tea time

On our last day in London, we made reservations for afternoon tea at The Lanesborough hotel. It was pretty pricey (around $60 per person), but it felt like a truly unique, old-time London experience—complete with crust-less finger sandwiches and fancy-dancy pastries. Plus we had to dress up, which is always fun once in a while.

Assam supreme tea

Pre-dessert of vanilla panna cotta with chocolate cream, chocolate biscuit and mango  

Three tiers of goodies

Savouries: chicken and sundried tomato, egg salad on brioche, cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon with herbed cream cheese on beet bread, ham and sharp cheddar on cranberry bread, mini caramelized onion and blue cheese quiches

Cakes: red velvet with cream cheese, blueberry with white chocolate and lavender, chocolate with ginger 

Pastries: sorry, I can't remember exactly what these were (but they were yummy!)

Scones (plain + raisin) and toasted raisin tea cake

Clotted cream, lemon curd, strawberry preserves

The scones were definitely the highlight for me. They came to the table warm and I spooned generous amounts of the thick clotted cream on each bite. When the waiter asked us if we wanted seconds, we did not hesitate to say yes. I was tempted to eat the leftover cream straight off the spoon—but classy ladies don't do that kind of thing.

The Lanesborough

Hyde Park Corner

London, U.K