Afternoon Tea Adevntures - The Rubens At The Palace Hotel

Hello lovely readers!

More tea & cake time of which there can NEVER be too much of in my world :) Last year I received a voucher from work to spend on a Virgin Experience which included days out, theatre tickets, meals & afternoon teas! I thinks its clear which one I went for ;) One of the choices available was The Rubens At The Palace Hotel which I had yet to try but had heard great things so I opted for this one!

I took mumma bear with me as my date so we both made our merry way into central to the hotel which is situated in the very heart of London and overlooks the Royal Mews of Buckingham Palace. The moment we stepped into the beautiful Palace Lounge I knew we were in for a treat. 

Decorated in a divinely dark regal fashion, the lounge decor is a mixture of plush chairs & sofa's with a table of vintage sweets encased in glass jars being the central focal point. Our booking was for 1pm & we were able to choose where we would like sit which was really lovely so I would definitely advise booking for around this time as when we left every table was filled!

I noticed that the lounge had a row of the puffiest looking couches I had ever seen placed right by the window forward facing overlooking the Mews, I thought this would be a fun & different way to partake in our tea so we selected one of those & despite feeling a tad like a goldfish in a bowl with the passers by looking in & often taking pictures(!) it was definitely a good choice as we had the pleasure of seeing a little parade arriving into Buckingham Palace as well! 

But on to the main event...the tea itself! After handing our coats over & sinking ourselves into the cushion-ey fluffy goodness of the sofa seats in as elegant a manner as possible, not easy let me tell you, the urge to divebomb was strong but we are civilized humans on occasion....we were asked if we had any dietary requirements so if you have any requests such as vegetarian/vegan/halal etc then those are acknowledged which is great. 

We then selected which tea we would like, I always like to try out the customized special blends that are unique to the afternoon tea so I opted for the The Rubens Blend whilst mumma bear went for The Royal Jubilee Blend, as we like our tea with milk & both were really lovely to drink. We were left to sip our tea & people watch for a short while before our afternoon tea arrived in all its glory & my did it look pretty!

I always like to dive for the sandwiches first & the variety was very impressive. Every single one was simply scrumptious, the bread soft & fluffy & the fillings generous. I'm actually a bit of a boring fart when it comes to afternoon tea sandwiches & enjoy the cucumber & cream cheese ones the most! And these didn't disappoint, the Abroath Smokie stood out in particular & made an interesting alternative to the usual smoked salmon that you see.

Savories partially done, we took a wee break & next made our way up to the scones which were a mixture of orange scented & plain. Warm & moist served with clotted cream, jam & curd condiments, these were HEAVEN. I don't usually eat the scones in afternoon tea as I find them very heavy but even I couldn't resist one! 

On this tier as well were little Jam penny's which were basically mini jam sandwiches...not a huge deal when you think about it but...I actually LOVED these. How can something so simple taste so GOOD?! A very cute little addition. 

So far we had only been able to gaze in wonder at the topmost tier as the selection of sweet desserts really were a treat for the eyes. I decided to test out the Plum Posset with orange caviar, a rich fruit puree/mousse which was a veritable explosion of flavours on the tongue!

Cherry is one of my favourite flavours so the cherry eclair was consumed in record timing & was every bit as delicious as I'd hoped as was the gorgeous strawberry Coronation tart. At this point both mumma bear & I were fit to burst so ended up taking the remaining sweet treats & scones home with us where they were devoured before you can say food coma. The red velvet cupcake was worth the wait ;)

Throughout our time at the Rubens, we were checked on occasionally by the lovely staff, had our tea refilled whenever needed & were able to enjoy our afternoon tea at a lovely leisurely pace without feeling rushed at all. And as mentioned they kindly packaged up what we could not finish to take home with us. Afternoon Tea at The Rubens at the Palace is £39.50 per person & one that I would definitely do again & recommend to others. Note: The menu may have changed slightly since we visited last!

Thanks as always for reading! You can have a peek at all my Afternoon Tea Reviews HERE 

Lotsa love to ya!