I attended as a “plus one” to an afternoon tea event at the Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge. Quite an experience.

The hotel is under new management and is organising this and many other events.

Little London Observationist was invited with a group of bloggers; I was lucky to come along and enjoy the experience. Cipriano Silva (Director of sales) was the host from Millennium Hotel; very friendly and attentive.

The idea was to introduce the hotel to a new group of people, their restaurant Le Chinois and Tangerine Café Bar. In this one you can enjoy a full afternoon tea for around £20. This includes your English breakfast tea, sandwiches, scones and chocolates/pastries, also jam and clotted cream. Only for a few extra quid you also get a glass of champagne.

We had champagne on arrival and a quick tour around the hotel, including a room and a suite. I have to say I enjoyed very much the view from the 14th floor.

Sloane Street towards Chelsea (right hand side)

The Millennium is located in the heart of Sloane Street, very famous for its designer shops. Just around the corner from Harrods and the Mandarin Oriental, true luxury and expensive cars. It is a very interesting spot for people watching.

The hotel is quite functional and pleasant, but most importantly the staff are terribly helpful and keen. But let’s go back to the experience, afternoon tea with a talk by Christine Pearce from Minding Manners. Tea parties are becoming more and more popular and they a very girlie thing to do after hitting the shops in Knightsbridge. But it is not as straight forward as you might think. There are some rules like never going back to the sandwiches once the rest of your party are enjoying the scones already; which is very useful to know. As well as the order in which you should eat: first the sandwiches, then the scones and finally the chocolates and pastries.

Christine’s talk was very interesting and I will remember all those rules in case I am invited to an informal afternoon tea (not that informal after all). My advice is something my own mother always says: “Donde fueres, haz lo que vieres”  which is the Spanish for “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. You can’t be wrong if you observe first and act later.

View from suite 1415, very bad quality iPhone picture but great view.