As some of you will know I recently relocated back to my hometown of San Diego. That is in southern California on the west coast of America for anyone who isn’t sure.
Before I left England (less than two weeks ago now) I just had to have afternoon tea somewhere in London. I had never done that and it seemed a shame to not try it at least once.
So many menus to choose from!
I ended up taking my mother-in-law to Fortnum and Mason for tea. While there are many beautiful places to choose from for tea (the Ritz was the first one that came to mind) I ended up choosing Fortnum and Mason because of their vast choice of “special dietary” menus. I was surprised to see that they had a dairy-free menu, a gluten-free menu, an egg-free menu, a vegetarian menu, a diabetic menu, and even a vegan menu.
As my mother-in law is a vegetarian, I eat mostly vegetarian and sometimes try for vegan, and I also do best when I don’t have a lot of gluten, this was the perfect place for us to go. I did check around at the Ritz, Claridges, and a couple other places, but I didn’t see anyone with these same choices. If I had called to ask whether the other restaurants offered vegetarian or vegan menus, they might have said yes, but it wasn’t obvious on their websites, so I just went with Fortnum and Mason.
We had our tea in the St. James restaurant, which is very traditional – just what I wanted in the last few days of English experiences. We ordered one vegetarian and one vegan meal just to see what the difference would be and to get to try both. Let me say, they were both delicious, and not actually that different.
What They Served
For canapes, we had a red pepper based soup with some marinated artichokes and a tiny bit of salad on the side as the vegan choice. The vegetarian choice was a carrot based soup with similar sides. (They were very small portions by the way.)
For sandwiches, both menus had grilled vegetable sandwiches (red peppers, eggplant, yellow peppers), artichoke and hummus sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, and one other selection I can’t think of. The vegetarian menu also had an egg sandwich and one wensleydale cheese sandwich. These were all small finger sandwiches so that you could have one of each. And some of them had gluten free bread.
Next was scones with jam, butter, and clotted cream. These were scrumptious! Even the vegan one, which was made without milk, was great. We had soy butter and soy cream instead of dairy.
Finally, the vegan serving had fresh berries as dessert and the vegetarian menu had a choice of cakes. Again, they were all delicious, but clearly the vegan option didn’t get any special cakes. To be honest, we didn’t need any of them anyway (I mean, we ate them of course, but we were full before that.)
Other Info
The service in St. James’s was exceptional. There were seconds of anything you wanted. The tea was bottomless. Overall, it was a fantastic (but indulgent) experience.
I’m so pleased I got a chance to do that before moving back to the US and I will certainly try to get my parents in there whenever we next visit. It is a pricey afternoon (£34 each), but as a special afternoon treat, it was well worth it. Additionally, as you can stay in there as long as you like, you can actually make an event out of it. We ended up being in there for almost 4 hours!! And I do remember seeing a couple of other Americans in there who had their maps out planning what they were going to do while in town. What a great idea!
Afternoon tea couldn’t be an everyday occasion (as I easily consumed 1,500 calories over the course of the meal), but it was still fabulous.
Be sure to leave some time either before or after your meal to look around the various floors in Fortnum and Mason. You’ll find exquisite jewelry, handbags, holiday decorations, tea, chocolate, and lots of other goodies.
You can make a reservation at: http://www.fortnumandmason.com/stjames-restaurant.aspx
To your health,
Kimberly
