The Parlour at Marylebone — Restaurant in London

After some research, I decided to booked the Zetter as the place to take my Mum for her first afternoon tea experience. My mum was visiting from Austria, so I wanted to try and choose a venue that would show off this British tradition in a beautiful setting, with what I hoped would be with great food and great service.

The venue was stunning, but unfortunately that is where the compliments shall end for my experience. The afternoon tea was ok, but nothing special and I have definitely had better afternoon teas in nearby locations. The real disappointment was the service. From the reviews, and of course the fact that this is a four star hotel, I was expecting the service to be accommodating, warm, and friendly. The Service we received on Friday 23rd August was the polar opposite. The lady on shift just did not have the attitude needed to make guests feel welcome. She was unfriendly, unwilling, and inattentive, and this attitude started from the moment of arrival to the payment.

At one point I motioned for some service, and rather than come up to the table to see what was needed, she stood halfway in the room, which meant I had to speak up so that I could be heard, which isn’t nice for any other guests trying to dine and have a conversation. Now rarely do I ever want to hold back on the ridiculous 12.5% service charge restaurants add to the bill as a ‘discretionary’ tip, but this is exactly the type of occasion where I would have. However, with this being my mums first afternoon tea experience and her first day in London, I didn’t want to make a scene, so I paid the 12.5% service charge to one of the least deserving experiences I have had in a very long time.

Honestly, service makes such a difference. My rating and review would have been so different had we been given the service that should have been standard for such a place. Overall a disappointing experience, which I would...

After a long walk, a friend and I wanted to find a good cocktail place - the Parlours reviews seemed okay. We pre-booked and were showed to our table by an open window gone 9pm. The table was squeezed in next to another customer so we moved it ourselves. A waiter dropped two paper coasters and thudded two glasses of water down. Not a very welcoming feel. The atmosphere of the establishment was nice, dark and lit in the right places. But the staff seemed out of place - like a hired crew whilst the real staff were out shopping. I asked for the toilets and was told second door on the left. Which lead to a landing and a set of stairs up and down and no signs. It took some wandering to find The Loos - a mixed gendered toilet of one stall each. We ordered a drink each which the waiter had to come back and ask again what we wanted. We were presented with what looked like something we could have knocked up in the kitchen back home. Bit disappointing. The shine of the place was taken off even more with a farting waiter - joy. Finally we got up to leave and pay - £12 per drink with £1.50 EACH service charge....

We were really looking forward to afternoon tea at The Parlour— the customer service (making the reservation, accommodating children) was warm and friendly! We ordered X3 afternoon teas, 1 per adult and 1 for the children to share. Honestly, I’ve had tastier sandwiches at Tesco 🥺 The jam was cheap (such a shame… I hadn’t had clotted cream in eons), the bread stale… even the kids didn’t like the desserts. My husband and I ate what we could (hate to waste), but it was… not good. Tea was cold, and the waitress charged us for the 3rd pot of tea, even though we ordered 3 (stingy really ). I mean, at 45£ pp, I expected to feel pampered— we did not. The music was more fitting to a club atmosphere (way too loud), I get that they are modern, but some decorum is expected. As we left, every other table had also left the inedible sandwiches with a single bite taken, and day old sweets on the platters. We weren’t the only dissatisfied...