Mad Hatter's Tea Party at Sanderson Hotel

An Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party? Yes, please!

 Where?

50 Berner's Street, just off Oxford Street, London. Nearest tube station Tottenham Court Road.

What?

The Sanderson Hotel is a 5* luxury hotel right in the centre of London. The place screamed luxury, and both the decor and staff were dazzling. I could have taken pictures of the interior of the hotel alone, but I wasn't here for the hotel: I was here for their quirky take on the old British classic: afternoon tea.

My friend and I were led out onto a garden quad, where tables were arranged on either side of the garden centrepiece under large canvas canopies to protect us from the glare of the sun. The whole experience from start to finish was magical, from sitting down to the table dressed with riddled napkins, a very old book and crystal vials of teas to choose from, to the magical and perfect food itself, and the 'jelly wonderland' buffet for the final course.

The waitress recommended we tried one of the flavours from the vials, but we were also welcome to choose from a menu of more 'normal' teas, coffees and hot chocolate, and we could have as much tea as we liked. My friend chose mint chocolate tea while I chose rhubarb and custard: we had such large pots that the thought of having any more tea. Also, while the portions looked dainty and manageable, both my friend and I were stuffed by the end.

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves for this review. All I can say is it's an experience well worth giving a go.

'The more the you have of it, the less you see.'

Three different layers of flavours!

Pop! Mango explosion.

And then I ate the cup itself.

From banana-chocolate to lavender-elderflower.

Fitzrovia- Lantana

I like coffee as much as I like tea, and that's quite a lot. I'm certainly no coffee connoisseur, but I can tell the difference between a good cup and a bad cup, and I do enjoy a strong-but-unburned coffee. My favourite has recently been the flat white from Monmouth coffee. After today's jaunt to try something different, I think Lantana's flat white has instantly become a contender for First Place.

Where?

Fitzrovia, London, 13 Charlotte Place (Just off of Goodge Street). Nearest underground station Goodge Street.

What?

An antipodean café-slash-breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant. There are two ways of going about it: Lantana Out on the left-hand side for takeaway drinks, breakfasty things and cakes, and Lantana In on the right-hand side for sitting-down-and-eating. One day I will try something on Lantana In's delicious-looking menu, but this morning I opted for a Lantana Out and a quiet perch on the bench outside.

So, I know I quite like flat whites because of their strength without the knockout strength of having it black (the way I understand it, a flat white is alike a short, strong latte- I told you I'm not a connoisseur). Lantana's flat white has been long lauded on the interweb, so I knew I had to order it.

Cute foam art!

Well- it was perfect. It was smooth, rich, strong and not at all bitter or burned. Lantana apparently uses Square Mile beans while Monmouth Coffee uses Monmouth beans. Square Mile coffee, Monmouth coffee- I think they're two independent roasters. No idea about coffee bean origin- again, not an expert. I found Lantana's Square Mile a bit tangier than Monmouth's signature roast, but it was a very pleasant tang. I'm not sure I could choose one over the other.

As for breakfast! I *had* to try a friand.

When I visited family in Australia last year, I saw these things in practically every café: and yet I never tried one while I was there. Unforgivable for a dessert nut like me! Thank goodness for Lantana.

A friand is a small cake made with ground almonds, often flavoured with lemon and sometimes with fruit like blueberries. They had several kinds at Lantana, but I chose plain lemon. It was dense, moist, almondy, lemony and mouthwatering.

I also had a small takeaway muesli pot (which I didn't photo because I made a mess when I opened it): at the front counter they had a table with large bowls of homemade bircher muesli, homemade toasted muesli with dates, thick natural yoghurt, poached peaches and pears and berry compote. When the girl at the counter asked me what I wanted in my pot, I tentatively asked if I could have a bit of everything- which thankfully she was happy to do. She also filled the pot very generously, which I was grateful for (even though I made a mess in my eagerness to get into it!) They even made something as seemingly simple as muesli delicious.

I was lucky enough to have today off work, and I visited Lantana at about 10:30am- so it was relatively quiet (although still quite busy in Lantana In- it's a very popular place indeed). Chilling out outside with an amazing coffee, a healthy and wholesome breakfast and a little cakey treat in peace and quiet was nirvana. I know where I'm going again on my next morning off.

For some reason when you Google Lantana's location it often comes up as being on Charlotte Street: but it's in fact on Charlotte's Place, which is a little side street right off of Goodge Street. Just head for Yaki (which I went to later on in the day and reviewed just before this post) from Goodge Street station and turn left into Charlotte Place.

Fitzrovia- Yaki Japanese Bakery

Or 'Yaki' for short.

'Yaki' means 'fried' in Japanese (some say 'grilled', but you don't grill yakisoba or teppanyaki, do you? It depends on if your heat source is coming from above or below I suppose).

Where?

Fitzrovia, London, 53 Goodge Street. Nearest tube station Goodge Street.

What?

A brilliant lunch-y place to go for Japanese food that's not sushi- apart from sushi burgers (the 'bun' is rice). Yo! Sushi would have you believe that they're the first to sell the sushi burger. They are, in fact, not: Yaki is. I can actually confirm this as I noticed Yaki and it's menu months before Yo! Sushi started boasting about it.

Anyway!

I passed by this morning and got talking to a very nice gentleman who was opening up shop- I think he may have even been the owner as he was very knowledgable and keen to tell me a bit about the business. He acknowledged the fact that there are a lot of places to eat sushi in London, and he wanted to offer something different in terms of Japanese food. At Yaki you can buy thing like okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancakes), tako-yaki (balls of a flour-based pancake-like stuff with octopus in the centre) and donburi (one-bowl rice meals). They also have sweets like taiyaki (filled pancake-like things traditionally shaped to look like fishies) and mochi (glutinous rice dumplings). Although it wasn't quite lunchtime and I left the area, I actually came back (from Camden Town no less) at lunch time to give it a go.

I love, love love it. The prices are great too, especially when compared with London's more well-known okonomiyaki place, Abeno and Abeno-too. Sure Abeno-too cook the okonomiyaki teppanyaki-style (in front of you on a hot plate), but £10 for a small pancake made largely out of cabbage, egg and flour is bloody ridiculous. At Yaki, my chicken teriyaki okonomiyaki was just under £3.50. And it was delicious, too: just as good as Abeno-too but without the fancy price.

Fluffy but satisfying, savoury with a decent amount of chicken, finished off with slightly-sweet mayo that offsets the savouryness of it perfectly.

I can't wait for the next opportunity to go there. I'd love to slowly make my way through the menu- and I especially need to try the desserts (you guys know how crazy I am about desserts- and how uncharacteristic of me it was to not have one during this visit!)

The guy-that-may-have-been-the-owner mentioned that they'd like to open up more shops in London, and I really hope they do well. This place most definitely has my stamp of approval.