Afternoon Tea at The Langham

Afternoon tea is a wonderful thing, if you haven’t been for a proper afternoon tea then I would highly recommend it. Prices range from £15 – £45 depending on where you go, but a great website to find one to suit your budget is www.afternoontea.co.uk. I have been to a few different places, including the Ritz, but the very best I found was at The Langham. Although expensive, it was a delightful experience, and the food was amazing.

My friend Emily and I went a couple of years ago and shared two different afternoon teas, on the gratefully received recommendation from our waiter. One was the Wonderland afternoon tea at £35, one was the special Bijoux tea at £45 – by ordering one of each we got the benefit of trying everything! The prices have gone up a little now – but you can still get the two different menus.

The tea menu was detailed and vast, but we didn’t need it – our tea sommelier made some wonderful recommendations.

To begin we had sandwiches, but you could hardly class the ones on the Bijoux menu as sandwiches – they were exquisite! The picture below hardly does them justice. The roast beef one had a smear of fois gras beneath the rare beef and a square of fruity jelly on top. What really impressed us was that we were offered more sandwiches once we had finished the first round – we happily accepted another round from both menus!

We were then asked if we were ready for the scones – which were brought out from the kitchen warm, wrapped in a napkin to hold their heat. There were two flavours, one chocolate and orange, one with champagne soaked raisins, and were probably the lightest, most delicious scones I’ve ever eaten. Naturally, they were served with butter, jam and clotted cream.

We then moved on to the pastries and cakes, which were as delicious as they were beautiful. The pictures below speak for themselves.

We were then brought a cupcake each, again utterly beautiful with perfect taste and texture. The only problem was we were far too full to eat it all!

Although one of the most expensive afternoon teas out there, it was definitely worth it. We spent 3 relaxed hours there enjoying the wonderful atmosphere, food and drink and service. If you time it right it will replace lunch and dinner – so really offers great value.