar cube in, I can't blame the tea only my poor palette.  The sandwiches and cakes came on a darling tray and were of the highest quality.  The issue I had was that only two trays and two tea pots were brought over for 6 people.  The staff only came to offer refills once we'd eaten our two sandwich bites and the cakes.  You can't go back to sandwiches after cake!  Perhaps we should've been more proactive in asking for more, but without knowing whether this was actually included I feared an Oliver Twist style riposte.  So all in all I paid £25 (including service charge) for 2 sandwich bites, 2 mini scones, half a mini lemon tart, half an eclair and perhaps 4 small cups of tea.  I mean, to be fair, I couldn't have eaten much more but I felt that if I had come alone I probably would've been given the whole tray to myself as the charge was per person not per tray.  I do have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about getting what I'm entitled to, maybe I am being harsh to criticise.  But all in all it was a lovely afternoon, and you can't put a price on good company :-)

I didn't take a photo of the tea because I was so amazed with Simon's hot chocolate teapot, sooo going to make myself one of those.


Tea and Cake rating: 3
Atmosphere: 5