A Day Down The Rabbit Hole | Sanderson Hotel Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea

Hannah: For Emily's birthday my lovely boyfriend brought her an Alice in Wonderland afternoon tea at the Sanderson Hotel in London, fancy I know. 

Emily: After a few hours of shopping with Hannah rushing me out of the home section in urban outfitters and spotting Davina Macall in Topshop Hannah and I headed to the Sanderson hotel for the afternoon tea. 

Hannah: We arrived at the very modern and chic hotel sightly early and sat at the bar admiring the outside set up of the afternoon tea.

Emily: We were sat in a covered garden area with water features and benches with cushions and blankets and marble tables. On the table was a white music box which contained sugar cubes and an old copy of the Alice in wonderland book which had the menu inside.

Hannah: Our waitress brought over some playing cards and little bottles of tea, the playing cards had a description of each tea and the the bottles were there to smell and get an idea of the teas. The service here was amazing the staff were so attentive and we were allowed unlimited tea, coffee, hot chocolate, etc all included in the price.

Emily: I chose the mad hatter tea which was a green tea with passion fruit and guava. It was a loose tea so had to be poured through a strainer into the tea cups which just added to the whole experience of the day.

Hannah: I went for the 'Alice' tea which had hints of vanilla, chocolate and raspberry. The teas arrived in lovely tea pots and we were quick to poor a cup and taste them out, I personally thought they were horrible but I am not a fan of green tea or anything similar I am a breakfast tea kinda gal. I swiftly ordered a coffee and Emily a hot chocolate.

Emily: The savoury food then arrived we had a selection of cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches on lime bread (It was bright green!), croque monsieurs with Applewood cheese and Wiltshire ham, crab eclairs and smoked salmon and quail egg scotch egg topped with caviar (which Hannah scraped off because ''she didn't want fishes in her belly'').

Hannah: I am all about trying stuff once but the eclair and quails egg and salmon scotch egg were not my cup of tea at all. After ordering a couple more sandwiches our sweet tray was brought over. 

Emily: They then bought out the sweet selection which looked amazing we had carrot orange and ginger meringues, blue chocolate caterpillars, strawberry and cream mushroom marshmallows, red velvet lady bird cakes, banana butterfly bread, Oreo cookie soldiers, pocket watch coffee macaroons, Alice's drink me potion and vanilla scones with clotted cream and jam.

Hannah: Safe to say I was stuffed after eating it all. My favourite pieces were the vanilla scones and and the drink me potion which was passion fruit purée layered with coconut panacota and some sort of tropical foam at the top. 

Emily: The cakes were amazing, the scones were beautiful and the caterpillar and mushroom marshmallows were delicious.The banana bread and the lady bird cake were a bit dry but really nice.

Hannah: We requested our bill and as a final surprise the waitress brought up over a complimentary dessert, a beautiful passion fruit ice cream, topped with crumbled chocolate cake and honeycomb it was amazing and all served in a little flower pot. Overall the decoration of the place and presentation of the food was amazing, so detailed and thought through and really stuck to the theme of Alice in Wonderland. Surprisingly we didn't try the cocktails but the ones we saw looked amazing. 

Emily: The whole experience was amazing; the atmosphere, the service and the food just made for a wonderful day and a great present and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

9/10