Having afternoon tea at Leicester Square’s W Hotel has been in my list for at least three years, so when I’ve had the chance to get a booking done, it was something that I was really looking forward to. Slightly disastrous as when we got seated, it took about 30 mins to get our tea order taken and so we had been waiting for about two hours for the whole afternoon tea to arrive. My mum actually had to leave to catch her train before she could have her sweets and so my husband and I carried on since we are local to the area. The waitress was really apologetic, but we ended up getting most of the food wrapped.
However, the food was good (albeit not so fresh when it got to us because it took quite a while to get to our table). You get the traditional sandwiches (cucumber, egg salad, chicken [although we went for veggie option as the chicken is not halal] and smoked salmon) and fruit scones with jam and cream. The pièce de résistance is the “Fashion Power” selection of sweet treats which are inspired by iconic fashion pieces or designer. Served on ceramic glittery platforms, it contains:
- Coco Chanel cake which is a really rich, dark truffle decorated with Coco’s favourite accessory – (edible) pearls. We didn’t get the shot of Champagne because we don’t drink alcohol
- Lady Gaga’s Red Velvet marble cake with Marzipan topping, this was inspired by the Princess of Pop’s ‘Meat Dress’
- Vivienne Westwood milk chocolate-layered cake topped with candy floss, which was wacky and yummy.
I’d love to try W Hotel’s other afternoon teas – Rock and Roll (if they’re still doing it) and South-East Asian. I’ve seen pictures and they both look great. Sadly, the slow service affected the quality of the food and so I’m giving this afternoon tea experience a seven out of 10. I can’t emphasise more though that the waitress was apologetic about it and they’ve been really accommodating. Maybe it was a blip at such a busy time (this was a booking from months back) and I do definitely recommend people to try this as the ambience is also rather nice.
★★★★★★★/10
I ♥ Nom-noms 