Please note, the review below refers to when this restaurant was named the English Tea Room at Browns Hotel. It has since been relaunched as The Drawing Room at Brown's Hotel. Time Out Food editors, FEBRUARY 2020.
Born way back in 1837, Brown’s is a truly iconic London establishment. If you’re looking for somewhere to get a traditional afternoon tea, the hotel’s grand but cosy English Tea Room just might be the perfect place. It’s a wood-panelled room that’s luxe but casual, with a nice blend of old and new – the authentic aspects, like fireplaces, grand stuffed chairs and white tablecloths, are all intact but they’ve been modernised and kept in ship-shape so it doesn’t feel naff or old-fashioned.
Tea service runs every day from noon to 6pm, and there are two options on offer: tea-tox and traditional. Some of the healthier, refined sugar-free tea-tox options sounded surprisingly appealing, but we went traditional because that’s how you get all the scones. The whole experience was lovely. It started with three tiers of savoury sandwiches (coronation chicken, egg and cress, tomato and mozzarella), then there were some mini bagels topped with generous servings of smoked salmon, salt beef and pickles. Then the scones: raisin and plain, both delicious, warm and fresh from the oven, served with spectacular, sweet whole-strawberry jam. The pastries (mint eclairs, blackberry macarons, strawberry tarts) were decent enough but the real stars were the sandwiches, so ask for another helping of those rather than saving yourself for sweets.
Service was relaxed and genuine, just like the atmosphere: refills were encouraged, tea (and champagne) flowed, and no one rushed us to leave. If you’re looking for a traditional British afternoon tea experience, Brown’s is a very worthy option.