Tea

“Festivi-Tea Afternoon Tea” at The Corinthia Embankment

10 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2BD

020 7930 8181/www.london@corinthia.com

This Xmas the Corinthia Hotel near the Embankment in London Is offering a “Festivi-Tea Afternoon Tea” with “seasonal themed fancies” in its lobby lounge. Fiona and I were asked along to try it out and since I love the Corinthia, it would have been lacking in seasonal good cheer to turn down the opportunity. The hotel has one of the the most stylish interiors in London dating mashing up its Victorian heritage as the incredibly glamorous Metropole Hotel, with its recent Corinthian reinvention by designers including the late great David Collins, to stunning effect.

The lobby lounge looked gorgeously festive and was further improved by our glasses of Laurent Perrier Brut champagne.

The tea is £55 with the Brut and an extra fiver if you have the Rose.

First out was a selection of finger sandwiches, including smoked salmon, roast turkey, and stuffing with fresh cranberry compote.

They were really freshly made and followed with delicious warm crumbly scones with clotted cream and jam.

Fiona ordered a cup Sencha tea which was fragrant and aromatic whilst I had a pot of fresh Peppermint tea served impeccably by our waitress.

Finally we feasted on cakes and fancies which were as good as you would expect from a place that has a coveted “Tea Guild Award Of Excellence”.

You will have to hurry to take advantage of the Corinthia’s tea-time Xmas delights but if you are in town for a matinee or shopping or just want a treat it’s well worth a visit.

Gent’s Tea at Sanctum Hotel Soho

Follow @Hedonisttweets

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.