Palm Court at The Langham, London

Famed as the birthplace of Afternoon Tea, Palm Court of The Langham Hotel has been serving tea to the cream of London society since the Victorian era. The kitchen is helmed by the award winning pastry chef, Cherish Finden, who has appeared on Masterchef.

I couldn’t express how excited I was when Mr Nom told me he had booked afternoon tea for me and a friend. Since watching the delights on TV I have always wanted to try the amazing cakes on offer. To sample as muh as possible we ordered one of each set of the Wonderland and Bijoux afternoon tea sets.

Before our tea sets arrived, we were presented with a lime posset each presented with gold leaf to match the opulent surroundings.  This was extremely tangy which caused me to make some unusual facial expressions.

The Bijoux tea set came with the following:

Foie gras and smoked duck with granny smith apple

Lobster, cucumber and shisho dressing

Smoked mountain ham, aged comté, garden peas and truffle

Foreman’s smoked salmon and brie with pickled apple purée

Piquilo pepper flan with candied pinenuts

Japanese bloody mary macaroons

Elderflower and Greek yoghurt panna cotta

Royal Ascot Victorian sponge hat

Pistachio and apple sour diamond - I love all things pistachio so this dessert went down a storm with me and there were great combination of flavours too.

Hereford strawberry and lemon Battenberg with lime jelly truffle, such a well crafted mini dessert, I couldn’t get over how small it was and the taste was incredible too.

The Wonderland tea set consisted of:

Crab, shrimp, cucumber, caviar and avocado 

Burford brown egg mayonnaise with mustard cress

Rose county beef with plum tomato and remoulade sauce

Formans smoked salmon with whipped brie and wild rocket

Poached cornfed chicken with coronation mayonnaise

Passion Fruit and Mango Dome

Valrhona chocolate tart

Lemon and poppy seed cake was fresh and light after the slightly heavier chocolate tart.

Layer Eton mess push up pop, at first we were staring at it not knowing what to do before someone quickly noticed and filled us in on how to eat it.

Both sets came with a selection of scones served with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry preserve. I washed all this down with vanilla tea and with this being my favourite it was easy for me to decide from the large array of tea on offer.  We were so full from the afternoon tea that I didn’t eat in the evening. Palm Court is a beautiful venue and the equally stunning tea sets lived up to expectations. The atmosphere was superb with a live pianist playing tunes in the background. Not the cheapest at around £45-50 a head but well worth trying.