Afternoon Tea @ The Ritz

DON'T DO IT! Worst high tea I've ever experienced. Go to another hotel!

The staff were unattentive and upon a customer service call, the GM of the hotel was very arrongant - lending insight as to why his staff and service is so shocking.

The food was substandard - actually, I'm convinced the tea was purchased at the local supermarket as there was nothing special about it at all.

The veggie menu is so basic, you should not be charged for it. The dessert for vegans is even worse (one of the guests in my party was a vegan and for a 5* hotel, the food was disgraceful. We called in advance to let staff know and were told to tell servers on the day of tea)

Our table was not cleared once - and believe it or not, the staff actually FORGOT our TEA order (??) - we had to remind them half way through the service that we had not yet received our tea. To which we had to relay the order to three different waiters ... ?

The staff was closing the til (i.e. counting the money) before the service was actually finished, at the table next to us. I had to get up and ask for the bill.

Appalling service ... spend your money elsewhere - there are so many hotels that do high tea in London and the Ritz unfortunately are a disgrace.
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1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Be careful before buying a Tea At The Ritz voucher as a gift. This is my experience of The Ritz Hotel and their arrangements for reserving a table for their famous Afternoon Tea.

My wife had not been very well and so a very dear friend gave us a kind gift, being a voucher for Tea for Two At The Ritz. I think he got his idea from seeing The “Ritz” Cow that we bought at a Sothebys charity auction to support the wonderful helpline for distressed and “at risk” children known as ChildLine. The “Ritz” cow is now positioned on a lawn at our home. Prior to this it used to stand directly outside of The London Ritz Hotel as part of London’s “Cow Parade.” It is blue and gold. Every time I see it, I'm now reminded of the Tea At The Ritz we have never received.

I tried to book Tea at the Ritz using the voucher but there was never availability when I tried to arrange to use it. Tea at The Ritz is clearly big business and a very busy affair. There is a 12 month expiry date on the voucher and it has to be used before this fairly short expiry date. Why is that I wonder? I mean….The Ritz were paid for the Afternoon Tea when the voucher was bought….they enjoyed the use of the purchase money…..why should it have an early expiry date? Why should these vouchers not be valid for five years or even ten years? 
Even London parking vouchers once purchased from local councils can be used for years.

Anyhow, when I finally managed to book, after my wife had been too ill for some months to go out anywhere…..and told The Ritz that we were using our voucher, a snooty sounding woman, in a tone that could freeze the entrails off a rabbit, informed me that we could not use our voucher which was now useless, because it had expired. I was so irritated that I did not proceed with the booking as I had no intention of allowing the Ritz to charge twice and she was clearly not prepared to budge. I then spoke to a more senior manager who politely but firmly put me in my place.

All I now have is a worthless piece of paper and the Ritz has my friends’ payment IN FULL for an Afternoon Tea.

When my friend purchased the voucher for me, he paid by credit card. I have only just informed him that we were never able to use the voucher. He has confirmed to me that when buying the voucher he was certainly not advised by The Ritz that he had a 7 day “cooling off” period nor was he advised that the voucher was only valid for 12 months. He has now told me that had he realised that, then he “would not have wished to impose such a gift on me, knowing how poorly my wife then was and that we also don’t live in London and rarely visit London together.

In the UK, the purchase of goods and services over the Internet, by phone or by mail order generally is subject to the Distance Selling Regulations. One of the most important implications of these regulations is a cooling off period of 7 days during which you have the right to cancel. My friend should have been informed by The Ritz at time of purchase of the voucher that there was a 7 day “cooling off” period but he was not. I’m now advised by a department within the Office Of Fair Trading that it is illegal not to inform consumers of their rights when buying over the telephone that there is a 7 day cooling off period.

The frantically busy Ritz Tea Operation provides 2 hour time slots in which to have your Traditional Afternoon Tea in the posh setting of the London Ritz, starting at 11.30am with the last slot being at 7.30pm. Oscar Wilde's Lady Bracknell would surely have considered the socially acceptable hour for Afternoon Tea at The Ritz to be half past 3 o'clock. Many people would. As for Tea at The Ritz at 7.30 in the evening, this is ludicrous. I consider even 6.00pm to be a time for cocktails, not Afternoon Tea! The only times and dates that I was ever offered when I tried to use my voucher were totally useless to me.

