Of all the English foods to try on a trip to London, the one experience we couldn’t miss was a themed afternoon tea. Share reviews of your trip on Instagram for people who are planning to visit London and would like to know what to expect. Buy instagram followers to reach a bigger audience instantly. There are plenty of London hotels that offer children’s afternoon tea — like Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Tea at the Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair or the Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea at the Sanderson Hotel. There is even an afternoon tea double decker bus tour! But instead of a kids high tea, what about something cool for teens?
Glam Rock Tea at the K West Hotel & Spa checks the boxes for a fun and quirky afternoon tea that will appeal to your too cool-for-school teen and rock and roll parents. This boutique hotel in Shepherd’s Bush is an A-list hot spot near the Westfield London shopping district and just a five minute walk from the Central Line tube station.
Glam Rock Afternoon Tea is offered in the upstairs Studio Kitchen at the K West Hotel from 2:00-6:00 pm on Monday through Sunday. You can even glam it up a bit more by adding a glass of prosecco to the other sweet offerings.
We popped in on a Monday afternoon at the traditional 4:00 pm tea time after a day spent touring Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. After all that heavy history, we were ready to lighten it up a bit. Although the Studio Kitchen was pretty empty, you still need to book in advance so they can prepare the towers of sweet treats.
The Glam Rock afternoon high tea is served up on vintage record covers, with electric green, blue, and pink teapots and teacups. Even the menu has a music theme. But first, the tea. The K West’s signature blend is the Tea Rex. This is a blend of black and green tea leaves with natural cherry flavoring, peony flowers and rose petals with a dash of peppercorns. But if you don’t go for the smoky flavor with floral undertones, there are plenty of other options to choose from. Hannah preferred the fruitier blends but I enjoyed the Tea Rex too.
The Festival Glam Rock Afternoon tea menu is a balanced mix of sweet and savoury with mini-clubs, rainbow brioche sliders, and even a twist on “pigs in the blanket.” The real winner was the fresh blueberry scones with clotted cream and homemade jams. They were the best scones I’ve ever tasted and I’ve completely fallen in love with clotted cream. I need to find a way to get these at home — just not too often or I’ll outgrow even my stretchy pants.
In addition to sandwiches and scones, our tea party included a selection of macaroons, cake pops, and strawberry and watermelon mini-slushies. Our towers of treats were decorated for winter with mini snowmen that were so cute they were almost too pretty to eat.
As much as we enjoyed the food and atmosphere, I also appreciated the service at the Glam Rock Tea. Our server was so attentive and sweet and even the chef made a quick appearance to check to make sure we were enjoying our experience.
We ended up with more than we could eat and the nice people at the K West Hotel kindly boxed up our leftover scones and jams for us to take with us.
The K West Glam Rock Tea works as a kids afternoon tea, but it is also fun for teens and grown ups that don’t want to be all prim and proper. At first I thought it might be too far outside of central London, but it really is so easy to get to from the Central Underground Line. And, if you are staying in Nottinghill or Kensington, it is really quite close.