The Chinoiserie — Restaurant in London

I booked a table at The Chinoiserie for cakes and tea after a wonderful previous afternoon tea experience, but unfortunately, this visit started off on a very sour note. We were greeted by an usher/front-of-house who told us there was a minimum £50 spend per person, adding that it was “all in the terms and conditions” and that I should have read them. She was petite, with long dark brown hair (I didn't get her name).

Frankly, nobody expects to comb through fine print for such an important detail, especially when it’s not made clear at the time of booking. I checked my booking confirmation afterwards — the T&Cs were divided into multiple subpages, none of which mentioned a minimum spend. This made the policy feel rather sneaky and unfair.

To make matters worse, we were told we could get a takeaway and eat our cake somewhere else. When I asked if we could sit in the other room, the waitress replied that others had paid £85 for afternoon tea and, in her exact words, “you know that is a lot of money”. I found this both judgmental and offensive. Thankfully, the manager stepped in and said that since we were not made aware of the policy, we could stay.

I will not deny that the food was excellent, although I noticed the pistachio cake portion was significantly smaller than before. The cutlery was plain white and uninspiring — a far cry from the charming, colourful floral Portmeirion teapots and plates used during afternoon tea service. Adding to the disappointment, the Chinoiserie smelled heavily of hot savoury food, which felt out of place for a relaxing tea-and-cake setting.

Our afternoon was thankfully redeemed by Suhaib, our waiter, who was exceptionally kind, attentive, and friendly. He truly turned the experience around and is a credit to the venue.

In short, while the food quality remains high and Suhaib’s service was outstanding, the lack of transparency about the minimum spend, the condescending treatment at the start, and the mismatched atmosphere made this visit disappointing compared to my...

Be aware! Just walked out from this place in the middle of the afternoon tea, it’s my first time that I did not even finish the service. Firstly, despite informing them about the dietary restrictions in advance, the only waitress said they have prepared it and it’s too late… Does it mean they made the sandwiches two weeks ago when I made the phone call? Secondly they gave the sandwiches which are different on the menu on the website and the menu provided there, they replaced one sandwich to very tiny thin tomato and cheese. Thirdly the customer service said the sandwiches are unlimited, and the waitress confirmed that, but then I saw she was talking with the manager, and came back saying they can only replenish 2 sandwiches per person, and that is it. I felt extremely uncomfortable at that point so I said with this price tag most of the tea places are doing unlimited sandwiches, and the person who picked up the phone when I booked it also confirmed that. But the waitress just then said it’s only two and that’s it. So I told her I’m not going to stay for the rest of the experience, and just tell me how much I’ve got to pay, at this point I had first set of sandwiches, which tasted not fresh and plain, and the iced coffee was weak so did the green tea, everything just tasted bad. She then talked to her manager and said I can have unlimited sandwich. Well the experience has been ruined, so I insisted to leave, the manager also came and confirmed the sandwich isn’t the same as the menu but he is not aware of that and not sure why that happened. While I was talking to the waitress the only other table suddenly said they also went to loads tea places and also feel this one is shocking of offering 2 more sandwiches only. I’m glad even strangers were backing me up. Did not get charged in the end but will never go back. Be aware if you would like...

For clarity: this review is for the Tea Room, a separate experience from the Chinoiserie. An amazing afternoon tea experience with constantly attentive staff, an impressive range of unique tea blends and the best savoury selection of any afternoon tea in London. The array of differently flavoured bite-size scones is visually striking and caters to everyone's tastes.

The Chinoserie itself, while also of a very high standard, loses a couple of stars for their price gouging. We enjoyed a very nice Festive Scone Experience and were so taken with it, we asked about buying the jams served with the scones. We were told it would be £21 per jar (which it turns out is about twice the price of buying them direct from the makers) and we were fine with that, as we expect a mark-up at a hotel. We asked for the jams to be placed on a separate bill, but when they finally brought the bill to us, everything was charged together, with a service charge on it all.

They put a service charge on bringing us a bag of jam jars. At that point, we told them to take the jams off the bill and just paid for the Scone Experience with service charge. To conrtrast this, a quaint little Chinese restaurant we went to for dinner managed to bill separately for eat-in and takeaway, with service charge on just the eat-in portion, without even needing to be asked. If a small venue like that can manage it so effortlessly, the Chinoiserie has no excuse for this...