Mirror Room — Restaurant in London

As an afternoon tea enthusiast, Mirror Room exceeded all my expectations. Naturally visiting London meant booking an afternoon tea service but with so many great afternoon teas to choose from, the task can be a little more daunting than it is in the States. I originally was trying to book afternoon tea at the iconic Ritz, Claridge's, or Fortnum & Mason, but most of these were booked for the day I wanted to go. After some more browsing, I came across the Rosewood.

My BF and I both love the Rosewood. There's actually a location in D.C., and we love visiting their bar and restaurant. Almost instantly, I knew this was the right choice. I later found out that the Mirror Room, despite only introducing their afternoon tea in February 2017, received an award for best contemporary afternoon tea.

The Rosewood is a luxury, five-star hotel that boasts of "an ideal mix of British heritage and contemporary sophistication." Their afternoon tea reflects the hotel's elegance and contemporary features, both in interior design and afternoon tea style. The Mirror Room is aptly named with a beautiful installation of scrambled mirrors and is decorated with contemporary lights, Chesterfield sofas, numerous plush pillows, and marble side tables.

Their festive art afternoon tea is £55, with a selection of traditional finger sandwiches, art inspired pastries, and scones. Should you like champagne with your afternoon tea, it is £65.

Tea was served first. Their tea is from Mariage Frères, a French tea company based in Paris that spans back to 1854. I opted for their Queen Victoria. My BF selected the Marco Polo.

We were then served traditional sandwiches that came on platters. Our sandwiches were roasted turkey breast, honey, and cranberry sauce; soft bath cheese and truffle; smoked duck and orange; lobster, crayfish, and fennel; and smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill. I personally liked the lobster, crayfish, and fennel and the smoked salmon the best.

Following the sandwiches, we were presented with a very refreshing palate cleanser of granita to ease us into the next round. Here, our server brought a three-tier stand. On the bottom tier were plain and raisin scones. These were served with Cornish clotted cream, lemon curd, and strawberry and elderflower jam. The scones were perfectly fluffy but not crumbly, while each spread was better than the last. On the first and second tiers are the raisons d'être of the Mirror Room afternoon tea - art-inspired sweets.

The Mirror Room's Pastry Chef Mark Perkins took inspiration from iconic artists to create gorgeous, edible works of contemporary art. The second tier held a praline feuilletine with whipped jivara chocolate cream, mandarin jelly, and a tart shell, topped with jivara chocolate ganache and a chocolate decoration. This was inspired by Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky. In addition, the second sweet on this tier was a chocolate cube filled with vanilla cream choux, salted caramel, and chocolate cremeux. This was inspired by famed British street artist Banksy's "Balloon Girl."On the first tier were the remaining artists. A chestnut cream, cassis jelly, almond rectangular sponge that's topped with white chocolate and a glazed blue sphere, inspired by Jeff Koons' "Gazing Ball" series. Next, a cherry brownie filled that's filled with vanilla cream, topped with a macaron and flick art chocolate, inspired by Jackson Pollock. Finally, a green apple Bavarois with lime mousse and a puff rice chocolate disc topped with chocolate pearls that balances precariously above the Bavarois. This was inspired by Hubert Le Gall.

The sweets were all amazing. The time and effort it must take into assembling each incredibly intricate and beautiful work of art, while not comprising taste, is astounding. I've never had such stunning or delicious works of edible art before in an afternoon tea service.

Additionally, service was most friendly and pleasant. Everyone is cordial and hospitable, which made this an unquestionable five-star afternoon...

The location of the venue is not immediately obvious and when we approached the entrance we thought we were in the wrong place because the doorman did not acknowledge us, or offer up a friendly ‘can I help you’. We did eventually find the venue, just in the main entrance and to the left. The room is stunning, and the layout nice although some of the tables are very close. We were sat next to a couple and could hear every word, and it felt a little un-comfy, especially because there was no other noise - the music was turned down very far; perhaps some live music would have been nice, or something a little louder and classier like at Browns Hotel or the Four Seasons at Ten Trinity square. The service was fine if a little inattentive. They never refilled water and were quite terse. It took quite some time to pay, despite only being in a half filled venue. I did not feel the love and the nerve of a 15 percent service charge for such service is not on.

The sandwiches were the standout high; creative and delicious, interesting textures and well thought out re-creations of classics. The scones had the added touch of lemon curd which was divine, but were a little dry.

The cakes, although looked wonderful, were all actually quite similar; very well made, but so rich and some over-cloyingly sweet. Very apt that the looks should be deceiving, considering it was Dali inspired, but not in a good way. The sensations of an overly-tart passion fruit, tart mango, tart mandarin, combined with a cremaux, or olive oil chocolate on nearly every dessert just got a little tired, and it is all stuff we have had many times before. the creative flavours did not match the looks at all.

Shortly after our visit we went to Pantechnicon in Belgravia, and despite feeling sooo full, had a cake there, that was more delicious and creative, flavour wise than what we ate in the Rosewood. Overall there was nothing wrong with the place, but far from London’s finest teas. I also don’t like how quite so many offerings on the tea and drinks menu have supplements too. It is a little tacky especially seeing as, price-wise, this is nearly the most expensive tea in London. Browns offer a vast selection in comparison, and take the brewing of the tea far...

Can it be more disappointing?

I went to Rosewood with my husband, sister and brother in law. I had such high hopes for the afternoon tea at Rosewood only to be utterly disappointed.

The afternoon tea consisted on 3 courses, namely 1) sandwiches; 2) scones & pre-dessert: 3) Dessert. We ordered at around 12:15pm and the first course was served at 12:25pm. And this was when things started going downhill, as one of the sandwiches was missing. And then the server spilled tea all over the table as they collected the teapots. We finished the sandwiches rather quickly but the second course only came at 1:14pm. And we had to wait for the new pot of tea. The last course arrived at 1:49pm. At around 2:10pm, they came to say they need the table back in 10 minutes (when we have not even started eating the last course), as the afternoon tea was supposed to last for 2 hours (claiming that they expected us to have already left at 2pm - even though the last course came only at 1:49pm, it’s obviously our fault that we were so slow). Eventually we were evicted to the bar on the side with terribly uncomfortable chairs.

If they need the table back at 2pm, they should have let us know in advance and they should surely have brought us the food and tea more quickly to avoid all the idling time in between.

Just as you thought it cannot get any worse, when we left and my sister tried to collect her coat from the cloakroom, the staff said they cannot find it. My sister had to get into the cloakroom to search for it herself only to find that her coat was lying on the floor, and the staff didn’t even bother apologizing.

If you wonder about the food, it’s alright.

All in all, 5 star hotel with 1 star service. It was...