We went to Harrods, yes I can be posh too dont you know! It was for my best friends birthday, her Mom was taking her for Afternoon Tea in London and wondered if I cared to join. I of course accepted her invitation!
At this point she couldn't decide between Harrods, Claridges or Fortum & Mason. Saying that, I think my cousin actually went to Fortum & Mason not long ago, and by the pictures it looked rather scrummy!
Anyway back to our Afternoon Tea. It was decided on Harrods.
Beforehand I had been perusing the interweb to see if I could find the Menu choices, 1. Because I could then work it out for my Weight Watchers points, and track my food for the day, and 2. Because I am downright nosey!
It would also be giving me a heads up on what to expect! I read that they would come back and top up your drinks or preserves/cream & patisserie selections as many times as you preferred. That was rather kind of them. As I found one or two different websites with slightly varied Menu's it gave me an idea of what would be on offer, and I have to admit, for the £29 price tag, it wasn't living up to its pennies.
Only advantage, wouldn't cause too much damage to the waistline, not even the patisserie selection. That is saying something!
Monday 18th February arrived. I got to the train station in good time and bought myself a Diet Coke ready for the train. Yes, Diet Coke at 9.20am. Not my usual morning tipple but it was 0kcal so good start to the day! I met up with my friend and her Mom and as we were about 40-45 minutes early we went and had a hot chocolate. Well we did. Her Mom opted for black coffee.
Now this hot chocolate could of actually been the highlight of the day! It was made with milk - real hot chocolate. Damn tasty too. Its the Cafe something or other in New Street Station if anyone would like to know.
I had made some more MM Shortbread the night before so brought a few along for my friend to taste.
Cookie gone. Hot Chocolate gone. Time to join the train.
We got to London at around 12.20pm - ish something like that.
Our Afternoon Tea wasn't booked until 4.30pm.
I assumed we may have popped into some cafe or coffeehouse for a beverage and light snack beforehand. But no we didn't. We walked around London, Tottenham Court Rd, Oxford St, Regent St, Carnaby St etc for 4 hours! Walked. Yes. Walked.
We had most definitely burnt off that hot chocolate & cookie thats for sure!
Don't worry, we popped into the infamous Abercrombie & Fitch. Woo.
Note the lack of enthusiasm there.
I think at one point I even had GoogleMaps open on my iPhone and was following the little blue dot like some strange tourist. I think it was to help my friend find A&F to be perfectly honest! Don't I feel cool!
After a few shops, we then thought we'd better make our way over to Harrods. This was about 2.30pm. We walked and arrived at Harrods at around 3pm.
We had an hour & a half until our Tea.
We spent that hour & a half mooching around Harrods.
Despite having never set foot in there before it was pretty much like any other large Department Store. It had the same areas as you would tend to find in any other store, Women's, Men's, Swimwear, Shoes, Beauty etc.
I got to say though you don't tend to find many with Pet Spa's (which we went to visit of course), a rather large Toy department, very nice, I saw THE Harrods bear. Woo. (Enthusiastic I know, but please, I'm weak, I need food.) They also had a 'Disney @ Harrods' section. Not too impressive if I'm completely honest.
Did have a nice lifesize Ariel & Belle though. I love Little Mermaid & my friend loves Beauty & the Beast. They are our Princesses! So that was cool.
They did have an amazing looking & smelling Ice Cream Parlour & food court, it has to be said!
They had an amazing chocolate department!! wow.
By this point I'm surprised you couldn't hear my tummy rumbling!! In fact, if you did hear thunder shocks at around 4pm, blame me!
Reminiscing is making me quite hungry now to be honest with you!
We looked at the time, 4.20pm. We're off. Thank god! I am starvin' marvin here!
We made it to the Gregorian Restaurant (2nd floor). Taken to our table & seated.
Funny thing Afternoon Tea. I don't drink Tea. Yes Afternoon Tea, expect Tea, Tea is in the bloomin' title!!
So I was given a nice bottle of Harrods Mineral Water. 750ml bottle infact. I drank 500ml! Go me. All out of a wine glass might I add. So sophisticated these days!
Our Afternoon Tea was presented to us.
Sandwiches included:
Lobster Roll no thanks, I don't eat shellfish
Goats Cheese & Apple no thanks, I'm not a fan of Goats Cheese
Coronation Chicken no thanks, not so keen on fruit in sandwiches
Egg Mayonnaise that's ok, that'll do
Smoked Salmon YES finally something good Spinach & Cream Cheese maybe not, not keen on spinach or cream cheese, well not that much anyway!
So I had the egg mayonnaise. It was extremely perfumed, the 3 of us agreed on that much. Wasn't the tasty either.
Sandwiches done.
Scones:
2 each. One with raisins and one without. Accompanied with clotted cream, strawberry preserve and marmalade.
I had the one with raisins & strawberry jam...sorry preserve. I am not so keen on marmalade and don't have a taste for cream.
It was quite nice actually. The scone that is. Not the cream. It may have been slightly on the drier side so I didn't take the plain one.
Patisserie selection:
Lavender Macaroon no thank you, nothing else needs to be said!
Light Fruit Cake full of lemon/orange rind & looked dry
Chocolate & Hazelnut Square chocolates always good right?
Apple & Cinnamon Frangipane Sponge possibility
Lemon Meringue Tart oh hell yes
I had the chocolate & hazelnut square, extremely rich and the base was rather soggy. I also tried the lemon meringue, it was ok, but the lemon had that bitty texture that stayed in your mouth after you had finished, you know?
It definitely wasn't the best, and by no means any where near as good as my Mom's Lemon Meringue Pie (I can make it too, just as good, if not a teensy bit better :P) I also tried the Frangipane, had this solid piece of squishy apple inside, and god knows what on top.
So not the most fulfilling Teas in my life, thats for sure.
We didn't get refills on our drinks, or on our cream/preserves.
Obviously don't have the right 'look' about us!
We left there at about 5.45pm. I then had to re-educate myself with the ways of the Underground to get myself, my friend and her Mom safely back to Euston station. We were not going to walk, no way. My knowledge soon returned, and half hour later back in Euston. Well not quite half hour, had to do a detour to the Disney Store on Bond Street first!
We had about a 40 minute wait until our train was ready on the platform, so we went and got ourselves some drinks for the ride home (more Diet Coke, 0kcal thank you very much) and a big sharing bag of Salt & Vinegar M&S (oh yes, Posh all the way now!) crinkle crisps!
They, along with the hot chocolate were the yummiest part of the day!
Overall a lovely day out, lots of healthy walking and interesting food. At least I can now say I have officially been in Harrods, seen the Toy Department and seen the Harrods bear.
Afternoon Tea isn't really me, and by that experience not something I will be doing again soon, I will try it again one day, but can we have some 'normal' posh sarnies please.
Like Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese (no green), Cucumber, Cheddar, you know, the normal 'posh nosh' as it were.
Ta Ta for now old (& young) chums.