The Lanesborough Hotel is located just southwest of Hyde Park Corner in the Knightsbridge section of London, adjacent to the Mayfair district. Afternoon tea at The Lanesborough has often been rated as among the best in London. After my experience there yesterday, I can understand why.
I met Kathleen, a former student, in the lobby of the hotel at 3:30, but since our reservation was for 4pm, we went to the Library Bar in the hotel, where we each had a glass of sauvignon blanc while we waited. I had to work very hard not to gobble up all the nuts and pretzels while we sat and chatted. By about 4:15, I realized that no one was going to let us know our table was ready, so we made our way to the palm court (or whatever that room was called) on our own.
The tea service was impeccable. I had The Lanesborough's version of lapsang souchong tea, bohea lapsang souchong. It was similar to the lapsang souchong tea I had tried at Brown's but for some reason it seemed more full-bodied than that at Brown's, yet it was lacking in some of the harshness that some lapsang souchong teas have. I quite liked it. Kathleen ordered Earl Grey tea. She liked it, but she thought the balance could have been improved with more bergamot.
The teas were presented in small individual pots, poured for us by servers, and then the pots were removed to a small side table. We never once poured our own tea, and right up until the end, my cup was kept full by the watchful servers. The tea was in infusers inside the pots, which concerned me, but as with most fine places providing tea, the pots were changed after about 45 minutes, leaving little-to-no time for the tea to become bitter. One nice feature at The Lanesborough was that the pots were changed without any fuss and without our having to ask. This unobtrusive yet prompt and courteous service ranks high for me.
When the three-tiered serving contraption was brought to the table, it had sandwiches on the bottom tier, cake-type desserts in the middle layer, and fancier pastry-type desserts on the top layer (see photo below). This was a good sign... they intended to serve the scones later, separately.
The sandwiches were fairly standard, though less chock-full of fillings than in some of the other places. This was both a plus and a minus. A plus because we didn't fill up on the sandwiches and because we actually enjoyed the subtle flavours. A minus because sometimes the flavours were a bit too subtle.
We both agreed that the ham sandwiches had a touch too much mayo because it tended to overwhelm the subtleness of the ham and cheese. I particularly liked the nutty/seedy bread that had some chicken-salad-sun-dried-tomato concoction on it. Here the filling was probably too thin and too mild. The very-thinly-sliced cucumber with cream cheese sandwiches were fine, as were the salmon sandwiches. I let Kathleen have the egg salad on brioche sandwiches. When we had nearly finished the platter of sandwiches, the server asked if we'd like more, so we had another plateful (which we didn't finish).
Kathleen and I had fun chatting away about lots of things. That is a good way to enjoy afternoon tea because it helps pace the afternoon. Otherwise, as has happened too often with me when on my own, there is a tendency to wolf down the food. This photo shows the setting. I think we were on our second set of sandwiches here, but we hadn't started on the scones, yet.
When the scones were brought, there were just two, both with raisins. They were accompanied by two toasted tea cakes which were basically buttered cinnamon and raisin buns. Neither of us cared for these very much. I'd have been happier with some plain scones in addition to the fruit scones. But the scones were served slightly warm, just as they should be.
The clotted cream at The Lanesborough seemed thicker and more luxurious than at most places. And the strawberry jam, while quite thick, seemed to have little-to-no pectin. These were big pluses for both of us. There was also a container of lemon curd, but when we asked the waiter about using it, he not only had no suggestions for us but as his excuse he allowed that he didn't like scones. Oops. Not very helpful.
We could have had more scones, but we decided to start on the desserts, cutting the chocolate cake and the nut cake in half. I thought they were both very good.
Then suddenly we were informed that they were closing in 15 minutes. We divided up the desserts from the top plate. Kathleen had the Napolean-looking thing (it had a lemony filling, she said) and I took the green meringue, which also had a hint of lemon custard somewhere in it. We left the third cake and third pastry uneaten.
Overall, despite the lapses in service, I quite enjoyed the tea at The Lanesborough. These service lapses were enough for me to keep them out of the top category, but they were still among the best I have experienced in London.
Then off for an hour of geocaching before going to a pub to meet Imran to watch the World Cup.
Tomorrow a return visit to Scolfe's with friends from the castle. And next week afternoon tea at The Grand in Eastbourne.
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My previous reviews, ranked in order of preference:
These three were superb. Highly recommended:
- The Four Seasons, London, England
- The St. Regis Hotel, Houston, Texas
- Scolfe's Tea Room, Boreham Street, England
- The Lanesborough, London, England (this review)
- Claridge's, London, England
- The Dorchester, London, England
- The Ritz, London, England
- Brown's, London, England
- The Pump Room, Bath, England
- The Windsor Arms, Toronto, Canada
- The Boathouse, Guelph, Canada
- Langdon Hall, Cambridge, Canada
- The Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, England
- The Queen's Hotel, Portsmouth, England
Those in this next group were okay. I would consider returning to them, but those at the top of the list much more so than those near the bottom of this section:
These next two were unacceptable: