Judi McCaffrey

We reserved the date a few days before which was an easy online reservation system and reconfirmed the day of at their request. Arrived a few minutes before our reservation for 3 persons and had to wait a bit for our table to be ready at 4 pm. At first, service was spot on and attentive, then quickly felt abrupt as the servers changed mid-stream in the process. The menu was explained well, but honestly we had no idea who our main server was. We were offered champagne or non-champagne option. We chose champagne option and we weren't offered any option on champagne, despite what appeared to be a few different choices. They poured the most expensive, which was fine and what we would have chosen anyway but it would have been nice to know and server should have offered and explained all the options ("regular" or "reserve"....felt a bit taken advantage of and unsuspecting customers may not be aware). The woman taking the tea and jam order was very matter of fact and for a few seconds, it felt like giving an order at Denny's in the USA, with menus being snatched up as the orders were taken. The food was abundant(amuse bouche of pear granita, canapes, then three tiered trays of sandwiches, scones and desserts), and the three of us could not finish it all, so it was packaged up (scones, some of the dessert cakes and a few finger sandwiches) after 2 hours of nibbling and enjoying the delicious teas (Earl Gray, House Blend and Chai). We spent 2 hours taking it all in. Overall, a lovely experience in a dining area filled with all kinds of customers. Not stuffy, but elegant. With all the attentive staff (there must have been about 5 different people tending to us at different times), it felt slightly frenetic and it would have been nice if the servers introduced themselves by name. I would absolutely return and plan to in November when back in London again to visit our daughter who is living here for a year.