Gent’s Tea at Sanctum Hotel Soho
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20 Warwick Street, W1B 5NFinfo@sanctumsoho.com/0207-292-6100
Sanctum is situated in the heart of Soho between Regent Street and Carnaby Street. It is a boutique hotel served up with rock’n roll style and they have come up with the great idea of an afternoon Gent’s Tea. After a stressful morning in court, the Hedonist felt like nothing more than kicking back and relaxing so being given the chance to review their tea time offer felt like a remarkably apposite opportunity. In the interests of gender balance I should point out that they also do a High Tea for High Heels but since I had left my stilettos at home so that was a non-starter.
There was a pretty standard selection of teas on the menu but spelling Twinings as Twinnings and then serving Fiona something that patently wasn’t the Lapsang Souchong that she had ordered didn’t inspire a huge deal of confidence. However the Peppermint tea arrived as ordered presaging the arrival of the first plate of savouries.
Poached oyster with Bloody Mary relish was hot and spicy, mini smoked salmon, caviar and watercress bagel was suitably chewy and came with good quality salmon, seared steak with peppers and mushrooms on toasted sourdough was more of a rare beef and mustard sandwich than what was advertised but still good. The vegetarian option was a finely minced egg and chive sandwich that had a rather non-butch delicacy to it.
The mini mains selection included a lamb and potato hotpot, burger with mustard seed relish, a rabbit, pancetta and leek pasty and a roast beef and horseradish stuffed Yorkshire pudding. These were all successful scaleddowns of their larger iterations as were the veggie options: a deliciously fresh pea and bean risotto, the pub staple deep-fried mozzarella, Asian tempura prawn and mango and rather predictably rubbery Halloumi skewers.
Dessert of twice-baked chocolate fudge cake with Jack Daniels ice-cream was too dry for me but Fiona really enjoyed it.
I ended up in the rock’n roll rooftop bar enjoying a smooth ‘tankard’ of single barrel Jack Daniels (£12 supplement) on the rocks having forgone the cigar option whilst Fiona opted for the sweeter honey bourbon liqueur. With a hot tub and rooftop views of Soho it gives plenty of opportunity for partying.
At £50 the Gent’s Tea at Sanctum isn’t a budget option but for the old rocker in your life it could be the perfect choice.
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