Afternoon tea at the Athenaeum Hotel, Mayfair

Food: 5/5

Service: 5/5

Ambience: 5/5

At a glance: generous, friendly, special

I have been to the Athenaeum for tea before, in 2009, and I remember being very impressed. So, it was some trepidation that I decided to return – always worrying that in the intervening two years they would somehow have lowered their standards. Happily not so!

One of the things I love best about the Athenaeum is that they staff are attentive, but not pushy. You can stroll into the foyer and take a seat without being asked why you are there, and everyone greets you with a genuine smile.

We took the Honey Tea, which at £39 is the deluxe package – I would recommend it over the standard tea if you like honey, alcohol and chocolate, but otherwise the Evergreen Tea is splendid.

The first step, of course, was to choose the tea. I had Margaret Hope Darjeeling which had a beautiful, floral, honeyed flavour and complemented the rest of the goodies perfectly. 

Next, came the “honey sandwiches”. The tea comes with honey roasted ham sandwiches and seeded rolls filled with goat’s cheese and onion caramelised in honey. However, they very kindly substituted half the ham ones for chicken because my friend doesn’t eat pork. She pronounced them the best chicken sandwiches she has ever had!

The finger sandwiches were generous in size and the seeded rolls substantial, but after the honey sandwiches, they bring you a platter of the standard afternoon tea sandwiches (cucumber, egg and cress, ham and two kinds of salmon) to choose from. The cucumber sandwiches were particularly impressive as they were served on pesto bread – a delicious combination which I shall consider when making my own afternoon teas. 

The sandwiches were followed by hot crumpets and warm scones (plain, but flavoured with orange blossom) served with bowls of jam, honey and clotted cream as well as butter. My only criticism would be that the jam was rather runny and slid of the scones, but otherwise it was all lovely – the crumpets were toasted to perfection, hot and crispy.

At this point, I was quite satisfied and what we’d had already qualified as a substantial tea. But. Next came the cakes! We were brought a glass of honey-infused Champagne each and a large platter of cakes. I was worried the bubbly would be oversweet, but it was merely floral, with a taste and odour of rose petal. The cakes were magnificent: chocolate millefeuille, honey cake, elderflower jelly, lavender macarons, chocolate and honeycomb marquis, honey cheesecake. I managed to try the millefeuille, jelly and macaron and then our waitress came back and offered to pack up our leftovers, which was very welcome.

I would definitely rank the Athenaeum as one of my top two afternoon tea experiences. It’s perfect for a group of friends or a low-key “occasion” treat as the atmosphere is relaxed, but the food is traditional, generous and served expertly. You can also call in advance for a birthday plate and they will pipe a message in chocolate.  I recommend going for one of the later sittings (after 4.30) as they allow you to linger as long as you please. 

Geneva Diary Part 4

This morning it occurred to me that I have taken no photos! And yet, we didn’t really visit anywhere worth photographing today. Oh well.

Today was for shopping.

First stop was Manor, a department store along the lines of Paris’s BHV, with a large food hall on the ground floor. I bought gifts: ten bars of chocolate, a stolen and a bottle of olive oil which I later realised I wouldn’t be able to take back because it is over the draconian 100ml limit – bah!

Compared to London (and even more so the rest of Europe) prices here are quite high and some of the weirdest things are ridiculously expensive. Food probably balances out in the sense that some things which are expensive in the UK are cheaper here and vice versa, but I was shocked to see a packet of J-cloths going for more than 12F (about £8). Souvenir items are also extremely expensive despite being worse tat that you’d find elsewhere.

In the afternoon we visited Rue de Paquis in search of more exciting shops, but the area turned out to only have African food shops, brothels and hookers marching about the streets in search of trade.  

I insisted on visiting a charity shop we passed. It was full of shoes, knitwear and underwear – thermals I’m guessing. Amongst the small selection of books I found both volumes of Les mandarins and flipping through discovered a love note left there by some previous owner.

