When I moved to London, I was lucky enough to already have a solid base of friends – either those who’d been here for a while, or moved around the same time as me. But when I started meeting members of the London blogging community, I became doubly lucky, as I met a whole new circle of wonderful people both in London and right around the world. A number of those are part of the travel link-up run monthly by Emma, Kelly and Rebecca – three fabulous Kiwis now living in London. When they organised a meeting of contributors to the link-up at, where else, a luxurious afternoon tea, of course I leapt at the chance both to see friends and meet some of the other bloggers behind the blogs that regularly enlighten, entertain and give me travel inspiration.
As there were 25 of us, we were hosted in the beautiful Roosevelt Room, which was perfect for containing all of our laughter, “Blog-Speak” (Angie rightly refers to it as a different language), and squealing with delight over Kat’s perfect little baby – part of the next generation of bloggers perhaps?
Peeking out to The Royal Arcade opposite
Brown’s Hotel is a luxury hotel in the heart of Marylebone and as you might imagine, has a rich history. It was London’s first hotel when it opened in 1837, and was loved by Agatha Christie. It was even the site of the first telephone call ever made, by Alexander Graham Bell!
The service at Brown’s was top-notch, from in-depth menu descriptions to tea and bubble top-ups to posing for what must have been a million blogger photographs. I was also really impressed with the dairy-free tea option, and it seemed that the gluten-free, vegetarian and healthy versions also went down a treat!
The sandwiches were delicious, particularly that beautiful eggy number and the beef and mustard. Like every other plate, they were replenished as fast as we could snaffle them!
The scones were the only part of the tea where I really noticed the dairy-free recipe… they were a little more like cakes than light and fluffy scones. But they were still very tasty, and with a dollop of strawberry jam I certainly wasn’t complaining.
When it came to the sweet layer, I actually thought the dairy-free offering was even better than the normal tea! We had fruit skewers and summer fruits jelly, which were fine, but my two favourites were the unusual coconut rice with mango topping, and the incredible chocolate berry mousse slice. I may or may not have had two of the mousse… they were SO good!
Truly a thing of beauty
Sorbet to cleanse our palates
Just when we were all completely stuffed, the cake trays started coming round – amazing! This was definitely the most generous afternoon tea I’ve ever been to – I’m sure there would be no complaints from either male or female diners on the quality or the quantity.
It was so lovely to catch up with all my fellow bloggers – to see their many and varied posts check out the Pinterest board here. Just be warned you may be clicking through for hours! And click here for more information on the delicious afternoon tea at Brown’s Hotel.
Brown’s hosted us at a discount in the fantastic Roosevelt Room – their tea is normally served in the cosy English Tea Rooms downstairs. Thanks Brown’s!
