Paddington Afternoon Tea at The Athenaeum
If you’re looking for a top afternoon tea experience in London, read this post to find out more. This review was for a special Paddington afternoon tea at The Athenaeum hotel, but it’s not that different to their normal luxury afternoon tea. So you’ll still get a jolly good idea as to what to expect.
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of indulging in Afternoon Tea at The Athenaeum Hotel on Piccadilly. Afternoon tea at such an iconic London hotel would be a real treat at the best of times, but this was a special tea in honour of Paddington Bear.
Yesterday heralded the release of Paddington, the movie. And it seems as the London has got Paddington Bear fever big time.
There is a Paddington trail around the city with 50 statues of one of the world’s most popular bears. I managed to spot two of them during my brief 24 hour stay including the one we are all familiar with at Paddington Station.
Afternoon Tea at The Athenaeum
It may have been afternoon tea that Fiona of London Unattached and I sat down to, but it was a lunchtime sitting as my train back home to Cornwall left at 3pm. Afternoon tea at lunchtime was a new concept for me so I was surprised to find we were not alone.
In fact all the tables in the Garden Room, where tea is served, were fully booked. Given that The Athenaeum won the Tea Guild’s award for Top London Afternoon Tea in 2012, this shouldn’t really have been a surprise.
Elegance and luxury at such a top class hotel, I was expecting, but there was also comfort and ease. No starchiness and disapproving looks here. The waiters were friendly and attentive and the service was good, if slightly disorganised.
The soft light wasn’t great for taking photographs, but it created a relaxing ambiance, which is what it’s all about really. The Paddington afternoon tea more than lived up to expectations.
The Athenaeum Tea Menu
Shortly after arrival, we were shown to our table. Not only did we benefit from a comfortable sofa and arm chairs, but we also enjoyed a lovely window view. Whilst we perused the tea menu, we sipped on a glass of very nice Lanson Black Label champagne.
As I’m a bit of a tea purist, I was delighted to see a menu dedicated entirely to tea. There was a good variety of loose leaf teas on offer, but interestingly there were samples of the actual tea leaves on display too. No wonder the Tea Guild were impressed.
Fiona chose Japanese Sencha green tea and I opted for a pot of Pai Mu Tan white tea. Both duly arrived in silver teapots with an accompanying silver pot of hot water. They were regularly inspected and topped up as necessary, without either of us having to ask.
Paddington Afternoon Tea
The food soon arrived, elegantly laid out on a three tier cake stand. After doing a big of oohing and aahing over the contents, especially the top layer which included cute chocolate cups filled with mousse, we hungrily tucked into the finger sandwiches.
No marmalade sandwiches for me, but there was clementine marmalade to accompany the ham for Fiona. Needless to say, I didn’t take too much notice of the meat fillings. However, I was pleased to see cucumber and cream cheese on offer together with egg mayonnaise.
I was also presented with a plate of five vegetarian finger sandwiches laid out in a star shape. I would have liked to have seen something a bit more creative than tomato and lettuce, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.
Marmalade, not surprisingly was a key theme of the tea and for the first time ever, I had marmalade with my scones and clotted cream, rather than jam. Both Fiona and I were a little dubious about this particular change to tradition, but when we tucked in, we were pleasantly surprised.
We had a choice of plain or cranberry scones and I found the marmalade to be particularly delicious atop some of the latter; cranberries and orange have a natural affinity. Turned out that jam was also served alongside the marmalade, just in case.
Starting to feel a little full, I felt there was still some room left for that enticing top layer of treats. I’ve already alluded to the chocolate cups. They were topped with a little marmalade and were quite delightful. There was also orange macaroons, an orange Bakewell tart and an adorable little glass of orange and passionfruit jelly.Â
Bottomless Paddington Afternoon Tea
The waiting staff were very attentive. At regular intervals they offered us further sandwiches and scones. We politely declined as we already had more than an elegant sufficiency. But it gave a feeling of abundance which was a nice touch for such a rare treat. We were just finishing off the last few goodies when one of them wheeled the cake trolley over.
Well, neither of us could fit in another morsel. But everything looked so pretty and enticing, we asked if we could take something away with us. My thoughts turned to CT who had missed out on all this indulgence. So I chose a little something with him in mind – a chocolate log filled with salted caramel cream.
It was very thoughtfully placed in a gold cardboard box for easy transport. Astonishingly, it made the long journey home in tact. CT demolished it gratefully fairly soon after I arrived. I did get a little taster and it was as good as it looked.
Goodbye Paddington
The Paddington Bear Afternoon Tea costs £39.50 without champagne and £47:50 with it. £5 of this is donated to the official Paddington Bear charity, Action Medical Research for Children.
Everything looked fabulous and was beautifully presented and it all tasted pretty good too. For a top class afternoon tea with as much as you can eat and more, I would describe this as good value.
I waved good buy to the suitcase of bears at reception with a full stomach and wasn’t entirely sure I was in a fit state to run for the train if it proved necessary.
Paddington afternoon tea may not be available at the Atheneum on a regular basis, but their standard afternoon tea is legend.
Other Eating Out Reviews You Might Like
- Afternoon Tea at the Alverton, Truro
- Everything’s Hunky Dory in Newport
- The Hidden Hut revealed
- The Hub Cafe, Liskeard
- Riverford and the Field Kitchen
Over To You
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you ever visit The Athenaeum for afternoon tea, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for other top afternoon tea venues?
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Choclette x
Someday, Choclette, I am bringing my family to England- and I’m going to make a long list of all the delicious food I’ve seen on here, then go and eat it all. 🙂 Never had a proper tea.
My word that sounds splendid! How lovely, made my mouth water 🙂
I have not yet seen a Paddington Bear so will keep an eye out for him. What lovely tea. Can you believe have never really had afternoon tea. I would so love to experience what you just described.
What a tasty looking spread! Glad you had a good trip to the smoke 🙂
Janie x
What a lovely idea for afternoon tea! Looks lovely – will look out for this xx
How simply delightful! I love your choice of tea. The chocolate cups and chocolate salted caramel log look particularly divine.
What a lovely experience, lovely range of teas too.
That sounds fabulous. Cooper and I went to see Paddington at the cinema this morning. There was a rhyme time first with lots of singing and a story before the film and all the children got a free Paddington book and activity sheets courtesy of the Scottish Book Trust. The film was good, although Cooper hid behind his hands a few times.
I think that’s the sign of a good tea, the inability to run for a train afterwards
I’m glad Paddington has an official charity. He’s a very altruistic bear!
so cute… and SO sorry I couldn’t see you this last week… ANOTHER bloody meeting… it’s all very dull but glad you had a nice time x
oh my giddy aunt that looks magnificent – we are all excited about the paddington movie in my house and wouldnt mine a fancy afternoon tea like that to celebrate – I am not keen on marmalade but have had it on fruit scones and loved it. Those little chocolate cups are gorgeous and I think these high teas are more than a meal – but great to taste so much good stuff.
What a lovely afternoon tea. You’ve certainly got too be a fan of orange and marmalade though, although I suppose that’s the idea. The the sound of the cranberry scones.
I would love to spend a leisurely hour, having tea and cakes at Piccadilli, and also see some of the Paddington bear statues. The cakes look lush!
That looks like such a fantastic afternoon and a delicious tea.
#UKBloggers
It was such a lovely afternoon! I really enjoyed this tea too (and I’m VERY impressed at how quickly you’ve written it up…)