Afternoon Tea @ The Ritz

It was with eager anticipation that my wife and I travelled by train from our home in Teignmouth Devon to the Ritz to celebrate her 60th birthday in its renowned tea room.

Both of us would like to firstly say that we were appreciative of the warm welcome we received by the Tea Room manager and his staff, along with the acknowledgement that it was my wife’s birthday.

The ambiance, decor and service, was up to the standard we expected and therefore as a consequence waited with great anticipation to begin our afternoon tea.

HOWEVER, SANDWICHES. When entering the Catering profession many years ago, one of the first lessons I was taught was how to produce the finest quality sandwich. To this end, we had to ensure that the filling was greater in volume than the sum of the two slices, to achieve this we had to learn how to cut the bread into very thin slices, spread them with the finest quality butter and finally add the appropriate filling. To present the sandwiches, the temptation was to cut them into equal and regimented pieces, but we were encouraged not to do that but to mix the cuts in order to create a much more attractive visual appearance. None of the above can be attributed to the sandwiches presented in its tea room. Even M & S sandwiches have more filling than bread!

FANCY CAKES. The first cake we tried was one which has a reputation as being one of the most mouth watering and light pastry fancies known to man, the Mille Feuille. Although the taste was acceptable it was limp and damp, unlike the light wispy and flaky puff pastry one was anticipating. A big disappointment.

TARTLETS. With a big intake of breath and a subsequent sigh, we tried the boat shaped tartlet with blueberries. Whilst picking it up from the cake stand, it drooped, it soon became clear that it was so damp and wet there was no chance this once crumbly and delicious pasty could hold its content. It tasted like it had been made the day before and kept refrigerated.

SCONES. By this time, we glanced at each other with a frown of great disappointment as we looked longingly at the delicious looking scones. The scone is of course one of those British institutions that seem to be void of any real definitive explanation as to its rightful recipe, but as Devonians, and used to enjoying the most scrumptious light crumbly scones and genuine clotted cream imaginable, we were foolishly hoping that at the Ritz we were going to get a lesson from the masters in what a scone should be like.

WRONG - The consistency of the scone was the opposite of crumbly, it was smooth and almost ‘kingsmill’ and ‘bread like’ not at all what we expected. Thank goodness we still have our own small unpretentious tea rooms in Devon, quietly and unassumingly creating scones to die for.

Finally, how one is supposed to be able to keep hot water hot, when it arrives at your table without a lid on is beyond me!

We have written to the Ritz and await a reply,. I am sure their response will be that thousands enjoy the Tea at the Ritz and one loan voice cannot possibly be right and the rest wrong. So, we paid our bill willingly, and enjoyed the experience of just being there however, we will not do it again and if anyone was to ask us if it was worth the money and the journey to London our answer sadly would have to be no.
Comment on this reader review

Ray
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 5
Monday, March 09, 2009

We had the most lovely late afternoon tea in just a perfect ambience with a harpist playing in the background. Sandwiches, scones, cakes, with everything topped up time and time again.

Heaven to take the weight off your feet after a hard day's shopping in Oxfor Street, and the perfect end.
Comment on this reader review

Irene Boyd
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Monday, September 04, 2006