I’ve been wanting to
come to Fortnum and Mason’s for quite a while and like everything you’ve been
looking forward to for a long time, I had really built it up in my head. Luckily
the beautiful ‘Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon’ lives up to the hype. Walking into
the tea room you can immediately feel the sense of reverence with which
afternoon tea is held here, as the blurb in the menu says, “tea at Fortnums is
our most delicious tradition” and “whether our elegant tea salon is your home
from home or you are joining us for the first time, tea at Fortnums is always a
special occasion” And is treated as such.
When you walk from the
staircase onto the four floor of this beautiful building, the first thing you
are greeted with is a staff member behind a desk, ready to greet you and take you to a table, behind them sits a
pianist at a grand piano filling the two tearooms, one to either side, with
lovely music. The tearooms are truly elegant, decorated in a beautiful Edwardian
style in greens and creams, no doubt connected to the Fortnum and Mason colours
‘eau de nil’ green, white and gold, as displayed on the beautiful crockery used
and sold throughout the building. All the staff are dressed in extremely smart
white shirts and waistcoats complete with cravats, just adding to the elegant
formal style of the room. The whole thing makes you feel rather special for
being here at all.
After being shown to
our seats by our extremely friendly waitress and choosing the vegetarian afternoon
tea from the list of delicious looking teas sadly it took quite a while for anything
to get to us. The Vegetarian Afternoon Tea, when it arrived, was a beautifully
laid out triple-layer stand full of crustless wholemeal bread sandwiches (a
surprising number of who’s complicated contents included pesto…) gorgeous warm
fruit and plain scones and an array of desserts decorated with flowers. The tea
also came with a second, smaller stand of three unopened jars of jam,
strawberry, raspberry and blueberry.
Everything was delicious,
especially the scones, which were so lovely we ordered a few more when asked. We
had to wait a while for them (and our drinks) to arrive though, so long, in
fact that the waitress came over with a worried look on her face and asked if
we’d had them yet. After going off to track them down… they arrived at our table
and when our waitress returned… she brought more! Though we couldn’t eat twelve
scones, no matter how tasty, luckily, along with what was left of the jam (yes,
the whole jars, even the one we didn’t open) and a slice of cake of our choice
each from the cake table, we were given the rest to take home with us in a
lovely box and bag.
A lovely time in this
truly elegant tearoom with delicious food and great drinks, the only one thing
that bothered me was that when we attempted to order one (rather expensive) tea
to share, we were told that they “don’t do sharing”. I think this is a real
shame as the teas are plenty to share, especially as they fall over themselves
to refill your plates and the price is quite a bit more than I would usually
pay for an afternoon tea making it a very special occasion, doubling the price when
we arrive because they “don’t do sharing” (making it over £100) seems unfair. Apart
from that, in the packed room, we can’t blame them for the slow service and the
staff were so lovely and apologetic, I don’t mind spending a bit more time in
this beautiful room!
I would recommend Fortnum
and Mason to anyone looking for a much nicer (if more expensive) traditional
tearoom experience in this beautiful building.
Instagram: fortnums
Twitter: @Fortnums
Wedsite:
fortnumandmason.com
Address: 181 Piccadilly,
London, W1A 1ER
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