Lolling in London: Afternoon tea at Wellington Lounge, Intercontinental London

Who can miss the opportunity to partake in the grand English tradition of afternoon tea when in London? Not us! When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

After doing some online research (I use the word “research” loosely), my travelling companion and I decided to have our afternoon tea at the Wellington Lounge, located inside Intercontinental London. The décor was bright and tastefully simple with clean lines and light colours, a calm retreat away from hustle and bustle of the city outside.

The view from our table.

There were three menus to choose from but each menu is made for two. There being only two of us (hence we can only have one menu), we decided to go with the Botanical Tea set (for “a sensory experience” according to the menu), which feature both savoury and sweet items. I was a little crushed that we couldn’t try the others (Royal Tea and Wellington Afternoon Tea) but hey-ho, I can live with that.

Savoury.

The first tray, savoury, features open-faced sandwiches with various toppings. It is delicious. I especially liked the smoked eel with horseradish, cucumber and apple relish sandwich. Before you dig in, you have to cleanse your palate with the Botanical pear pearl drop, which contains a refreshing concoction of… I’m not sure what, pear and something else. Honestly I don’t really remember tasting pear in it as well. I’m not sure that it does what it is supposed to do (cleans the palate) since I didn’t eat anything before, but it adds some novelty to the proceeding and kick-starts your appetite.

Botanical pear pearl drop.

Free range guinea fowl with crisp celeriac.

Nettle marinated asparagus rolled in Sirloin of beef.

Smoked eel, horseradish, cucumber and apple relish.

Smoked trout and artichoke pesto wrapped with Speyside smoked salmon, wasabi caviar.

After the savoury tray, the scones were served. I love scones so I might be bias when I say that these scones (two types: buttermilk and citrus peel) were amazing! They are not too dense and pair well with Devon clotted cream.  There is also strawberry jam and quince preserve to go with the scones, but I like the clotted cream best.

Citrus peel and buttermilk scones with strawberry jam, quince preserve and Devon clotted cream.

After the scones came the sweets: cakes, macaroons, tarts, and what-have-you. Admittedly, I was quite full after the sandwiches and scones, so that may have affected my judgment, but I found that nothing stands out. I am a dessert person (I LOVE DESSERTS!) and even after a heavy meal, I would still have room for desserts. However, the sweets from this menu seemed very run-of-the-mill. The only one that I found quite different is the apple and rosemary mousse that sits atop a hazelnut bakewell with salted caramel cream.  The mound of apple and rosemary mousse has just the right amount of tartness with rosemary to balance it out. It is fragrant and refreshing. But the hazelnut bakewell with salted caramel cream below has a very smoky bitter aftertaste, as if the caramel is badly burnt. It is quite disappointing.

Sweets.

Victoria plum and celeriac torte.

Hazelnut bakewell topped with salted caramel cream, apple and rosemary mousse.

Blueberry creme brulee macaroon.

Mandarin tart.

Overall I preferred the savoury items to the sweets. However, that being said, we had a pleasant experience at Wellington Lounge. The service was good; the lady attending to us was cordial and professional, and the ambience isn’t too staid. While the Wellington Lounge is not too bad, you may want to try other offerings.

Note: If you visit their website now, you’d see that they added on a few more afternoon tea menus. But at the time of sampling (end July 2014), there were only three menus available.