Afternoon tea at The Dorchester

One of the many things aunt and I did in London were to have afternoon tea at The Dorchester, or really champagne afternoon tea.

I've walked passed The Dorchester many times and every time I've thought about the people staying there. Just looking at the cars outside make you realise that it's not a hotel for my budget. So when my aunt and I started to talk about doing afternoon tea I very quickly said let's do it at the Dorchester. It will most likely be the only time we get to spend time time (and money) with the super rich.

Arriving on the dot we were greeted by a man in morning dress who showed us to our table. Making sure we were comfortable another man in morning dress arrived asking what sort of champagne we would like, Pink or Brut. Both aunt and I opted for the Brut and felt quite sophisticated sipping champagne and watching people. Excellent finger sandwiches arrived very soon. Cucumber with cream cheese, egg mayonnaise with shiso cress, chicken with wholegrain mustard mayonnaise, smoked salmon and the week's special tuna.

Finished with our sandwiches we were offered another round, but starting to get full already we only went with salmon and chicken. To clean our pallets from the champagne and sandwiches we then got a small glass of pannacota. Just perfect.

Loving tea I had decided to go with the recommendation to have Dorchester Blend. A blend of silvery Ceylon and golden Assam. Aunt who's not such a big Anglophile as me decided to go with filtered coffee. The tea was wonderful and when the scones and clotted cream arrived I was already on my second cup.

The scones made us rather full and when the French pastries arrived we looked at each other and laughed. How in the world were we going to be able to eat or at least try all of them? I did afternoon tea at Le Méridien Piccadilly about 10 years ago, and the same thing happened then. Me who never say no to cakes, cookies or sweets had enough. My aunt is the same but after having a tried 4 of the 5 pastries we almost felt sick. Ordering some water and yet another glass of champagne did the trick and for about 30 minutes we just sat there very happy and content watching people. Some sort of black tie affair was about to start so it was great fun to watch and comment on dresses. I'm sure the second glass of champagne had nothing to do with that... Very giggle we then took a taxi over to Dominion Theatre to see We will rock you, and continue our Friday night out.