London Tea
 

Any recommendations for places to have tea in London? We would like to have tea on a Sunday. Any thoughts on afternoon tea high tea? Knightsbridge area would be best. Thanks in advance -

Afternoon High Tea is a lovely splurge. At any of the nicer hotels, it will run you about £35 (with a glass of Champagne), so definitely come hungry. It's not on in Knightsbridge, but The Savoy does a really nice High Tea, with (i think) a 2 pm and a 4 pm seating. You'll probably need to book.

Most of the high end hotels do wonderful afternoon teas (including the Ritz, Savoy, Dorchester, Browns when it re-opens, etc, etc, etc.)

Especially on a Sunday you would need to book ahead.

Or you can have a more casual and less expensive tea someplace like the Orangery at Kensington Palace.

What you want is afternoon tea, not high tea. High tea is something else.

I haven't had tea at any of these places, but in that area, the Basil St. Hotel is supposed to have a nice tea, Harrods does a classic tea (a few of them, actually, in its many restaurants, and its Laduree shop, if you want French pastries and macarons), and I'm sure the Mandarin Oriental on Hyde Park does an over-the-top tea. It's certainly a gorgeous place.

As inessa, I and others have mentioned, tea is a fuuuuulll meal. They keep bringing around delicious morsels that you just HAVE to try, no matter how stuffed you are.
You might want to pick up a snack in Harrods or Harvey Nichols food hall for later, in the off chance you get hungry. I definitely wouldn't plan on going out anywhere fancy later.

We have had tea at Browns but if you want something less formal try the Basil Street Hotel. I belive it is in the Knightsbridge area. Not far from Harrods. It is really quiet and the food is lovely. The setting is an older room with fluffy chairs, etc. Lots of locals. We were there on a Sunday afternoon in May, the windows were open with a nice breeze. What a way to relax on Sunday! Oh, yes the cost was very reasonable.

Hi g,

Try http://www.gofortea.com/

((I))

I believe Brown's is supposed to reopen this month. I imagine they'll be terrifically busy especially as it's the holiday season.

The Ritz, Savoy and Dorchester will all be wonderful! Definitely book ahead.

ira, I looked at the link you provided and it appears to be a site promoting a book. I got an error when I pressed the "download a preview" button. Did I miss something?

The Lanesborough Hotel also does a very nice tea and that's where my husband and I have decided to go for our Christmas season tea outing.

I've had afternoon tea at The Wolseley several times and it's very good but the ambience is different from the hotel tea experiences. A little more casual (plus a lot noisier due to the acoustics of the restaurant) and unlike most of the more formal hotel teas, you will see a lot of Londoners there, esp. businessmen. It also attracts a slightly younger crowd. Last week, I had tea there around 4 pm and was surrounded by tables of Londoners cutting deals over pots of tea and pastries. Advertising and media types in their 30s, mostly.

There was a poster here a few months ago who'd done an arduous ( :-) ) comparative tea tasting & thought the Lanesborough was the best. And it's quite near Knightsbridge.

ira's url worked fine for me. Perhaps you copied it incorrectly...try to copy/paste and see if it works for you.

Looks like a great site.

Ohoh...obxgirl I didn't look closely enough. Your right that site is an advertisment for a book and I couldn't find any info there either....oops! sorry!!

topping for the gratuitously rude tmk649

I've had tea at the Dorchester, The Ritz, and Claridges. Of those, my personal favorite was Claridges.