The best London hotels for afternoon tea: Where to visit for city views, tradition and sweet treats
The afternoon tea is a sophisticated staple at most of the major players on London’s hotel scene, but where some shine with scones, others fall as flat as a limp cucumber sandwich.
Planning a visit to England’s capital? Don your glad rags for a taste of tradition with tiers of finger sandwiches, pastries and brilliant brews.
Gone are the days when afternoon tea constituted a “light meal”, nowadays the ritual can be as experimental in cuisine as it can with theme, with everything from Asian-fusion feasts to sci-fi confectionery on the menu.
From high tea heavyweight The Ritz to The Shard’s city panoramas and the Cornish classics of Park Lane, there’s something for everyone to relish in style.
Here are the best London drawing rooms to indulge in stacks of sweet and savoury treats with trusty teapots or flutes of champagne to sip on the side – it’s always five o’clock somewhere after all.
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Best for: Elegance
For a timeless afternoon tea in Oscar Wilde style, pastry chef Loic Carbonnet puts on a decadent display of sandwiches, scones and desserts in the Hotel Café Royal’s grade II-listed Grill Room. Over 20 blends of white, green, black, tisane and oolong tea flow into fine china as egg and truffle, roast beef and curried chicken savouries are brought out for sampling. Delicate sweet treats are what Carbonnet does best, with apple tartlets, coconut éclair’s and a citrus cheesecake rivalling in elegance even the gold leaf details and intricate ceilings of the surrounding room.
Traditional afternoon tea at Hotel Café Royal costs £75pp.
Best for: Plant-based
It may be London’s oldest hotel, but if you’re looking for vegan treats at tea time then Brown’s has caught up with the times. Aside from traditional flavours such as smoked salmon and horseradish on a malted loaf, and cucumber and goat cheese on white bread, Queen Victoria’s favourite haunt also offers a plant-based menu with coronation vegetables, pumpkin seed pesto, and chocolate and clementine cake stacked onto the tiers. This is the quintessential English experience with original wood panelling, Jacobean ceilings and roaring fires warming the cockles as you sip your brew.
Plant-based afternoon tea at Brown’s Hotel costs £75pp.
Best for: Families
Ever taken your toppings in a testube?
The Ampersand has shaken things up with a children’s science afternoon tea that blasts off on a red rocket stand – mini hot dogs, dinosaur jam sandwiches, blackcurrant planets and chocolate lollipops in tow. You can forget boring cups of tea, it’s “spaceman” hot chocolate with all the trimmings on this quirky outing. Inspired by the nearby Science Museum, the tea comes complete with test tube toppings and a milk chocolate fossil hidden within chocolate “soil” in an impressive cloud of dry ice. Don’t worry, the adults aren’t excluded from this imaginative affair, with classic smoked salmon blinis, tempting white chocolate cranberry scones and fruity macarons to satisfy the whole family.
The kids’ sci-fi afternoon tea at The Ampersand costs £35 per child; adults’ menu £49.50pp.
Best for: Art enthusiasts
Brown’s has been excelling at afternoon tea since 1837
The Rosewood’s intricate desserts take inspiration from international artists
