An Afternoon tea practically perfect in everyway

As a belated Birthday treat to myself, yesterday my mum, little sister and I went up to the 31st floor of the Shard in London as we had made a reservation for the Mary Poppins Afternoon tea. After reading reviews during the week we were a little sceptical if we would be receiving the full experience as we had seen in the video promotional but our worries were soon cast aside when we met our waitress Katy – who has been serving the Afternoon tea since the very start and soon put us at ease. It was a beautiful clear day and could get some great view of St Pauls Cathedral and London Bridge, even the toilets had a good view. You do need to go through security at the bottom of the Shard and you are then whisked up to the 32nd floor in the lift and then just down the stairs in the restaurant to the 31st Floor.

We were shown our table which sadly was not a window seat but we were aware that it might not be and were handed our menus which were written on a Gold glittered framed mirror, Katy explained to us why they were on a mirror and I won’t ruin why in case you decide to go yourselves. The food on the menu is set but there are two choices you need to make – which tea you would like as there is two different bespoke types of tea to choose from – Marys tea and Bert’s tea and again Katy told us the differences between the two and I opted for Mary’s tea which was quite sweet and you could drink it black. The other decision to make was would you like the standard afternoon tea which was £49 or to upgrade it to Champagne Afternoon tea which was £66 or the Rose Champagne was £72 (which is the one I opted for) With the Champagne option you then had 3 homemade liqueurs in medicine bottles with stoppers and you could add – Rum Punch, Strawberry (Tanqueray Gin) or Lime Cordial (which was Vodka)

The crockery all had original illustrations on them with something of Mary Poppins on them – such as the teacup had an umbrella, the plate had her flying into the sky. The sandwiches were served to us and they consisted of Egg and Truffle, Ham and Mustard, Cheese and Pickle, Crab and Cucumber Brioche, Crumpet with Salmon and cream cheese.  Then out came the cake stand – which had an umbrella on top and silver booted feet. On the cake stand was Mary Poppins Hat, Gingerbread Star, Golden Syrup tart in a tin, Strike me Pink sponge and again Katy talked us through the different cakes ie Mary’s hat was dark chocolate cherry mousse (as they lived on Cherry tree lane).

Katy then came along with her Mary Poppins bag and pulled out a bag of scones which there was vanilla scone and also a raisin one for each person. Also two types of Jam – Cherry or plum and also cream – which then sparks the whole debate Jam or cream first? The last thing not that we had any more room was some candy floss from the candy floss stand within the restaurant.

There is a time limit of 1 hour and 30 minutes and they do keep to this, the time seems to go very quickly which shows we had a good time. You must pre-book to do this and you just need to contact the Aqua Shard restaurant.  There is also a dress code but was surprised to see this wasn’t being particularly followed.

We had a very enjoyable afternoon and pleased our experience did not match the reviews that have been written – the best advice, if you are going to do this experience, is go before 3 pm we were told.

Have a good couple of weeks

Kerry

xx