Tea & Cakes @ The Chesterfield Hotel

Mr R and I had a lovely day-date last week at The Chesterfield Hotel for a spot of high tea and award winning pasteries and cakes. The Chesterfield Hotel is a elegant 4-star hotel tucked away in the heart of Mayfair.  I have had my eye on this for so long now and I was so happy to have finally got reservations. You can imagine how happy I was - just a like a kid in a sweet shop, except the sweet shop was a posh hotel and instead of sweets, I GOT CAKE!

There is a number of afternoon tea experiences that you can choose from at The Chesterfield, so there is definitely something for everyone and the service from all the staff was top class. I can honestly say that we felt like royalty for the afternoon and why this hotel isn't a 5-star is beyond me. 

What I like most about this experience is that we had the choice to mix and match which afternoon tea that we wanted. So, we opted for the traditional afternoon tea and the 'Chocolate Lover's Tea' - check out the selections that they have - link.

 As we went for the mix and match option, we were given the follow: 

Freshly baked home-made fruit and plain scones + chocolate chips scones

Served with Cornish clotted cream and home made strawberry jam. 

Banana cupcake & Carrot and Pineapple cupcake.

Strawberry jelly mousse cheesecake. 

Orange and dark chocolate macaroon 

Delicious chocolate fudge brownie

Traditional Fruit Tart

*****

Roast chicken with grain mustard mayonnaise and nibbled almonds on white bread.

Free range egg mayonnaise and watercress on basil bread. 

Cucumber and cream cheese on white bread.

Honey roast ham with cheddar cheese and tomato chutney on onion bread. 

and Scottish smoked salmon with cream cheese on brown bread. 

There are a vegetarian, Gluten-free and Champaign tea options available too! 

The tea selection wasn't big, but it had all the essentials and herbel teas were also available too. As per, I went for the Earl Grey and Mr R went for the Green Sencha Tea.

At £32.50 per person, some might say this is on the pricer side for a afternoon tea experience, especially when there are hundreds of deals out there ranging from £20 and under. But in my opinion, if you want a good quality afternoon tea experience with all the 'trimmings', then you are best of spending £30+ per person. I've had a fair share of afternoon experiences (and thats including The Dorchester - love!) and I can honestly say that anything under £30 (from experience) has been a bit of a disappointment. I know, its all a matter of opinion, so if you are willing to splash out every now and then, why not do it properly? Granted, the price and experience is not for all audiences, but if you're celebrating a special occasion, then I highly recommend this experience and I, hand-on-heart, definitely will be recommending The Chesterfield Hotel for afternoon tea to all my family and friends. 

Tonkotsu

Oh hey, what's this ramen hype I hear?

After receiving some great news *I got a new job* I was gifted with a trip to Tonkotsu for the evening from Mr R. I wasn't really in to the ramen hype, purely because I’m more of a Pho fan than anything else, but I finally got around to visiting this little restaurant.

The restaurant itself is pretty small and it had that squashed sardines effect when it was in full capacity. We arrived just before 6:45pm and manage to get a table upstairs, away from the 'crowd'. The staff, although quick on their feet, was unfriendly and uninformative - we felt a little ignored. The menu was very limited to just 4 ramen dishes and a few side dishes, so there wasn't much to choose from. I already knew what I wanted so ordering was speedy.

Tonkotsu Ramen for me and Toyko Ramen for Mr R - with a side of Tofu Hiya Yakko.

The tofu hiya yakko (pic: top right), which was served cold, was my least favourite dish of the night. Topped with bonito flakes and chopped spring onions and without a dash of soy sauce, this dish would have tasted like thin air - nada! I'm a huge fan of tofu, but this version of it did not hit the spot. 

The rich, sea salt-braised pork stock for my Tonkostu ramen (pic: bottom right) was delicious It was silky, smooth and had extremely strong flavours. Although a little salty to my palette, however the soft  melt-in-your-mouth pork belly that was served with it balanced out the richness of the broth. The small touches from the chopped spring onions and the small half boiled egg, just gave that extra edge to the dish. Add a little bit of their home made chillie oil and you have perfection. In an ideal world, I would loved a bit more of the Ramen, but hey for £11 you can’t go wrong.

The Tokyo Ramen (pic: bottom lefy) is a soya sauce based broth, and again the pork belly served with it balanced out the saltiness of it – yes it was really salty. To me, the broth tasted similar to miso soup (with less salt!), but Mr R found it a bit too overwhelming and felt that it lacked extra seasoning. And again, there was not enough ramen in the bowl.

With the menu being extremely limited, the dessert section was next to nothing. There were only two options – icecream/sorbets or mochi. We opted for 3 selection Mochi. Nothing particularly special, but my favourite one was the Yuzu Mochi (the yellow one on the left) – tasted a lot like lemonade!

IMO: Great little restaurant, delicious food, but the service and the ambience let it down. As mentioned above, If you’re looking for a bite to eat and just want something simple to hit-the-spot, then this is the place for you and its in the heart of soho, you can’t go wrong!

Visit: http://www.tonkotsu.co.uk/