Amazing afternoon teas in London 🫖 Cheap vs. expensive

hello from London today we're talking afternoon tea now here in the UK we love tea we love sandwiches we love cakes so it's no surprise that a popular thing to do when you come to London is to go for afternoon tea an afternoon tea is one of the topics that you guys request from us the most so here we are we have done a video where we have compared some of London's most popular high-end afternoon teas which you can go watch that after you watch this video in this video we're going to compare some of the city's best afternoon teas at different price points we'll start with high end go for mid-range we'll also do budget and then we've got a little extra one that's extra budget friendly at the end but first what is afternoon tea and why do we love it so much in the UK so afternoon tea started as a light meal to be had between 12 and 4 pm although it used to be a bigger part of everyday life here in the UK these days it's more of a special occasion thing because it does cost a lot of money and it's kind of a lot to be eating a three-course meal of sweets and finger sandwiches every single day in an afternoon tea you get tea obviously although if you don't want tea sometimes you can swap to coffee and then you get finger sandwiches with different fillings scones with cream and jam and little sweet cakes too they're normally served on a three-tiered plate and the idea is that you go for the Savory sandwiches at the bottom first then you go for the scones and then you do the sweet cakes at the top however sometimes I go Rogue and go straight in for the scones because I love a scone when it's nice and hot I don't want it to cool off I cannot wait for the people in the comments to be like your thing's gone wrong it's gone we'll guess what I say it's scone that's that deal with it it started in 1840 when the seventh Duchess of Bedford started asking for tea bread and butter in between meals because she was getting hungry it then became a thing where she started inviting her friends over and that's how afternoon tea blossomed like the flowers around us these days you can find afternoon tea in hundreds of hotels and restaurants around London so we're gonna try some of them today well today slash other days because it's a lot to do in in one day it's just too many sweets and scones and sandwiches and I just can't do it all in one day you get it right let's go I can't get off because I'm in a skirt and I'm on the ground so not as fast as it used to be but okay [Music] okay the most famous afternoon tea experiences here in London tend to be the ones that are at some of the most luxurious hotels and restaurants in the city although these afternoon teas tend to come with some of the highest price tags in the city they do come with a pretty Grand and special experience now we're going to show you one of these special experiences by going up to the 35th Floor Of The Shard to the Shangri-La Hotel to the restaurant called ping where we're doing their afternoon tea okay let's go do it thank you [Music] of course a huge part of what makes this afternoon tea so special is the unparalleled views over the London Skyline just over my shoulder here is the Tower of London you can see the River Thames depending on where you sit you can see other parts of the skyline as well but you will not find this View and any other afternoon tea in London or actually all of Western Europe so we're pretty high up and it's amazing most afternoon teas no matter what budget level you're going for they have the option to add a glass of champagne or Prosecco lawn yes cheers they've got a lot of different options for tea here and I love high-end service when you come in and they pour the tea for you in a little strainer you don't even have to pour your tear yourself so I've asked for a vegetarian tea because I'm vegetarian but at a place that's quite high-end like this typically they'll be able to accommodate most dietary requirements if you just let them know in advance they can make a custom tea for you so sometimes the high NTS in London are just very classic tees and they don't really change that much and some of the places will do themed afternoon teas and here at Ting they change the theme every couple of months or so this time that we're here it's over the rainbow and there's beautiful Wisteria decorated all around there's some clouds always check before you book to see what kind of theme it is but they're usually always pretty great [Music] I'm not gonna rock the boat today and I'm gonna start at the bottom of the savories you get used to only having the egg sandwiches with Truffle in them that's what I deserve [Music] because you love the skeletons I actually think they're my favorite parts of activity they're so good now I'm not a heathen so I'm putting the cream first I know it's gonna make some of you where it's angry you are watching this but I don't care that's the way that I think it should be done you can do it however you want moving on to the next part of the tower which they've taken away is the sweets part [Music] and now the star of the show the white chocolate chard I don't know how to eat it okay let's do this oh I love white chocolate all the food's amazing everything's really good but there's service and also the location and the view obviously just Elevate everything to a whole another level that you can't get anywhere else so it's really special they do do a children's version of afternoon tea here basically they swap out a couple of sandwiches mostly everything else in the tea is the same as what the adults give but it's half the price for children up to 12 years old thank you that was great okay let's go check out another afternoon tea okay we've done an amazing luxury afternoon tea hard to beat that one however if you think that that's not quite in your price bracket not to worry we are here at the Sanderson hotel for their Mad Hatter afternoon tea which is basically Alice and Wonderland themed at 48 pounds per person this is right in the middle range of what you could spend for afternoon teas and I promise you it is worth it so let's go in and have some tea and fun cakes actually before we go in if you want more of our favorite afternoon cheese around London at all different price points be sure to grab one of our London itineraries each day of our itineraries has a walkable route with tons of amazing options of things to do along it including the biggest tourist attractions but also the Small hidden gems