Espelette at The Connaught

This review is purely for the Afternoon tea at the Connaught Rooms, I cannot comment on any other facilities this hotel offers. Here goes…. I booked this afternoon tea for my partners’ birthday as a surprise. I went to the Langham last year and that was fabulous. But when looking at reviews for this year’s tea guild awards The Connaught were rated quite high. They charge £35 per head which is quite ‘normal’ for this type of establishment. We went for this menu, and the waiter bought out one stand for us. Bearing in mind we ordered afternoon tea for two people we only got one pastry, sandwich etc to share between two! I thought this was disgusting, how can you have the nerve to charge £35 per head and then only give one pastry for example to share! Anyway we had our tiny sandwiches which were nothing special, and abruptly the waiter took away our plates not asking us whether we wanted anymore. After he took the plate away, I realised that we were only given two of the four sandwiches offered on the menu! I was too annoyed to say anything, because frankly the service was snooty! When the waiter took our ‘jam’ order I asked if we can try a few he rudely said “NO! only two per table” we barely finished our sandwiches and were asked do you want your scones and Jam, I said not just yet we want to just relax for a it and I will let them know when I am ready. Anyway 10 minutes later the waiter bought us our scone, which I hadn’t even asked for. So we sheepishly ate them. The jam was nothing special and the scones were hard and a bit stale. I asked for one more and was told “you might be too full” (how the hell can I be too full when we were sharing an afternoon tea!). So we felt a bit patronised and just had their dry cakes and left! On the way out I had to mention that we were only given half the menu, we were told that we had fish allergies! This is obviously not the case. I told them I don’t eat fish, but my partner does! On the whole for £70 plus 12.5% service this place is simply not worth it. The quality and service is not up to scratch, avoid at all costs, go to the Langham instead, where the food is better, service is faultless and you get what you pay for plus more at no costs! I emailed the hotel at my disappointment and told them seeing that this was booked to celebrate a birthday we were very upset….well surprise surprise it has been three days sent I wrote to them and no response, for a 5* hotel this is shocking and unacceptable. Bad customer service on their part. Spend your money elsewhere!

Good food, service level slumped a bit (nobody poured us tea or asked if we wanted a fresh pot), lovely atmosphere in general.