The Wallace Collection - Afternoon Tea

If you are new to my blog then let me tell you I love afternoon tea and if you are a treasured reader then you already know that!  In fact afternoon tea is the one British tradition I would lobby Parliament to keep if it were ever in danger!!

I was invited by The Wallace Collection along with a few blogger friends to try their Afternoon Tea.

The Wallace Collection is a beautiful collection of great paintings and sculptures open to the public, absolutely free entry and is only a 8-10 minute walk from Bond Street Underground station on Oxford Street, London.  The central hallway greets you with an idea of the caliber of collections you will see.

You can wander around on your own with a guide book or take a guided tour and benefit from the knowledge and stories of the well informed guides.

We were there for Afternoon Tea which they serve in the restaurant in a conservatory like area, light and comfortable.

There was no rush and as we waited for one of our party we sipped cool, crisp champagne - my drink of choice of course!

Each guest was served their own individual three tier tea carrier.

Afternoon Tea served on an individual, three layer plate carrier consisted of a selection of sandwiches (smoked salmon and cream cheese, ham, egg and cress and coronation chicken), home made scone, clotted cream and Payton and Byrne preserves and a selection of mini cakes.

The collection of teas is from Peyton and Byrne 's selection of black teas with the usual English Breakfast, Assam and Darjeeling as well as Formosa finest Oolong. Green teas and herbal and fruit infusions which included Orange rooibos and Vanilla Chai.

The top layer of cakes changes regularly and our collection was Eclair with Chantilly cream and caramel, Madeleine with lemon zest, Amaretti Biscuit with orange zest.

We left and it was dark outside on this wintry January late afternoon.  Off to do a spot of shopping before heading home.

Opening Times
Sun – Thur 10:00-16:30
Fri & Sat 10:00-22:30

Breakfast 10:00-12:00

Lunch 12:00-15:00

Afternoon Tea 14:30-16:30

Dinner (Fri & Sat) from 18:00

I was a guest for Afternoon Tea at the Wallace Collection along with four other foodie bloggers. All photos and opinions belong to Heidi's Kitchen Talk.



Here is what fellow food blogger Emma had to say about the afternoon tea.

Afternoon Tea for Men with Mr R - 108 The Pantry

I have often said that one of my favourite experiences is traditional Afternoon Tea, little finger sandwiches, tiny little cake replicas of larger pieces and of course tea, one of the only times I really want proper British tea.

I was recently invited to try Afternoon Tea with a twist - The Men's Afternoon Tea. Slightly more substantial items and of course I took Mr R along with me.

We arrived at 108 Pantry on Marlebone Lane, W1 on a Saturday afternoon after an exhausting session at The Cruise Show at the Excel weary and ready to sit down and relax.

We started our relaxing afternoon with a Guinness for Mr R and a glass of champagne for me! That's how I like to start things off.  This was to accompany the savoury part of our Tea.

We moved on to tea when we got to the scones with jam and cream.

The carrier was brought to our table looking inviting.

Some of the items were:

Grilled rib eye steak sandwich with caramelised onion and Shropshire Blue cheese
Free-range pork and black truffle sausage roll
Dorset crab on toast
Welsh rarebit
as well as:

Lemon meringue pie
Peanut butter and chocolate cupcake
Rhubarb and custard doughnut
Banoffee shots

and of course freshly baked scones, strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream.

Now some say jam then cream and some reckon it's cream then jam (I am one of those!).  What do you say is the correct protocol?


The tea list is impressive and includes a selection of black tea, green tea and white tea as well as a range of caffeine free herbal infusions.  The tea is sourced from The RareTea Company, organic and hand picked best leaves from small mountain tea farms who work directly with The Rare Tea Company.

The venue is modern and up-to-date but also contemporary and understated. The lighting was subdued which was OK if you were just dining there but a bit too low for my photos!

We left feeling satisfied and happy to have experienced a new twist to a traditional favourite.

108 Pantry will be serving this unusual Afternoon Tea for the time period of  Friday 8^th to Wednesday the 13^th of January 2016 and will be priced at £28.00 per person.  Tea will be served from 12:00 noon until 17:00 on each of the relevant days.  To enjoy this or any of the other great food from 108 Pantry or 108 Brasserie phone in advance to book on 020 7969 3900.

We were guests of 108 Pantry and were not required to write a positive review.  All opinions and photos are our own.