After a lovely afternoon perusing the fleshy Boucher's at the Wallace collection Agnes and I developed quite an appetite. We resolved to head into depths of Soho to see if we could find ourselves a satisfying afternoon tea.
We were intrigued by Soho's Secret Tea Room above the Coach and Horses on Greek Street and enquired at the bar. We were invited to walk through the kitchen and up a back staircase to the second floor — we were loving it already. Upstairs shabby chic, with an emphasis on the shabby, prevailed in the delightfully cozy tea room filled with tables padded with innumerable layers of vintage table cloths, assorted mirrors on the walls and fresh flowers on the tables.A variety of patrons sat huddled over mismatched tea pots and mounds of goodies. The atmosphere was made even more pleasant by the record player softly spinning Bing Crosby and other nostalgic crooners. We were very hopeful and immediately relaxed by the pleasant and unpretentious surroundings. Good thing we were relaxed as it took quite a long time for the waitress to make it to our table. When she brought the menu we were delighted to see classic tea time sarnies such as cucumber, egg and cress and smoked salmon with cream cheese. The tea menu consisted of a choice of the 3 above mentioned finger sandwiches, a choice of a fruit or plain scone with clotted cream and home made jam, a choice of cupcake, cake and, of course, tea. My goodness how to choose, all the cakes looked scrummy. We must admit that the tea list was a little disappointing with an emphasis on blends, flavoured teas and Rooibos. We are rather traditionalist when it comes to our teas. We selected Darjeeling and a premium English Breakfast which was supposed to cost a bit extra although they didn't charge us for this.
