The Parlour at Fortnum & Mason — Restaurant in London

Went to The Parlour on the 21rst of August, round 7 PM (if I remember well). I was in a hurry because I had to take a train, and I was feeling very very low due to a nervous breakdown and very tense conversations and fights I had had earlier that day and the day before with my husband. When I arrived, a lady server showed me to a table. I told her I already knew what I wanted to order but she didn't listen to me and just told me someone would come. But after at least 10 minutes, nobody had come. So I eventually got up and informed a server passing by that I hadn't been served yet. He seemed surprised I hadn't been served yet and very soon came to take my order. All the time I was feeling extremely low and sad and I eventually started crying, hiding my eyes in my hands. When the server came back, he saw I had been crying and asked if it was due to him. He was all the time very polite, curteous and attentive to me, in a very respectable way. It helped me feel a bit better. He told me the carrot cake I had ordered was cold so I could have it warmed up or eat it cold. As I was in a hurry, I chose to eat it cold. I had also ordered 2 ice cream balls. When I eventually went to pay, the server told me there was no charge because the carrot cake was free as it was cold, and a lady sitting at a table near mine had paid for my ice cream. She had seen me cry and didn't want me to know she had paid for it. I was truly deeply touched and it brightened up my day. Dear lady, if ever you see this comment, thank you with all my heart ! And thank you also and especially to the kind server, rather short sized, dark hair and dark complexion, who was so attentived and kind to me. You also brightened up my day and helped me feel a little better ! He also gave me, for free, a nice pitsachio tart. And I forgot to say, the carrot cake and ice creams were really very good and there was a lot of them ! I had no idea there would be so much. I had stopped to eat there because I had been walking a long distance and was feeling faint when I arrived, and just stopped there because it was the nearest, but the prices were a lot for my budget (though I think the food deserved it!). And so I ended up with a nice nourishing tea for free, due to the kindness of the server and...

Zomato very kindly sent me a £40 voucher to visit The Parlour at Fortnum & Mason. You might not know – I didn’t – that Fortnum & Mason houses not one, not two but three different restaurants. (Four if you count their wine bar located in the food hall.)

The Parlour is the most relaxed based around an old school ice cream parlour and while they specialise in sundaes they also offer a range of savouries and cakes. The decor is cute and girlie and would be a great place for a birthday party.

We decided to take a twist on our usual monthly afternoon tea date and go for The Pick of the Parlour. For £19.50 you get a Spinach & Gruyère Tart, two scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam a mini parlour ice-cream sundae and a pot of tea.

I’ll be honest when our platter arrived I wasn’t sure if it would be enough to fill me up for the evening as we’d both skipped dinner. The tart was, unexpectedly, cold but absolutely fantastic. The buttery pastry simply melted in your mouth and there was just the right amount of cheese to give the tart flavour without being overpowering.

The scones were my absolute favourite and I think the best scones I’ve had of all the ones I’ve tried. I loved the fact that we each had individual dishes of cream and jam rather than having to share and worrying about being a clotted cream hog. Haha. We were even offered more but we declined.

We finished off our "tea" with the ice cream: a small chocolate waffle cone with a scoop of strawberry ice cream topped with whipped cream, chopped almonds and sprinkles with a little touch of raspberry coulis as well.

The ice cream was really nice and while you could see it was made from real strawberries there were no nasty big chunks in there spoiling your fun. Most of it went really well together although I wasn’t a fan of the coulis and found it a bit too zingy for me. We found ourselves satisfyingly full once we were done rather than overstuffed which was nice as so often after an...

Having lived locally for many years, I’ve always held Fortnum & Mason in high regard. The beauty department and food hall staff, in particular, are consistently wonderful—courteous, knowledgeable, and a credit to the brand.

However, my recent visit to the ice cream parlour was, quite frankly, the worst customer service experience I’ve had at Fortnum’s.

From the outset, the service was disorganised and inattentive. Our order was forgotten, and when it was finally prepared, we watched it sit unattended on the counter for at least five minutes. Eventually, we had to prompt our waiter to collect it for us—something that should not happen in any establishment, let alone one with Fortnum's reputation.

What truly sealed the experience as a disappointment was an encounter with what appeared to be a host or manager. As I approached the cake display, I was abruptly told to move. The area wasn’t marked as staff-only or cordoned off in any way, yet I was instructed to leave the restaurant and view the cakes from the opposite side if I wished to look at them. His reasoning was that “people standing there could harm the staff”—a bizarre and unnecessary overreaction. Unless his team is moving at lightning speed (which, given the pace of service, seems unlikely), this rationale was baffling.

A simple, polite explanation would have sufficed—something along the lines of: “Madam, you’re welcome to browse while I’m here, but we try to keep this area clear for staff access.” Unfortunately, that level of basic courtesy was entirely absent.

Unless you’re a tourist with low expectations and no understanding of English, I would strongly recommend avoiding the ice cream parlour. The service was shockingly poor, the prices unjustifiably high, and the overall experience left a sour taste—ironically, the only...