The Athenaeum - Afternoon High Tea

The Athenaeum was ranked once upon a time one of the top ten high tea places to go to in London England.  This high tea place is within walking distance from Buckingham Palace and is located adjacent to Green Park.  We had made reservations to visit this establishment one afternoon after watching the changing of the guards. 

When we got there we were given a seat to wait as they were preparing our table.  We waited for about five minutes before proceeding to our table.  They offered us a variety of teas to choose from in which it was presented in a “wooden book” where all the tealeaves could be seen. 

Finger Sandwiches

Since there were 4 of us, we each ordered 4 different types of tea although halfway through the meal, the waiter did offer us a choice of changing our tea.  I went with the Bella Coola which was a mixture of dried fruits and herbs mixed into one.  It had quite a strong fruity “cool-aid” taste to it and for those who were looking for a more traditional type tea, this is one tea you may want to avoid.

Crumpets and Scones

The menu itself was the set Evergreen Tea menu.  The appetizers comprised of finger sandwiches, the main course was a mixture or crumpets and scones and the dessert was a buffet from their dessert tray.  The sandwiches were brought out soon after we had selected our teas.  The waitress held them all on a tray and since it was our first time here at this high tea place, we decided to go with the “we’ll try one of each” response.  Sandwiches provided today included Cucumber, Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese, Egg Mayonnaise and Honey Roasted Ham.   I can tell you that the two best ones I thought were the smoked salmon and the honey roasted ham.  The other two had no wow factor and tasted like any other cucumber and egg mayonnaise sandwich.  The cream cheese was very aromatic and mixed with the smoked salmon produced a very juicy and tasty finger sandwich.  Whereas some of the other sandwiches were dry and lackluster at least this one had a bit of flare to it.  The honey roasted ham was one of their signature sandwiches here at the Athenaeum and for the most part it was fairly decent.  The ham was tasty, tiny bit salty tasting and unique to a certain extent.  

Scones and Crumpets

After the sandwiches came the Orange Blossom Scones and Toasted Crumpets.  These delicate pastries came with their own homemade jam, lemon curd and Devonshire clotted cream.  The scones were warm and soft and smelled pretty good as it laid on the tray.  The scones for the most part were satisfactory as one can taste a tiny bit of the orangy flavor of the scones.  It wasn’t overly sweet however it didn’t have a spectacular wow factor to it.  I guess for me to travel all the way from Toronto to the heart and soul of scones in London England, I was expecting a little more and for some reason I just didn’t get that with the scones.  As for the crumpets, they were a little bit tougher to chew but were still fresh.  Jams included today were honey, strawberry and orange marmalade jam.  The honey and strawberry were quite sweet I must say.  It was pretty good jam and it went well with the scones.  The orange marmalade jam was little bit bitter and although I know marmalade jam is bitter to begin with, this was a little bit more so than usual.   

The dessert cart was filled with a variety of desserts and it would take another page or so to probably list on the different types of desserts that were on the tray.  I played it safe and went with the strawberry, grape and black current tart, lemon tart and chocolate covered strawberries.  My partners were more adventurous and went with the tiramisu cake and what I believe was a chocolate cheesecake.  When the waitress went to cut the slices for the cake, she ended up giving us whopping huge pieces.  I’m not too sure whether if she thought we were going to share the cakes but the slices were about the size of a medium size pizza.  They were huge!!!  Needless to say my partners could only take about three or four bites before they were done with them.  Unfortunately much of it went to waste.  Taste wise, the cakes were quite sweet and heavy.  Truthfully all the desserts were probably a lot sweeter than we would have liked. 

Dessert Tray

Overall it was satisfactory but I have to admit it was not something that I would say has to be a “must-do” when you go to London.  You are not truly full and I have to admit some of the high tea places back home were better than this one here.  Although the place was very clean and had the appearance of royalty, the food itself I thought had no distinctness or uniqueness to it.  I was expecting something spectacular and came away a little disappointed. Lunch itself was roughly about $40 CDN per person.  If you go to their website and book online, they actually have discounts for a variety of their tea offers.  Overall I would give it a 3.25 out of 5. 

Athenaeum High Tea Hotel – Mayfair

116 Piccailly London

+744 (0) 20 7640 3333