Wonderland Afternoon Tea Review at the Langham, London

So, time for another dose of my ramblings! As promised today's post will be a review of the ever so posh Wonderland Afternoon Tea at the Langham Hotel in Central London.

As my sister was hitting a big milestone in her life (the big 30) we thought we would celebrate (take her mind of it) by going to The Langham Hotel for a spot of Afternoon Tea! Now as much as I love afternoon tea the Langham was a serious step up from my usual cuppa in my PJ’s during an episode of eastenders!!

The Langham Hotel is located on Portland Place in Central London and has been there since its opening on 10th June 1865 (wow). We were drawn to the Langham over all the other posh afternoon teas on offer across the capital, as it is described as the birthplace of afternoon tea…oh and did I mention that it’s just a 5 minute walk from Oxford Street – perfect for a spot of retail therapy after gobbling up all those yummy treats! 

The afternoon tea is served in the Palm Court, which is really easy to find as it is on the ground floor, just opposite the main entrance. The Palm Court had a slight 1920’s, Great Gatsby vibe to it with dim lighting and a beautiful gold pattern on the walls – not quite as traditional as I’d expected but classy and elegant nonetheless. It had a very relaxed yet stylish ambience to it.

We chose the Wonderland Afternoon Tea, which is only served at 3 sitting times - 1pm, 3:15pm and 5:30pm, each lasting two hours.

We were greeted by a smiley lady at the reception who seated us right in the corner of the Palm Court. I truly believe we had the best seats in the restaurant perfect to get the whole view of the room and some privacy. Throughout our visit we were treated to live music from the pianist in the corner, which really added to the relaxing atmosphere of the room. 

Now as much as this day was meant to be relaxing me and my sister spent hours before the visit agonizing over what to wear and ruling out half our wardrobes as far too casual for the grand Langham! No one wants to be under dressed in a 5 star hotel do they?! However, all this tension turned out to be completely unnecessary as when we got there most of the people were in smart/casual dress. I even spotted a couple of men in jeans - phew! So, if you’re also worried about the dress code at the Langham, it’s safe to say you can pretty much get away with wearing anything, as long as it’s not joggers and your pajama top! 

As soon as we sat down we were presented with a menu of the selection of teas they had to offer, as I was searching the menu of over 30 tea blends (wow) for my regular breakfast tea, my sister urged me to step out of my comfort zone and try a tea I’d never tasted before, so I chose one of the scented black tea’s - the CHAI tea, which was described as “ceylon black tea with aromatic spices” My sister chose the Jasmine Green Tea, which according to the waiter was one of their most popular blends!

About 20 minutes into our tea the waiter came over and took away our tea pots – we were momentarily perplexed - WHAT? was that it…no more tea?!! However, this was not the case as about 3 minutes later we were reunited with steaming hot tea pots! In fact throughout our sitting the waiter kept an eye out to see whether our teacup was empty, if it was he would dash over and elegantly refill it. I was astonished at how attentive the service was, I must have had around 8 cups of tea as the waiter never let my cup become empty! Impressive!

Now onto the food ….while we were waiting for our tea to arrive we were presented with a sweet treat to get our tastebuds going – a tangy lime posset, it was absolutely delicious! This was followed by a wonderful selection of sandwiches. As I am a vegetarian I don’t often find the sandwich selection particularly exciting. In fact ….

I have been to afternoon teas before where there hasn't even been a vegetarian option , so I've had to just leave out the meat ones, which is usually most of the sandwiches (sigh) However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Palm Court also caters for special dietary requirements. We were served with an impressive selection of 5 different veggie sandwich options:

• Pearl las and broccoli quiche with piquillo peppers
• Spicy humous with crispy salad
• Cream cheese and cucumber on beetroot bread
• Montgomery cheddar and sweet onion biscuit
• Burford brown egg mayonnaise with mustard cress

The sandwiches were lovely and were very very filling and and the best part is you are offered FREE refiles on your favorite sandwiches, which of course we jumped at!

After we finished gorging on the yummy sandwiches, the waiter brought out a warm selection of plain and raisin scones (2 of each) now this is my personal favorite part of any afternoon tea and I wasn't disappointed. The scones were lovely, as was the small dish of clotted cream and strawberry jam already set out on the table for us.

As you can see I had a Devon cream tea (cream first, then jam) – How do you have your cream tea?

Okay so now onto the sweet treats, this is definitely the part my sister and I were most looking forward to trying the beautiful selection of treats consisted off…

• Passion Fruit and Mango Dome
• Valrhona chocolate tart
• Lemon and poppy seed cake
• Layer Eton mess push up pop

My sisters first words when she saw the tray of treats was “Is that it?” however, our eyes were certainly bigger than our stomachs in this case! In fact we actually struggled to eat everything simply because it was all so deliciously sweet and filling. My personal favorite was the lemon and poppy seed cake, as it wasn't too sweet, but still had a lovely dollop of icing on top! The eton mess on the other hand was definitely my least favorite….after a while I sort of gave up attempting to eat it as it was so messy (and embarrassing) to eat. That was the only sweet treat I was disappointed with as it was VERY hard to eat and if you are a bit clumsy and unladylike (like me) it might be a bit of a challenge!!

Disappointingly there are no refills for the cakes and pastries - however we were well and truly stuffed by this time so perhaps that’s not such a bad thing after all.

Palm Court certainly out did themselves in terms of excellent service, as when we booked we stated it was my sisters birthday, so they brought out a special birthday cupcake for her and even sang happy birthday to her…how lovely of them!

In terms of pricing the Wonderland Afternoon Tea is one of the cheapest afternoon teas the Langham offers, at £44 per person – bit of difference to the 7p they charged back in 1865! Just like in other top hotels that offer a high quality service there is bound to be a service charge to keep in mind, at The Langham there was 12.5% (£11.00) service charge.

I had the best time celebrating my sisters birthday and I highly recommend this afternoon tea as the service is brilliant, the food is extremely filling and scrumptious. I do think this whole afternoon tea experience is well worth the money, For more information about this Afternoon Tea check out their website - http://palm-court.co.uk/#/afternoon-tea/ 

P.s If you ever go to an afternoon tea at a 5 star hotel it’s always worth checking out how posh the toilets are – you will be impressed :’)

See you next time for more of my ramblings! 

xx

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Labels: Afternoon Tea , Birthday , Food , London , The Langham