Afternoon Tea for Kids at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel in London
When we planned our trip to London, one thing I knew I wanted to experience was an afternoon tea. It sounded like such a fun way to learn about British culture and have an activity to do in addition to seeing all of the sights and museums.
We found the perfect Afternoon Tea for children at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel. The hotel is a luxury hotel in the Mayfair area of London near Buckingham Palace.
The hotel hosts an Original Sweetshop Afternoon that is filled with vintage candies and cakes and flavored milk for the kids, while still offering a champagne or traditional tea for the parents.
If you aren’t familiar with the tradition of afternoon tea, it started in the late 1800s with a British royal, Anna the Duchess of Bedford. At that time, dinner wasn’t served until 8 p.m. and the Duchess was getting hungry at 4 p.m., about midway between lunch and dinner.
She developed a habit of inviting friends over for tea, bread and cake in the early afternoon. It quickly developed into a fashionable social gathering that still continues today. Though in most casual cases it is just tea and a biscuit.
Since we definitely don’t have this tradition in America, I wanted to try it but knew that a traditional afternoon tea at a hotel or tea house would not be an appropriate setting for the kids. So we were excited to find the children’s tea at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel!
Getting there & logistics
You will want to book your afternoon tea in advance. We were able to book online easily and received a confirmation number. We then received an email the day before. During March, we were able to get a reservation easily and even changed our reservation the day of, because there were earlier openings. But in peak travel season these spots fill up weeks in advance.
On the day of, the Chesterfield Mayfair is just a short walk from the Green Park Station if you want to take the underground. There are also many busses that run along Piccadilly. It’s not hard to get to!
The dress is smart casual but can also be fancy if you desire! The boys wore dark jeans and dress shirts, my husband wore black pants and a polo and I wore dark jeans, a nice blouse and dress shoes and we felt very comfortable.
The setting
When you enter the hotel, you will be directed to the Butler’s Restaurant where the tea will be held. A host or hostess will seat you in the garden room off of the main dining area, which has been decorate for tea and is absolutely adorable.
The tables are vintage garden inspired and set with beautiful flowers and china with greenery surrounding on the ceiling and walls.
There is also a large candy display with all sorts of vintage candies, that inspired the many desserts and offering at the tea. We just so happened to sit near the display and it was so fun!
The tea
Once seated you can choose one of three options. The first is the children’s tea, which is priced lower than the adult tea and includes a milk shake and an offering of finger sandwiches, scones, cakes and candies. Keep in mind that in Britain, milk shakes are just flavored milk, they are not made with ice cream like in the states. This surprised us, but the boys were still happy with their strawberry milk!
The other two options are a champagne tea and a standard tea for the adults. We chose the standard tea, which comes with tea, four types of finger sandwiches, scones, cakes and candies.
Once you have ordered, the first course arrives in a cloud of dry ice! Each person receives a shot glass of sparkling pink lemonade garnished with a pink lemonade flying saucer candy.
The boys could barely wait to try them long enough for me to take a picture!
The candy is a wafer filled with a sweet and sour candy powder. The boys loved it!
Then the drinks arrive. I ordered a Dancing Dragon tea, which was a green tea infused with floral flavorings. The tea was seeped upon arrival at our table and after a few minutes the ball had opened up into a gorgeous flower!
The boys loved their large glasses of milk and vintage-inspired straws!
And then came the plates. Each child receives a plate with three finger sandwiches (cheese, ham and jam), two scones (fruit and chocolate) and several cakes and candies.
Spencer’s favorite was the Coca-Cola cake that was a chocolate cake with a layer of mousse and a top layer of cola-flavored gelatin. My other son loved the peanut butter chocolate cup and cherry bonbon cupcake.
The adult fare was an expanded version of the children’s plate. Our sandwiches were smoked salmon with cream cheese, roasted chicken with horseradish and almonds, ham with onions, cucumber and cream cheese and egg salad.
We also had fruit and chocolate scones with homemade strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream (that was so good!!).
Our treats included Coca-Cola cake, a white chocolate lime truffle, caramel éclair, cherry bonbon cupcake, peanut butter chocolate cup, lemon cheesecake, macarons and chocolate lollipops. It was all delicious!
The boys insisted on trying a few of ours, but luckily it’s all you can eat and you can request more of anything you would like!
The boys loved their jam sandwiches and ham sandwiches. It was so fun to see their excitement about having so many different options to choose from!
The cherry on top
After filling up on the spread, we each got to pick an assortment of candy from the candy trolley! It was stocked with a dozen candy jars full of colorful and tasty candies to choose from! Many are vintage tastes from the sweetshop days and other British candies that we didn’t recognize.
We picked a little of everything!
The boys loved being able to choose themselves and were excited to try their treats! Some of our favorites were the strawberry bon bons, raspberry truffles, fruit salads, fizzy cola gummies and the Drumstik squashies.
It was fun to try new candies that we don’t have available to us in the United States.
We found the entire experience to be so fun! We were there a little over an hour, though they didn’t rush us at all. In fact, I think they were a bit surprised when we were ready to go, but with a 2- and 4-year-old, we didn’t want to push it and turn a wonderful experience sour.
This was such a great way to experience afternoon tea and get a taste of British culture, while still including and appeasing the children.
We would definitely recommend it to anyone and would go back again in a heartbeat!
Don’t forget to Pin this for later or send to a friend who is planning a trip to London!
