Yesterday I had a lovely Christmas afternoon tea with my friend at the Dury Lane theatre Covent Garden London.
It is served upstairs in the very Grand Saloon restaurant with its high ceiling and pillars . The table and chairs are set around the large bar in the middle of the room.
I booked this direct with them and it is priced at £49 each or £58 with a glass of Taittinger Champagne. We went for the Champagne one as it was Christmas !
Upon arrival we were shown to our small table at the side of the room with nice low velvet chairs. he table was laid with bespoke china and matching embroidered white napkin
It was very busy and there was some nice Christmas piano music in the background. I commented to my friend that I was surprised that there were no Christmas decorations in the room which I thought a bit strange.
Maybe they did not want to spoil the grand ambience of the room
We were handed the menu and asked if we had any allergies. I informed them that I do not eat fish and could I swap the Salmon one for an extra sausage roll
Whilst sipping our Champagne we ordered some lemon grass tea which sounded nice from the tea menu and waited for the food to arrive.
We only had to wait about 15 minutes and the food all looked very nice. The waiter brought over the savories on a plate each and then the scones on another plate wrapped up in napkin to keep warm with pot of jam and pot of clotted cream. The cakes arrived on a tea stand and we got two of each type.
It was nice to get different savories than just the usual sandwiches. Both the sausage roll and goats cheese one were delicious. I could taste the truffle oil mixed in the goats cheese and the sausage roll pastry was crisp and buttery. Very tasty indeed.
Next we had the fruit scone that was still warm . We only got one each and it was rather small and flat. This was a shame as it tasted amazing with a light texture inside with a crispy outside. It will be up there with some of the best scones I have had.
We both ordered another drink each as the waiter said the hot drinks were unlimited. This time I had a cappuccino and my friend the afternoon tea one.
The first cake I tried was the mince pie which was not like a traditional mince pie. It had a filling of cranberries soaked in something which were very moist in a crispy pastry case. It was OK but not something I would want another one off.
The chocolate cake looked very nice with its green frosting and gold star. It was delicious with its salted caramel and biscuit filling. Surprisingly it was not too sickly either as the frosting was not too sweet.
I saved the sticky toffee pudding cake to last as this is one of my favorite desserts. This was very rich and sweet and had a small blob of custard in the middle with the caramel sauce .
All the cakes were generous in size so after eating them all we felt extremely full !!!!
We still however had just a tiny space in our bellies for the ice cream which was Champagne and strawberry flavour.
This was served by straight from the wooden trolley in a silver shell shaped bowl. It was nice but melted quickly and was very sweet.
Before leaving we both had a coffee each
It was a nice grand setting for an afternoon tea and our waiter looked after us very well. He explained all the food to us with such enthusiasm and smiled throughout the service.
Nearest Station : Covent Garden underground station - about 8-minute walk
Best bits : The lovely savory food instead of sandwiches and delicious scone plus the grand surroundings
Worst bits : Was not offered anymore food as would of loved another scone. Also not much of a Christmas feel about it.
Value for money : Yes as the food was very nice and hot drinks unlimited.
would I go back? : Yes maybe when they change the menu.
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