Thelma A.
Yelp
Just did the afternoon tea at Boxwood at The London and was sadly a bit disappointed. Would have liked to have given it 2.5 stars, and am torn if I should go for a 2, but...
Our server was sweet, but the food and overall service was lacking.
We were one of only two parties there for pretty much the entire time, which for a 1pm reservation on a Sunday is odd. Perhaps this was a sign that it wasn't going to wow us?
We both opted for the Royal Airforce English breakfast tea, which was fine. From the company Rare teas. It wasn't anything special, honestly.
I am vegetarian and had requested vegetarian finger sandwiches when I made the reservation. My friend had the standard set menu. They come with four sandwiches. His were all different and all on different types of bread, as is customary with afternoon tea. Mine were such a letdown. It seemed like the chef just remembered the 1pm reservation had one vegetarian and scrambled to think of what to make. Firstly, mine were all open face "sandwiches" which is just odd. Secondly, they were all on white bread. Thirdly, two of them were the same thing. And lastly, all four had zero flavour and lacked seasoning/salt entirely.
An avocado and strawberry open face sandwich bite may LOOK pretty, but it's not a combo that works. And even less so when there isn't one speck of salt on it. One or two Maldon crystals would have changed this a bit.
I asked our server to bring me a little of the cranberry walnut bread to try since I was stuck with four tiny white bread slivers, and she obliged. It was really tasty. I wish the chef would have done at least ONE of mine on this bread!
At one point, while refilling my tea cup, the pot tipped over and spilled tea all over our table. OOF! No one came to assist. Mind you, our server wasn't in the room at the time, but another server was. I asked him for some extra napkins as I'd spilled tea, which was quite obvious. He returned with two kitchen rags and even said "Here you go, here's some RAGS"! I didn't even want to touch them, they looked dingy and wet. And I was pretty taken aback that he wouldn't have cleaned the table himself? Yes, I know...I am the one that spilled it. And I get that it wasn't his table, but at least he could have informed our server. We cleaned the table ourselves, to the best of our ability, and when he finally walked past (he'd been standing nearby, not doing anything), I asked him to take the rags. He took one.
When our server finally came back into the room, she asked if I wanted more hot water. Maybe I'm just used to better service but my friend and I both thought that it would have been good of her to have just assumed and brought more hot water, removed my saucer that was full of tea, removed the other dirty rag...
The sweet bites were all tasty enough. The scones were nice and the lemon curd was delicious. Sadly, one of the jam jars our server brought to our table had been previously opened by some other patron. I didn't try most of the sweets but instead brought them home with me, so I may update this later ha.
I did have the ice cream cone which was yummy, and showcased some tea flavoured ice cream.
Overall, it was another tea letdown. I am beginning to think I should skip trying any more in LA and just wait until I travel back to London. I cannot imagine anyone in London handing me kitchen rags to clean up spilled tea!!