Sunday 4 January 2009

High Tea at the Lanesborough

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

As part of their Christmas Gift to us, PetDoc and Noise treated us to high tea at the Lanesborough Hotel this afternoon. We were afraid that we might be a little under-dressed (and outclassed, too, for that matter) but we were actually quite comfortable and had a marvellous time. The hotel is across the street from Hyde Park, right across the square from Wellington Arch. The hotel was awarded the Tea Guild award for 2008 - Best Afternoon Tea. And we found out why!!
We began with a glass of Taittinger champagne, accompanied by a generous dish of strawberries with cream poured over them. The sommelier helped us choose our teas - PetDoc and PetMom had the Ceylon Supreme, Noise had his favourite green tea and PetDad had the hotel's afternoon blend. There were dozens of teas from which to choose - black, green and white.
When we had polished off the strawberries, we were presented with a pre-dessert, consisting of an apple and pear mousse with a mandarin and mango jelly. With our palates cleansed, we proceeded with a tiered cake stand of assorted sandwiches, tea breads and desserts. The sandwiches were cucumber and cream cheese, curried chicken, smoked salmon, tuna, and cheese and pickle. These were accompanied by oven-fresh quiches (mushroom, onion and stilton). There were four small tea breads and scrumptious desserts which we cut in smaller pieces so all could sample.
Although we were quite full by the time we finished all of this, we managed to polish off the tray of scones and tea cakes - adorned with clotted cream, lemon curd and strawberry jam. All this was washed down with an endless supply of tea, poured by the attentive waiters as soon as our cup warranted. We were offered seconds of each of the above but we declined all but the tea.

Not having been to a pub yet today, we decided about 9:30 to head down Greyhound past the Queen's Club to the Colton Arms. It was absolutely delightful - exactly what you'd expect a neighbourhood pub to be like.

Tomorrow we're off to Heathrow for a 1:00 pm flight home, arriving in Ottawa at 3:45.

1 comment:

PetDoc said...

Yummy - Noise wants to go back next week, but we figure it's maybe the sort of thing you do once or twice a year. ;)

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Gananoque, Ontario, Canada