I will be meeting a friend in London in a week and am looking for a good place to have a real tea. We can't afford the Ritz and don't really want to get all dolled up. Does anyone know of a nice place that if not too expensive and not too stuffy? Thanks!

Try Fortam and Mason's on Piccadilly.

Thanks very much - I have some tea from there that my parents brought back for me and it's great! Do you need to make a reservation?

Hi
Go to the Fortnum's website.
On the ground floor is the Fountain restaurant, very informal, relatively inexpensive, a la carte menu. No reservations.
They have another restaurant on an upper floor that serves a more formal tea; I think the menu and prices might be on the website. It will be more than the Fountain but less than the Ritz.

Here's the link to their St. James Restaurant, which offers a formal Afternoon Tea (you can also pull up the menu -- and prices -- in .pdf):

http://www.fortnumandmason.com/cgi-b...urants_StJames

My other suggestion would be afternoon tea at the Charing Cross Hotel. I had it there a few years ago. It is not at all formal (though it's not really a jeans kind of place either imo) but they have a set tea menu or a la carte. The scones and cakes were excellent. 2-3 years ago the tea menu was 14 GBP.

We had tea at Fortnum and Mason, upstairs. We didn't need a reservation. It was really quite nice. Would be more expensive now with exchange rate but still it's a medium priced menu I think, and a lovely setting. Check the current prices on the website. The sandwiches, pastries, and scones were wonderful. Oh I love those scones. I almost had them bring up a cart to roll me out of there. We were going to the theatre so this was great, didn't need to try to rush dinner and this tied us over..MORE than tied us over till after the theatre and then we could eat without being rushed.

topping for the gratuitously rude tmk649

Is that better than being just "rude" or not as good????????

No, different.

There are lots of good reasons for being rude. Asking about "afternoon tea", but titling your question "high tea" is a very good reason respondents might be rude.

Being asked to search isn't a good reason.

>am looking for a good place to have a real tea. ...and don't really want to get all dolled up.<

I thought that was the reason to go out for a "Tea", otherwise it's just a cuppa, init?