Last weekend, I caught up with Kristy (of GK/UK fame!), for another one of our slow food days. Admittedly we cheated a little at this particular challenge, instead choosing to go out for a long afternoon tea. Other than the one that I had first in Canada at the Banff Springs Hotel, I had yet to do an afternoon tea experience in any of the places in London, and if anyone has visited here, they know there’s plenty to choose from. We decided upon doing it at the restaurant inside the long time standing, Fortnum and Mason.
Sunday is obviously a popular time to partake in afternoon tea at St James’ constantly busy from the time we got there until the time we left. Of course, being a slow food day, and being a while since I caught up with Kristy, we sat around for some time chatting with slowing eating the tiny bite sized morsels.
I’m guessing that St James’ has a proper dining area because their afternoon tea is held in the bright, airy lounge area, complete with comfy sofas and chairs to host their customers. A pianist played almost continually throughout our time their, and Kristy impressed me by recognising many of the songs he would play. The lounges are comfy enough though if we both sat back, it felt like we had to shout at each other across the table.
As you can see from the picture above, we indulged in quite a bit of tiny morsels, starting with a set of savoury sandwiches, and a tiny tartlet that we both agreed was the best, moving up the stack to scones and a tiny selection of cakes that the waitress let us choose in particular from a large tray. Overall the afternoon tea experience was pretty much perfect with enough room between the tables for some privacy, and service for topping up the tea. The sandwiches, cakes and tea were all at the right level of quality and the only strange thing is probably the fact that Kristy and I barely made a dent on the average age of people there.
I have no idea about how it compares to other places for high tea, but Fortnum and Mason’s St James’ certainly delivers.
TheKua.Com Rating: 8 out of 10