Stacy K.
Yelp
As the saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." My friend and I were traveling through London and I wanted to take her to have afternoon tea. The first time I went to London, I went to the Orangery at Kensingten Palace to have tea but it was under going renovations at that time. After reading all the great reviews of the Rosebery Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental I decided on taking her here. We walked into this 5 star hotel thinking that we were going to be under dressed but we weren't, it was February and snowing in London. The people there were so nice, everyone from the hostess to our waiter. We had a really nice view of the street outside, there were only a few people there at the time of our seating and it even more pretty because it started to snow.
This was one of the pricier afternoon teas and it costed around $65 to $70 USD per person. They have an extensive selection of teas that you can chose from and you can try as much of the teas as your heart desires. I have to say, we were there for about three hours, they don't kick you out.
Although, its not mentioned, you can ask for as much of the tea sandwiches as you can eat. The only tea sandwich that I can remember is the egg and black truffle, it's probably because I love black truffle. The tea sandwiches are round and not your typical triangle or rectangle shape. All the tea sandwiches were delicious and different from the ones that I've tried at other places.
I'm not a scone person as its usually dense and dry on the inside and this was by no means an exception. The scones came out nice and warm, there were plain scones and scones with raisins.They also had clotted cream and lemon curd to go along with the scones which made it more bearable to eat.
As for the tea selection, they have an extensive menu that you can chose from. We loved the teas so much that we ended up purchasing some to take home. I bought the rosebud, its actual small rosebuds but it was expensive, I think that they charged by the weight.
The pastries were the only thing that we couldn't ask for more of but it was more then enough for my friend and I.
Overall, it was a great experience and I would love to take my mother there as we have had afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental in Las, Vegas. I can say with certainty that there is no comparison with this place.