Park Hyatt

It was wonderful after too many afternoon teas with canned music of the elevator type to see a lovely lounge in the Park Hyatt foyer with a view out to a leafy courtyard and a seasoned veteran giving a grand piano a whirl through old show tunes and a few jazz standards.

This being the Park Hyatt however (see our review of the hotel itself) nothing was straight forward. We had been offered a complimentary afternoon tea as part of our stay and had made a booking for Sunday afternoon. On arriving at the lovely lounge we were told that our booking had been made for the (currently completely empty, charmless and freezing) main restaurant. We stuck our heels in and waited a brief interval before a vacant sofa became available and we were able to sit down and enjoy the music and the view rather than dining in solitary splendour in an empty restaurant with all the charm of a meat refrigerator.

Things improved rapidly from this point on. I declined the glass of champagne but was very impressed when my suggestion of elderflower and soda was met with an "Of course Madam." It was nice to have a smart looking refreshing non-alcoholic drink to quaff while my husband sipped his champagne.

The tea selection was rather dull and straightforward with no Assam, Jasmine or Ceylon Orange Pekoe. We settled for Englsih Breakfast and Darjeeling. The tea pots were rather dull too - made from thick white china. They didn't pour well but they did have a removable tea compartment and the tea itself was loose leaf - 2 out of 3 isn't bad.

Our sandwiches consisted of a mini turkey and cranberry sauce baguette, ham and aged cheddar on a white bread baked with a triangular crust which was visually very impressive and a rather good egg and watercress bap.

After a few too many designer jams it was nice to have simple strawberry jam from a jar to go with the scones. However someone had got creative with the cream which was liberally flecked with vanilla pod. I love vanilla but vanilla flavoured cream with a scone is just wrong. The scones themselves perplexed me. For some reason the raisin scones had been covered with a sticky glaze of the sort one would expect on a Chelsea or Fingerbun - singularly inappropriate on a scone and rather messy to eat as well. The plain scones were liberally dusted with icing sugar - which was again an unecessary touch. Someone in the kitchen had got a little carried away and needs to be reminded that less is more. This invisible chef also needs to learn that whilst scones do love a hot oven you can go too far in this direction. The scones were too crusty, too dense and disappointingly dry.

We consoled ourselves with more tea and the sweets tray which was the best part of the experience. There was a very elegant shot glass filled with an eye watering lemon curd and decorated with delicious Italian meringue. A chocolate cupcake was decidedly decadent and delightfully moist. Two chocolate brownies defeated us and we took them back to the room to eat after a few hours. They too were moist and tasty but didn't belong on the same plate as the chocolate cupcake - there is only so much chocolate even chocoholics can take. There was also a good looking mocha macaroon but, neither of us being fans of macaroons, we gave that a miss as well.

The service throughout once we got our way about sitting in the lounge was excellent, and the pianist and the comfy sofa both added greatly to our enjoyment.