If you’re an eagle-eyed reader of this blog you may notice that’s frequently the mention of afternoon tea. I’m a bit of an afternoon tea addict, and in fact, a friend of mine and I said we were going to start writing a list of great places to go for afternoon tea. Somewhere I visited at the end of 2021 was The Tea Terrace on Oxford Street, for a special afternoon tea visit in a Cinderella-style carriage.
The Tea Terrace is a quaint tea room located in House of Fraser on Oxford Street, whose goal is to reinvent the concept of English tea rooms. It’s an absolute pink girly princess heaven, with pink flowers everywhere, and cute teacups and teapots. Inside the Oxford Street branch, there is also a large Cinderella-style carriage that you can book to dine in! They also have other quirky things like a robot that can serve you, and the opportunity to order selfieccinos – where they can print your photo onto a cappuccino or hot chocolate.
I visited with two of my sister-in-law’s as a rare child-free, partner-free, day out in London for afternoon tea. I ordered the traditional afternoon tea for one which costs £25.45 for a choice of two sandwich fillings, two warm scones from a choice of flavours with cream and jam, four mini desserts, and a choice from 17 flavours of tea in a teapot, a large mug of coffee or hot chocolate.
I’ve mentioned before in previous blog posts, that sandwiches for me are the most boring part of afternoon tea – they could be missing and I wouldn’t be bothered. With the traditional afternoon tea, you had a choice of two sandwich fillings, which I chose cream cheese and smoked salmon, and chicken mayonnaise and lettuce. As sandwiches go they were nice, but they weren’t overly exciting compared to the rest of the afternoon tea offering.
When it came to the scones you could choose two from six different flavours (plain, fruit, apple and cinnamon, cranberry and white chocolate, ginger, or cheese), and I chose fruit and apple and cinnamon. They were served warm with clotted cream and jam, and were delicious. The apple and cinnamon was my favourite, and the flavour wasn’t too overpowering and it went lovely with clotted cream. I did find the scones were quite small compared to other places I’ve visited for afternoon tea, but that would be my only complaint.
And then came the final layer, the desserts! Four mini desserts made up of a mini rich chocolate brownie, a mini coffee eclair, a mini vanilla panna cotta on a sable biscuit, and a mini lemon tart with a delicious Meringue topping, and plenty of strawberries. The desserts looked brilliant, and I quite liked that you had a few little ones. I personally found the brownie too rich for me, but I loved all the others, especially the lemon tart!
The afternoon tea in a Cinderella carriage at The Tea Terrace was a great experience, we loved it! If you have any kids that are into princesses I can imagine this would be something lovely to bring them along to – or leave the kids at home and visit on your own like us three did! I also thought the quality of the food was great, especially the scones – although they were quite small! The Tea Terrace also serves breakfast, lunch, desserts, as well as a gluten-free and vegan menu. There are a couple of different locations for The Tea Terrace, so you can always visit another of their locations too.
How to Find it
The Tea Terrace is located on the ground floor of House of Fraser on Oxford Street – use the map below for directions. It’s about a 4-minute walk from Bond Street tube station or 8 minutes from Oxford Circus.
Good to Know
- To use the carriage for your visit there is a usage fee of £12.95 per person to be paid when booking – which is non refundable and won’t be deducted off of your final bill just to be warned!
- There is a minimum spend requirement of £21 per adult, or £13 per child under 12 years
- You can use the carriage for 90 minutes, and after that time it turns into a pumpkin (or you just have to move to another table!)
- You can fit 6 people in the carriage apparently – but it would be very snug! I’d say 4 people could sit in comfortably