Geneva Diary Part 3

Day three in Geneva. I spent the morning trying desperately (and perhaps pointlessly) trying to rescue the lace shawl I’m knitting and then we walked to the park, one of those large, manicured affairs of which they are fond on the continent. The park is home to one of Geneva’s most prestigious restaurants, in front of which is an ice skating rink. I was amused to see children skating with the help of small plastic zimmer-frame constructions – and even more so to see an adult slipping around with one. The park also features a huge and elaborate monument to religious and political freedom commemorating events such as the translation of the Bible into English, the sailing of the Mayflower, Magna Carta…all events with which the people of Geneva apparently feel a kinship due to the city’s 1602 victory against the Duke of Savoy, which allowed it to preserve its political and religious independence.

From the park, we wandered on to Plainpalais, which is a huge, flat, concreted area which is presently home to a fun fair and a rather bedraggled market. Most of the stalls held cheese, greengrocery and overpriced market stall clothing, but the one that caught my eye was a Lebanese stall where a gentleman was baking rouch flatbreads on what looked like an upturned wok. The breads, made of dough which is either spiced or flavoured with olives, are rolled out flat, cooked, and then spread with any combination of houmous, spicy spinach, baba ghannouj and ‘lebanese spices’. Absolutely delicious and a great way to warm up on a cold day! I wish I could remember what they called them.

Next stop was Café Remor, which I loved, it was so delightfully eccentric and olde-worlde-y. They keep the cakes and pastries in a hollowed out piano and serve homemade ice creams in fascinating flavours. I tried saffron flavour, which came with a delicate lemon wafer. Definitely somewhere I intend to visit again!
Our ultimate destination was a chess open. I had never visited one before. It was held in a really retro building, with a mass of tables laid out. The players were of all ages – but overwhelmingly male. I was amazed to see pre-teen boys pitting themselves against adults. At the head of the room was a platform with just two tables – the big players, one of them, I learnt, a Grand Master.

Of more interest to me was the nearby synagogue, which is so large and famous that the road on which it sits is called ‘Rue de la synagogue’. Geneva is not particularly diverse, so I’m guessing this one building accommodates all the city’s Jewry.

Home, dinner, more Toy Story :)

Geneva Diary Part 2

So today, apart from lovely food and knitting, we went for a walk to the lake and beyond. I am staying with a friend who lives a few minutes’ walk from everything so getting about is easy.
Like most European cities apart from the UK, Geneva has buses, trains and trams running on 25 Dec. There are even some tabacs and cafes open. The lake is beautiful, and from there you can see that Geneva is almost completely enclosed by mountains – well, mountains to me and to most, though some might designate the flatters ones ‘dodds’.

The cold was fierce – perhaps the base temperature alone wasn’t too bad, but the wind sliced at my cheeks rather uncomfortably.

Over the river, one comes to the Old Town, though all of Geneva seems old to me, stuck in the whites and greys of mid-twentieth-Century architecture. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but it did make me expect to hear Claude François playing on the radio every time I entered a shop.

Up steep, narrow cobbled streets to the Old Town and the Cathédral St-Pierre which we entered. It’s a beautiful 12th-Century structure with a high, vaulted central corridor and some nice little carvings. Nothing ornate, but very lovely. Sat for a while warming up and watching an orchestra rehearse for a concert in the evening. My cheeks thawed first, then my hands, then I started to feel the cold in places I hadn’t noticed before. My whole body was implicated. Sitting in the warm cathedral, listening to music being played and halted and taken up again was quite soporific. It made sense to leave for a coffee and come back later for the concert.

There was a curious little crêperie round the corner, open, and decorated in a very bizarre Tropi-suisse style. I had an overly sweet mulled wine and eavesdropped on the very disorganised staff who had to have a panicked conversation about what each customer had consumed (they never wrote anything down) every time a bill was requested. It may have been a family business – the brother and mother of one of the girls came in at one point and took a table.

As we were leaving, an American couple came in and asked what time they served ‘til. 2am! Thought about returning there at midnight for crêpes just for the fun of it, but it was so cold after the concert I decided to make some instead. This led to a bit of a treasure hunt for brown sugar (to make caramelised bananas to go on the crêpes) and the discovery that some grocery items have different names in France and Switzerland (kind of like the way English and American differ). I never thought of that (though, like the Belgians, they do say ‘nonante’ here for ninety).

Concert, walk home, thawing period, dinner, Toy Story. A very pleasant day.