So I've been fortunate enough to be in possession of a couple of afternoon tea vouchers recently, and I was excited at the prospect of visiting the W London for their Rock Tea! As you can see from above photo, taken from their website, the afternoon tea looks exciting and delicious, and W's reputation for rock, roll and glamour certainly heightens the anticipation.
Off we went then, into the shiny black entrance of the imposing W hotel in Leicester square and directed up into the glitzy lounge ready for our palates to be treated to something which promised to be quirky and delicious. The inside of the lounge was definitely striking and there are fabulous light features and wall fixtures to keep your eyes occupied for hours, but unfortunately it was only the physicality of the lounge that ended up making a good lasting impression.
First impressions go a long way in determining the whole of the experience, and for me it was the haphazard arrival sequence and less than warm welcome that we received that really stayed with me. Firstly we were greeted as we approached the bar, before overhearing the barman call out to the hostess with "there's another afternoon tea here for you!", rather unsubtly. When we were eventually escorted to our seat for the afternoon it was not the most social of seating areas as it meant that the two of us were sat next to each other on a bench with nothing but the walls of the buildings opposite for a view.
But let's proceed to the tea itself. The actual cup of tea was served in a stainless steel teapot and with a tea bag. It was actually a very nice pomegranate infusion and was probably one of the nicest aspects of the afternoon, other than the champagne we bought as a delightful extra! The sandwiches were completely uninspiring - a standard and rather dry, single portion of egg mayonnaise, smoked salmon, cucumber and chicken. Move up a level of the record themed tea stand to the currant scones with jam and cream, and you'll find that these were actually rather nice. Although you can't go too far wrong with scones...
The rest of the experience was even less inspiring and if I hadn't have had a two-for-one voucher then I would have probably refused to pay. We actually both ended up leaving most of the desserts and no one cared to bat an eyelid when they cleared away full plates at the end of the afternoon. The desserts were trying too hard to be 'rock and roll', whilst completely forgetting to make sure that they actually tasted nice. With too much peanut butter on the devils food cake, we had to rescue it from the top shelf halfway through sandwiches as it began to fall off of the tea stand!
I'm not going to go all the way into detail about every single item because there were some good points about the experience, namely the decor and the building itself. What I would say however is that if the food itself is not going to be up to scratch then the service really needs to go above and beyond to make up for it. The girl who served us was perfectly pleasant when we managed to catch her attention, even offering to take photos for us, but other than that we found the staff to be rather cold and disinterested. It also shows a lot about the place when the server has to bring a menu to read off of when explaining the dishes that she was serving us.
With so many fabulous options for afternoon tea in London, W are clearly missing a trick. They have an exciting and unusual sounding menu, but unfortunately for me it just didn't deliver.
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