Review: Beas of Bloomsbury

Beas of Bloomsbury Afternoon Tea

My wife has been hassling me to take her to afternoon tea for months.  Its not something I generally spend my week lusting over - my tastes tend to lean towards the savoury and a whole meal of desserts always seems unbalanced to me somehow.

I admit to having had a great time at Pret a Portea at the Berkeley a couple of years ago - but you're talking about £50 a head and even though its a great experience it is far too expensive to repeat on a regular interval.

As it turns out I have been following Beas of Bloomsbury for some time on Twitter and on occasion have teased my wife with the resultant food porn. Given we were going to subsequently walk down to Borough Market, it seemed a great opportunity to check out their venue near St. Pauls and chill out over some nice cakes and a pot of tea before walking along the South Bank.  Quite surprisingly this area was actually buzzing and all the shops were open which is unusual for The City on a Saturday afternoon.

Beas of Bloomsbury is located in the new development at Cheapside called One New Change.  Many voices called it a carbunkle of an ugly building facing the classic architecture of St. Pauls cathedral but I actually thought it fitted in quite nicely with the surrounding area.  A neighbour of Jamie Oliver's much-maligned Barbecoa restaurant, Beas of Bloomsbury itself is a marvel of design, skillfully wrapped around a corner of the building to make the best use of the available space.

Swiftly seated we were passed the extensive Tea menu from which I chose my favourite - an Assam and my wife chose a pot of Rooibos tea.  Before the tea and cakes arrived we were delivered a set of sandwiches; ham and briee, and goats cheese and carrot which were perfectly acceptable preparation for what was to come without overshadowing the main event.

The rest of the platter includes two scones with jam and cream, a selection of brownies, cakes and meringues and finally two cupcakes which from memory were Raspberry and Chocolate, and Red Velvet.

The brownies were particularly good but the stars of the show were the cupcakes which my dining companion insisted were split absolutely equally. I always feel the desire to practically inhale cupcakes but these were particularly good examples and I did force myself to take it slowly!

All of this came to only £15/head which is great value for something different of a weekend.  With a great, central location and with great food and good value I think we will be back soon - and it may become the regular outing that the cost of other Afternoon Teas precludes.