With the opening of London’s newest luxury hotel comes London’s newest and highest Afternoon Tea at The Shangri-La London located inside The Shard. The Afternoon Tea is served on the 35th floor so this is most definitely the highest Afternoon Tea you will experience in London.
Sandwiches
My gluten free sandwiches were slightly different to normal, I do like a change however unfortunately the fillings weren’t for the better. I think I possibly received a vegetarian gluten free option however the waitress did tell me that the fillings were mushroom, chicken and anchovies however the only one she got right was the mushroom! Unfortunately the sandwiches were very soggy and weren’t very tasty.
You will be glad to see a photo of the normal Afternoon Tea sandwiches which are served with the traditional fillings.
Scones
I could see as soon as I took the little scones out from their hiding place that they were over cooked. I think you can see the same thing from the photos. They did pass my scone test – they were easy to cut into, they weren’t rock hard (so I still have all my teeth!) and they were tasty.
G did make a comment that my gluten free scones were better than the normal scones which he received as his were also extremely dry.
Pastries
I’m going to be very critical and say that the macaroons were very soggy, possibly due to the afternoon tea taking 1.5 hours to get to our table. The presentation of the pastries was lovely though. The Passionfruit Cream was so lovely and creamy!
G was impressed with his pastries and said they were very tasty and they looked amazing – check out the photo!
Tea
We both had the White Snow Bud tea which was divine. Unfortunately it took 30 minutes for the tea to arrive at our table and we had to request a refill.
Atmosphere
The lounge is lovely, quite plain in design but let’s be honest it’s the view that is going to attract your attention. Located on the 35th floor, the lounge offers the best views over London. I did love the fact that they haven’t tried to jam in a whole lot of tables into the space so the lounge has a lovely spacious feel to it.
Service
Ok this was a pure disaster for the following reasons –
– Our table wasn’t set for Afternoon Tea even though they were expecting us
– It took thirty minutes for our tea to arrive
– It took 1.5 hours yes you read that right, 1.5 hours for our Afternoon Tea to arrive! This was after G actually went and complained and he never complains (he leaves that to me!)
– We had to request the Jams and Clotted Cream as they were not delivered with the Afternoon Tea.
– No spoons were provided so we could eat the Passionfruit Cream
– The table across from us got sick of waiting for a menu that he ventured out to get a menu from another table
– They were short staffed and this was confirmed twice by two different members of staff, it’s opening week and the hotel should have anticipated how busy they were going to be.
– We asked for the bill and ended up with the bill for the table next to us!
To say the service was the complete let down was an understatement of the century. We were offered refills however we declined as we didn’t think we would receive them in a timely manner and we were over the Afternoon Tea at this stage.
Would I recommend this Afternoon Tea – not really at the moment. The Shangri-La London have a lot of work to do to get this Afternoon Tea up to scratch – the food was OK, the service was appalling but the views are amazing!
If you are looking for a cheap way to visit The Shard then I suggest booking the Afternoon Tea as this will offer you a meal and also the views that you are after. Afternoon Tea at the Shangri-La London starts at £49 pp for the Classic Afternoon Tea.
The Shangri-La London also offer an Asian Influenced Afternoon Tea starting at £54pp. You can check out the full Afternoon Tea menu here.
I’m hoping that the hotel sorts out the teething problems as soon as possible so that this Afternoon Tea can become one of London’s finest as those views are well worth a visit.
If you want to read my review of the Shangri-La London Hotel, click here baby!
Disclaimer: We were provided with a free Afternoon Tea after pointing out the service issues to the Manager
xx
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