Afternoon Tea at the Egerton House Hotel in London (Vegan & Traditional)

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Afternoon tea is such an English staple that you simply have to try it at least once when in London, or England in general! Let me tell you, trying to decide which afternoon tea to go to in London is no easy feat. It seems like there are hundreds of places to choose from! Deciding on one really depends on your budget and style you are going for (i.e. fancy and traditional, funky and modern, vegetarian, vegan, etc.).

On this trip to London, I was particularly interested in finding a vegan afternoon tea since those offerings tend to be less common and stumbled across the Egerton House Hotel. Not only do they offer a vegan afternoon tea, they also have vegetarian, gluten-free, and traditional afternoon teas. They even have a Doggy Afternoon Tea if you want to bring your furry friend!

Oddly enough, the only other time I’ve ever had afternoon tea (other than in my own home when I was hosting a Pride and Prejudice marathon) was at Muir’s Tea Room in Sebastopol, CA – a completely plant-based (vegan) tea house in Northern California. I guess I have a thing for vegan tea time?

Since my husband isn’t too interested in vegan stuff, he got the traditional afternoon tea, which was nice to be able to compare the taste of some of the items against the vegan offerings.

Here’s a rundown on everything we got during our Afternoon Tea experience at the Egerton House Hotel!

Vegan Afternoon Tea

Let’s start with the vegan goods! Some of the the sweet goodies I had were an iced chocolate brownie, a fruit and custard tartlet, an assortment of vanilla and coconut cakes, and of course, plain and fruit scones, served with a coconut clotted cream and preserves. I’m sure the different desserts may vary from day to day, but you can definitely expect something along these lines.

By far my favorite thing of the sweets were the scones with the coconut clotted cream and preserves. That coconut cream was so smooth and flavorful, and the scones were the perfect amount of fluffy and crumbly! I’m not a huge sweets person (I prefer more savory items like the tea sandwiches), so it was a bit much to have all those sweets on my own. But each little dessert tasted very good!

Since I’m more of a savory girl, I enjoyed the finger sandwiches a lot more than the sweet items and finished them off before I barely made a dent in the sweets! Here are the five vegan tea sandwiches that they serve with their vegan afternoon tea:

• Grilled veggies on granary bread baguette
• Guacamole and rocket on white bread
• Chickpea coronation on granary bread (my favorite)
• Cucumber on brown bread
• Tomato and olive tapenade on sun-dried tomato bread

They actually asked at one point if we wanted more savory tea sandwiches but I was so stuffed, I couldn’t eat another bite! In hindsight, I might have taken them up on their offer as I could have taken a few savory sandwiches away with the rest of the sweets I had left over to have a little bit of balance.

All in all, a very solid vegan afternoon tea!

Traditional Afternoon Tea

As I mentioned above, my husband went with the traditional afternoon tea and his sweets assortment included:

• Vanilla cupcake with caramel drizzle
• Lemon and poppyseed layer cake
• Chocolate orange brownie
• Macaron with fruit (best thing ever!)
• A very delicious cup of some sort of layered custard, fruit and crunchy elements (I really can’t think of another way to describe this, lol)

I have to say, while I really enjoyed the vegan sweets, the traditional offerings were definitely a notch up as far as texture and taste. The lemon poppy seed cake was nice and moist, and that macaron was amazing!

It was so much food! We took some takeaway boxes of the rest of the sweets that we didn’t finish.

The Teas

Normally, when I drink tea, I go for Yerba Mate or green tea. I’m not too keen on the florals or herbal teas (I think that kind of coincides with my love for more savory things). So, this was a good opportunity to try something a bit different.

My two favorite teas we had at Egerton were the South African rooibos, with its beautiful orange color, and the black currant and hibiscus, with its lovely pink coloring. If you finish your first pot, they will bring you another choice of tea, which is nice to get the variety in flavors.

If you only choose one though, I would go with the black currant and hibiscus as it has a slightly more tart flavor to it, which is a little more balanced with the sweet goodies.

For the vegan afternoon tea, your pot of tea will be served with almond milk. I prefer plain tea, but in the spirit of being in the UK, I tried my tea with the almond milk and it was actually quite nice!

Cost of Afternoon Tea

At the time we visited, I found the prices to be pretty reasonable compared to some of the more fancy places around London (like the Savoy, for example). When we visited, we paid £45.00 for the traditional tea service but it has since gone up to £75.00 for the Best of British Tea experience. Signs of the times I guess!

Pertinent Info

• Egerton House Hotel, 17-19 Egerton Terrace, Knightsbridge, London SW3 2BX, UK
• Website: https://www.egertonhousehotel.com/food-and-drink/afternoon-tea
• I would recommend making a reservation ahead of your trip to ensure you get a spot at the time slot of your preference.
• Ask for the window seat if you can! There was only one table by the window in the front of the tea room, and I’m sure that gets requested most often.

The Egerton House Hotel really is a great place if you’re looking to try out afternoon tea and have dietary restrictions (vegan, vegetarian & gluten-free)!

I also want to note how friendly the staff was and made us feel so welcome. They were very knowledgable about the teas, and can make a good recommendation for you if you aren’t sure what to choose!

I would not hesitate to recommend this cozy spot for your afternoon tea indulgence. Thanks for a lovely afternoon tea Egerton!