There is nothing better than on a wintry afternoon sitting inside a five star hotel in London indulging in Afternoon Tea in gorgeous surroundings.
We visited the Intercontinental Park Lane Wellington Lounge and fell in love with the simple style. There is no fussy decor and this gives the Lounge a lovely relaxed atmosphere.
In April this year in honour of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations the Intercontinental Park Lane added the Royal Afternoon Tea to their Afternoon Tea menu to celebrate all things English.
As a New Zealander we are extremely proud of our links with the United Kingdom so indulging in a Royal Afternoon Tea pushed all my royalist buttons.
When making the booking I had to state that I was gluten free – I find this puts fear into most establishments however I was ensured that my Afternoon Tea would still be decadent and goodness they were not wrong.
Our Afternoon tea started with the Dubonnet cocktail which at the beginning I wasn’t too sure about however the glass was very quickly empty.
Our biggest decision of the afternoon was our tea choice, G went for the Wellington Blend and I had the hotels signature tea, the No 1 Park Lane Blend – both are truly lovely teas.
The sandwich selection were all your English classics which to be honest is what I want when having Afternoon Tea. G had the standard version and I had the gluten free version.
The gluten free bread was incredible, not hard and heavy like I have been served prior and there was great selection of toppings including roast beef, salmon and chicken. (The first photo is the gluten free sandwiches and the second is the standard sandwiches)
The next course was the Pastries, this is always the area that I find most establishments fail in as they provide fruit as the alternative (why oh why!) so I was pleasantly surprised when my gluten free option had a number of different pastries including a decadent chocolate torte, cheesecake, meringue and the lovely custard dessert.
The gluten free pastries were truly out of this world and suffice to say G tried to pinch them even though he had eaten his own selection of treats.
I know when something is going to be out of this world when G tells me that I won’t like something as he wants to scoff it himself and when it came to the gluten free chocolate torte I had to wrestle him to get a bite.
The standard Royal Afternoon tea pastries look incredible, in my world you can’t go wrong with a bit of Battenberg cake. If in England, you need to eat Battenberg Cake; its a classic and I was delighted to see that it has finally reached an Afternoon Tea menu!
The final course was the scones; my favourite part of the Afternoon Tea tradition.
G’s scones are on the left and my gluten free scones are the on the right. These have to be the best gluten free scones I have eaten so far!
For me I am a Cornish split kind of girl, I like jam and then clotted cream on top of warm scones = pure bliss!
How do you have your scones – the Cornish or Devonshire split?
For me this has to the best gluten free Afternoon Tea in London and a truly British Afternoon Tea.
Thank you to the team at the Intercontinental Park Lane for providing a gluten free menu which didn’t disappoint.
xx
