As most of you know, I love tea - the drink and the meal. I can't get enough of it. :)
I am slowly but surely making my way round London's tearooms, and the latest one that I can check off my list is Soho's Secret Tearoom. Someone mentioned it on their tea blog last year, and it sounded so good that of course I had to check it out! :)
So a couple of weeks ago I went with a few friends who wanted to experience a proper English afternoon tea. Now, I always though that the fact that the tearoom had 'Secret' in its title was just to make it sound more exciting, but apparently not. The actual tearoom is above a pub, so we duly arrived at the Coach and Horses at the appointed time and saw the sign outside claiming that there was a tearoom within. However, when we entered the pub there was no sign that a tearoom existed. We walked back and forth through the pub (getting rather a few stares) looking for a door that said 'tearoom' on it, or 'cake this way', but sadly had no such luck. Finally we gave up and asked the lady behind the bar. She asked us if we had a reservation and then went and rang someone on the phone. She then cam back and invited us to go behind the bar, through a door and up some rather dirty looking stairs. At this point I was thinking that the whole thing was going to be a disaster - the food would be rubbish, the room would be dirty, as would the crockery (yes I have a thing about cleanliness! :) ) - a multitude of negative thoughts were going through my head! When we finally reached the tearoom I was so relieved. Far from being a dirty little hovel, it was a charming 40's inspired room, and the food was delicious.
The tablecloths were all embroidered with cross-stitch.
We all had our own matching cup, saucer and plate, but each set had a different pattern on it. They were all vintage.
The food :)
One of my friends is allergic to gluten so the tearoom provided her with her own cake-stand of gluten-free goodies.
More food
An extremely odd shaped scone, but so delicious and light. All the food was handmade (except for some gluten-free Bakewell tarts)
The tearoom. It is only open on Saturdays and Sundays as during the week the pub uses the room as a dining room. I think the sideboard in the corner is 40's but am not 100% sure.
A lovely painting outside the loo.
The only thing I could complain about is that they didn't serve strawberry jam with the scones (only blueberry) and the tablecloth had a few stains on it, otherwise it was a fabulous tea and I would definitely go again. :)
