Afternoon tea at the Athenaeum Hotel
2February 10, 2013 by inher30s
What better way to stave off the cold winter blues than an afternoon tea delight?
With the lovely sister-in-law’s significant birthday to celebrate, the family head to Athenaeum hotel for a dose of cake, scones and tea.
Located on Piccadilly, it was one of those hotels I have walked past on a regular basis, but not ever gone into. And how glad I was that we did!
The tea rooms are a mixture of the classic floral decorations with odd quirks thrown in for good measure – bejewelled dogs and papier mache busts not something I see on a regular basis!
A solid wooden book of tea-choices greeted us – it included the classic Black Tea flavours and a few different Green tea flavours. Coffee & Hot Chocolates were also on offer for those who didn’t really fancy the tea route.
Tea comprised of 3 courses – firstly, an array of sandwiches. Mackerel Pate, Smoked Salmon, Egg Mayo & Ham with Red Onion Marmalade.
The sandwiches were generous portions – far larger than any finger sandwich with delicious meaty fillings that kept coming for as long as we kept eating them!
My favourite was the Ham with Red Onion marmalade, but between us, I think we polished off all the flavours pretty evenly!
Next course – Scones & Crumpets with an accompaniment of Clotted Cream, Strawberry Jam and Lemon Curd.
The scones were still warm – Orange Blossom with pieces of candied orange peel had a delicious almost-marmalade-y flavour and the plain served well with lashings of cream & jam.
And although you won’t believe it, there was still another course to come! Profiteroles, Strawberries in Chocolate, Lemon Possets, Variety of cakes, Berry tarts and White & Milk chocolate mousses.
Despite the already large volume of cakes on our plate, we spotted champagne jelly on the menu (Ok, it was really just me!), which hadn’t been added to our collection, but which they very promptly served up when requested.
A delicate flavoured jelly, it was a great way to end a rich and filling meal.
The Athenaeum hotel won the Best Afternoon Tea award for 2012 and I can totally see why!
Looks fabulous!!
Looks and sounds delicious (I can almost taste them too)!! This has been added to my ‘to do’ list in June when I visit UK.