Category: Brasserie (£££)
In general,I am not a big fan of afternoon tea. It is kind of fun once a year or so but otherwise I just prefer lunches and dinners and having afternoon tea means you can’t have a proper one of either. And somehow it just never tastes very good. So when I was invited by the lovely Diana@MassayTravel to the ‘Day of the Dead’de-light afternoon tea at the Met Bar adjacent to the Metropolitan Hotel in Mayfair I was skeptical to say the very least. I was expecting soggy sandwiches (I don’t know how you feel about it but I have never quite understood the attraction of cucumber sandwiches),greasy scones and overly sweet and buttery cakes.
Little did I know…the Met Bar does a light (maybe calling it ‘low calorie’or ‘healthy’would be one step too far) afternoon tea (‘de-light‘you see!) and I found it to be surprisingly successful. The amount of sugar,butter and fat is minimized while the flavour is retained. Even though I might have defeated the purpose slightly by eating twice as much….
Before I tell you some details about the food I will have to point out one major drawback for afternoon tea at the Met Bar –the atmosphere. There basically is none. The Met Bar might work well as a late night bar,but in the afternoon it just feels like a late night bar during the day. If you are after the traditional English style I refer you to the Wolseley or the Hilton,enjoy your cucumber sandwiches!
I however choose food over atmosphere any time,especially when it is not only tasty but also very pretty. The upcoming occasion of Halloween was interpreted a bit more freely by the Met Bar patissier (who I heard is Austrian,of course the cakes had to be good!) resulting in a Day of the Dead theme. The Day of the Dead is a holiday in Mexico celebrated on the 2nd November to remember the dead. A very typical symbol for this holiday is the skull,here made out of white chocolate topping a tasty and moist Cocoa cupcake. Next to it there is the bleeding Strawberry cupcake in case you were wondering.
My clear favourite was the casket shaped chili-chocolate mud pie. The advertised chili was unfortunately not detectable but still it was very good with scrumptious dark chocolate,deliciously moist. And such a cute skull,you almost didn’t want to eat it!
For me a new concept were the breadless sandwiches. Considering that sandwich bread it not exactly the pinnacle of culinary sophistication I think it is a brilliant idea. And it means you can eat more cake! The flavours were rather nice and had the spice that the chocolate cake was lacking:we had seriously spicy jalapeno foam,crayfish,lime (the taste was good but did not like the consistency of the foam) and tequila jelly,chicken fajita,sour cream and refried bean mousse (so so) as well as guacamole,spicy mango &tomato salsa (very nice and again spicy). These little savory dishes also proved to be a good palate cleanser between all the sweets.
Some more sweet stuff:here we have a ginger and lemon cupcake on the right,then a de-hydrated cookie which reminded me of Austrian Christmas cookies,and last but not least a traditional Mexican tea cakes with a cherry filling.
But of course no afternoon tea without scones and these ones were perfect. Light and fluffy,served with creme fraiche instead of clotted cream (I like it better acutally) and jam with the taste of strawberry fields in summer.
All these delicacies (one of these towers is for 2 people) costs you 25 pounds per person including tea (we could choose between English Breakfast and Earl Grey,I did not investigate whether other options are available),which is not exactly a bargain but if you consider that you can skip lunch and dinner…And for those of you who don’t have a chance to sample the Halloween afternoon tea,I heard that there will be a Christmas themed one coming up.
- Food: 7/10
- Service: 8/10
- Atmosphere:4/10
- Value for money: 6.5/10
- Chances of returning: 10%
- Verdict:If afternoon tea,then it has to be the Met Bar one!
HungryinLondon was guest of Met Bar.
I share your sentiments about afternoon tea –I can’t bear the “C”word,cucumber being one of the few things that I refuse to eat –but those decorations looks fantastic! Perhaps not fantastic enough to convince me to part with £25,but fantastic nonetheless.
@Brad I agree,25 pounds is just a lot of money for basically dessert. However,it depends how much you are willing to pay to avoid the cucumber
Well it’s not a dessert for hungry people but for gastronomes. The taste of the food has different value for the different people. I’d probably not pay 25 pounds but I have friends who will even not ponder before giving the money.