Looking for a top spot to take a bit of afternoon tea? You could do worse than trying The Athenaeum Hotel on Piccadilly which has just picked up a gong from the Tea Guild for 2012's Best Afternoon tea in London.
The hotel serves up two teas - an Evergreen Tea for £35 which includes a glass of Rose Petal Champagne, the usual finger sarnies, orange blossom scones and a selection of pastries including Bird Cookies, Fairy Cakes with Sugar Flowers and Mixed Fruit Tartlets. Alternatively you could go for their Honey tea for £39 which uses Regents Park honey in a range of ways including honey-roasted ham sandwiches, scones and toasted crumpets with honey and pastries including honeycomb Marquis, Honey Cake, Elderflower Jelly, Lavender and Honey Macaroons, Chocolate and Honey Mille Feuille and Honey Cheesecake.
It all sounds perfectly lovely, but the Tea Guild does only review establishments which have paid for membership, so there are probably other great London tea venues which don't get a look-in for these awards. We hear The Tea Rooms in Stoke Newington do a cracking afternoon tea which is just £15, while Betty Blythe over in Brook Green also do a lovely tea for £21 (you can bring your own fizz for a corkage fee of £2.20 per person). Both would be a good penny-pinching alternative to the grand hotel experience.