I’m hardly surprised that there is a “high demand” for Tea at the Ritz service given they accept reservations: on the internet; via travel agents; via various web-sites; via agents; they cater to residents; accept telephone bookings.....as well as selling unlimited gift vouchers to unfortunate people who have to then scramble around trying to reserve tables before the voucher expires.

Every single time I tried to reserve a table in advance for my wife and I, the Ritz staff told me that none were available for when I wanted when in fact it seems that tables are always available. I understand that The Ritz keep tables available for hotel guests who may decide to take tea at very short notice. Perhaps the Ritz should suggest to hotel guests at the time they make reservations for accommodation that if they hope to enjoy Tea at the Ritz they also book it early, instead of taking full payment in advance from those purchasing gift vouchers and then considering such people third class citizens, to fill in the gaps. A senior manager has suggested that I should have kept calling in the hope of picking up a cancellation! Does he not realise that people have a life?

I do not feel it is acceptable for my wife and I to have to travel up to London to have tea at a date and time to suit The Ritz and furthermore I would expect to enjoy tea at The Ritz when I plan to be in London in the first place, as part of our day. Given how very difficult it is to reserve tea at The Ritz, it makes the limited 12 month validity period rather unfair.

Last week I went online to The Ritz website and tried to book a table for two for Tea at the Ritz giving more than the indicated 12 weeks notice. First I looked at the current month of August 2011 on their Tea reservation system and I found that a number of dates have a red cross through them. I presume this means that these dates are fully booked. I then moved on through the online Ritz Tea booking calendar to the month of November 2011 where there are no red crosses blocking out dates. I then clicked randomly on November 19th 2011 with the intention of seeing if it was possible to book a standard Tea for Two. A notice appeared stating, “Unfortunately there are no more tables available online for your requested time and date.” November 19th was my first random choice to attempt to make a test Tea reservation at the Ritz at more than three months notice after reading on their website that booking 12 weeks ahead is advised. November 19th was in fact more than 14 weeks in advance! What is going on?

I wonder just how many Tea at the Ritz vouchers, valid for only one year, have been sold and not redeemed? I wonder why they have such a short valid date window for people paying for Tea in full, in advance when it is clearly so difficult to book for Tea at The Ritz? The M.D. of The Ritz has declined to answer.

This senior Ritz executive has claimed to me that demand for Tea at the Ritz is managed "efficiently.” I can only assume following my own experience, that this means that they are doing so in a way to maximise profits for the owners. Their methods certainly are “efficient”..........Tea at the Ritz appears to be run conveyer belt style, as if it was a Disneyland attraction. Other top hotels in London allow customers to take as long as they like over tea.

Tea at the Ritz is big business. I calculate that it brings them around £11,000,000 per annum….there are 5 of what their M.D. calls “Traditional Afternoon Tea” sittings per day, every two hours from 11.30am to 5.30pm. Given this massive income they can easily afford to make vouchers valid for far longer than one year.
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BarryAscot
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, August 07, 2011

I was there yesterday with my friend to celebrate our 60th birthday, which was a late celebration. We loved every bit of it.

We had chosen the Champagne celebration at £49.00 a head. The price was worth it. The taste and aroma was out of this world.

The only fault was some waiters were not friendly and we had to ask for more sandwiches and hot water for the tea. There was a Brazilian waiter who was very polite and helped me and my friend with more fresh tea. After we had been ignored for a while, he came to our rescue.

Anyway, we would like to go here again and see if the service has improved.
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HELOISA ALVES
8 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I treated my husband to afternoon tea at the Ritz for his birthday. The sandwiches were very tasted although very simple, the scones were excellent but the pastries were just okay. The menu had mentioned the Ritz chocolate cake which I assume was the thin sliver amongst the pastries so a bit disappointing. The waiters offer refills of sandwiches and pastries which was nice although they were not open to requests for specific sandwiches but appeared to be going though the motions of providing another selection. The room and harpist were very nice but I think the service, although professional, could have been warmer and more personal. Afternoon tea at the Wolseley, at half the price, is much better value.
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londongal - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Sunday, February 14, 2010

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