that you really should not miss our itineraries also come with digital maps that go around your phone plus lots of other extras to help you have the most amazing trip to London without having to spend days and days of research trying to figure out how to get around a city that you have no idea about so click the link in the description box to see our itineraries now we can go have some afternoon tea let's go thank you perfect thank you interestingly here is that they have bespoke tea flavors that you can choose from so they're specifically made for this afternoon tea experience which is pretty cool and the tea flavors are with the theme of Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter so there's Mad Hatter Queen of Hearts White Rabbit Cheshire Cat and Alex so I'm gonna pick one of those for the teas I mean I'm leaning towards the Mad Hatter also something you'll see with the mid-range to the higher end afternoon tees is that you can pick as many different types of tea to try as you want and a lot of times they'll do refillable on the food so sometimes it's that just the Savory that you can get refilled that's the deal here not the sweets or sometimes you can get literally everything refilled sometimes you can take it away when you go for afternoon tea that's a bit more elaborate and mid-range slash higher more expensive instead of just doing regular finger sandwiches usually they'll go a little bit more elaborate on what they give you for the savories as well as the sweets so for example we've got a little something down here with an avocado cream on top and then this is a beetroot sandwich that has halloumi and truffle Mayo I believe he said in it so that sounds really good and then some finger sandwiches on the side you've got some really nice sweets up here but this is really cool this is like a little potion that you mix around I mean you get to drink that and then in true Alice in Wonderland fashion we have very very tiny Suites here at the top which works perfectly with the theme and we have plastic scones can't really have afternoon tea without scones so this is the mid-range afternoon tea this starts at 48 pounds per person for the normal tea the vegetarian the vegan and if you want ant champagne it can go all the way up to about 73 pounds per person the little Hatters tea which is four children that one is just 35 next up we're going to show you a more budget-friendly option our third and most affordable afternoon tea is actually in an art museum and gallery in the wonderful Wallace collection which is actually free to visit so make sure you stop in and go for a big browse before you have your afternoon tea so let's go inside the cafe slash restaurant and give it a go [Music] foreign thank you so much thanks even though this is one of the more affordable afternoon teas you'll find in London you are not skimping on the Ambiance because the Interiors here are beautiful and the staff are really good too so I went for a chamomile tea but they did have like more than 10 options for what you could choose so it's up to you but basically we have four finger sandwiches at the bottom here they all sound yummy two different scones and then these sweets actually look amazing up here there's a carrot cake one a chocolate ganache and then this is their take on an orange cake I think she said but this is amazing for the price point and the service has been so good [Music] the opportunity option here is also really good because you don't have to get one per person at the table you've got the children with you and you don't want to get ones for each of the kids you can get one for them and they can split that oh God considering this is one of the more affordable afternoon teas in London it actually feels like quite a high-end experience really good service for the staff everything that they serve up is good including the sweet treats and you can even choose to try two different teas if you want to so this is such a good option for anyone who's on a budget and still wants to do a lovely afternoon tea now that tea is done we are gonna go pop into the collection and see some art and very cool things from the past before we head out because it's free so why not thank you obviously afternoon tea is an experience it's basically a three-course meal and depending on how high-end you go it can be a little bit pricey but if you're in London and you're on a budget and maybe you don't have that much time then I have a good alternative for you that's kind of like a taste of afternoon tea and it's at a much lower price point so follow me come on thank you perfect thank you my tea has arrived gone for green this is cream tea it comes with scones jam and cream so it's basically the scone part of an afternoon tea this tradition originated either in Devon or Cornwall two counties in Southwest England and they also argue about whether you put the cream or the Jam first on the scone this could be a really good mid-afternoon snack for if you're running around town and you just want to sit down for a little bit and have something sweet usually you can ask for it from 12 o'clock any day of the week [Music] really nice to have just a little snack in such a beautiful space it's very low pressure low-key but still feeling classy okay done with a green tea now let's review okay now that you've seen afternoon teas at different price points does price point affect experience the answer is yes it does but just because you're on a budget doesn't mean you can't have a lovely afternoon tea experience as we saw with the cream tea and the tea at the Wallace collection but if you have a bit more money to spend that's when you're going to get the experiences that are more unique you're going to have higher end service you'll get more food and you might have the best views over London so do whatever works for your budget and you'll still have a great afternoon tea by the way if you want more help with your trip to London then we have hundreds of videos that you can watch and you can watch one of those by clicking one of the boxes popping up right around me and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Love and London

Views: 205,517

Keywords: love and london, london, jess dante, jessica dante, visit london, london guide, london travel, afternoon tea, afternoon tea london, tea in london, tea house london, london travel tips, london travel video, london food guide, classic london things to do

Id: mQTFSJuFBKU

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2023