Review: Afternoon Tea at Villandry, Great Portland Street

Style Points: 3/5
Price: £££
Overall: 3/5

Villandry on Great Portland Street is a beautifully large, light and airy space. The restaurant is actually composed of different sections including a take away counter/store, bar area, and dining space towards the end of the restaurant. There is also  beautiful display of flowers by the entrance created by their in-house florists Moyses Stevens.

Before we settled down to our afternoon tea we had a go at a spot of flower arranging with Moyses Stevens. I now realised how much of a skill flower arranging is as there are many tips and techniques used to make the perfect bunch of flowers, including how you hold them to how they are tied up after the stems are equalled off!

We are all quite happy with our creations in the end and put down our beautiful bunches to sample some delights of the edible kind.

Would I Want Seconds?

Afternoon Tea at Villandry, Great Portland Street is a leisurely and unpretentious affair. This makes a nice change from some afternoon tea venues where the style standards seem to be set quite high.

I ordered some camomile tea to go with our relaxed afternoon tea, which started with a selection of finger sandwiches. These included ham and cheese, smoked salmon and cream cheese, and hummus and cucumber. I finished my sandwiches pretty quickly as I had worked up an appetite with the flower arranging.

I ordered some camomile tea to go with our relaxed afternoon tea, which started with a selection of finger sandwiches. These included ham and cheese, smoked salmon and cream cheese, and hummus and cucumber. I finished my sandwiches pretty quickly as I had worked up an appetite with the flower arranging, however some of my fellow diners had preferences as to which were their favourite and weren't partial to all of them.

We then moved onto our scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam. The scones all passed the ‘scone test’ which involves twisting instead of cutting the scones in half; a well made scone should easily come apart in two pieces and shouldn't need to sliced with a knife!

The final tier of our Afternoon Tea stand held the mini tarts and cakes. These included a mini cheesecake, a decadent mini chocolate chimney which was immensely heavy on the chocolate, and mini raspberry meringues which didn’t quite have the crunch of freshly made meringues. There was also a mini polenta cake which seemed like a strange addition to the collection as it was quite dense and a struggle to finish after the scones. My favourite mini treat was the mini salted caramel tart, a flavour which I cannot resist!

Could I Afford Seconds?

Afternoon Tea at Villandry is available daily for £18 per person, at both the St James’s and Great Portland Street. They also provide a complimentary glass of Champagne with Afternoon Tea every Saturday and Sunday, which is immensely generous as many other afternoon tea venues will charge an additional amount, often close to £10, for the addition of champagne.

Overall: 3/5

Villandry on Great Portland Street is a laid-back, relaxed and calming venue for afternoon tea. It would be the ideal destination on a nice day as the enormous windows allow all the beautiful sunshine to flood in.

Although Afternoon Tea menu isn't inventive or particularly unique, it is incredible well priced and so definitely worth trying with an informal gathering of friends.  I certainly had a fabulous time catching with some lovely bloggers.

A special thanks to Sheepa and Alexandra from Zomato for arranging this lovely afternoon!

Website: www.villandry.com
Address: 170 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5QB
Closest Tube Station: Great Portland Street