There's nothing more indulgent that afternoon tea on a cold winter afternoon, especially in the heart of one of London's most beautiful areas. I love exploring London and finding all of its hidden gems, so when Perkin Reveller popped up on my radar I was more than a little intrigued to taste their afternoon tea.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and you would have found an Irish gal and a Scottish one sitting practically under one of London's most famous landmarks: Tower Bridge. Perkin Reveller boasts a pretty much unrivaled view of the bridge and I can see it being a perfect spot to enjoy a late afternoon tea in the summer.
Since it was quite a cool March afternoon we were more than happy to sip our champagne indoors and admire the view from the warmth of the restaurant!
The restaurant itself has been awarded two AA Rosettes for culinary excellent, so Roisin (my dining companion at the Dalloway Terrace and I'm fairly sure a soon to be regular feature of TLD) and I were excited to try their Royal Afternoon Tea.
The first to arrive, after our champagne of course, were the incredible still-warm scones. We had the option of plain or fruit scones served with delicious clotted cream and jam. Cue the inevitable jam or cream first debate.
Whichever side you come down on in this debate, there was no doubt that these were excellent. I loved the presentation of the cream and the jam, though if we had eaten all four scones I think we would have had to ask for another serving as the pots, though decorative, didn't hold too much.
The Royal Afternoon Tea, so named as the restaurant is part of the the Tower of London estate which is managed by The Historic Royal Palaces, is a classic and simple affair.
After the scones, we headed straight for the sandwich selection. We had eight perfectly equal crustless sandwiches which were great. From left to right, we had smoked salmon and cream cheese, cucumber and mint, honey roast ham and English mustard and egg and cress.
Since Roisin and I aren't egg mayonnaise fans, these were left to one side as we devoured the smoked salmon, ham and cucumber sandwiches which were much more to our taste. I loved the thick, fresh smoked salmon and thought that the addition of mint to the classic cucumber sandwich was a lovely touch.
As I'm trying to be (fairly) sensible with what I eat I was delighted to see that the cakes were quite small and light. Small though they were they certainly made up for their size with their flavour!
I particularly loved the chocolate mousse cake that had a delicious crisp base, though I was quite partial to the Victoria Sponge too!
Having lived in France for a year, Roisin and I have really quite high expectations for éclairs, so this was definitely the testing point for us.
We loved the light choux pastry filled with authentic chocolate crème patissière: this is one cake that I wished had been a little larger!
And fear not, you each have your own afternoon tea stand, so there's none of that terribly British awkwardness about who has had two smoked salmon sandiwche
It wouldn't be afternoon tea without the tea itself: Roisin was pleased to note that the Perkin Reveller serves peach tea as it's one of her favourites, whilst I remained true to form and ordered a delicious English breakfast tea.
The staff were more than happy to come back with extra hot water when we wanted more tea (we really couldn't leave that view!)
As you can probably tell from the photographs, it was a very quiet service when we were there, though I imagine it'll be a lot busier in the summer when the sun is out and the terrace is open.
The staff were lovely: nothing was too much trouble, they left us alone for as long as we wanted - in fact we stayed into the dinner service and barely noticed.
For a relaxed afternoon tea with an incredible view, and at a very reasonable £29.50 per person (or £19.50 per person without champagne) it's a lovely spot for an afternoon as close to the Thames as you're going to get without getting wet!
And just look at those scones!
The perfect way to spend a Thursday afternoon after a long day, if you ask me!
We dined as guests of Perkin Reveller.
