1 Paternoster Square, St Paul’s Churchyard, Paternoster Square, London, EC4M 7DX (View on map)
View of St Paul's Cathedral from just outside tea.
This place has been on my wish list for a while, but before then it was torn out of a copy of the Metro and given to me by my friend HR. I’ve been carrying it around in my tatty map of London ever since. I mentioned this to A and we hatched a plan to go visit the next time we met up in London. So, on a brisk Saturday we headed along the Thames and found our way to tea.
On our way to find this place we’d been past a market stall full of lovely cakes, but had decided to put off the cake eating until we reached our destination. This may have affected how disappointed we were with the selection of cakes on offer at ‘tea’. There were the usual suspects, nothing out of the ordinary really. I have been asked by A to mention that she felt the cakes didn’t match the tea – that with such specialist and sometimes delicate tea there should have been specialist and delicate cakes. We had some chocolate shortbread with our tea, it was okay but not that exciting.
A insisted my tea photography needs more excitement, so here is her answer - a tea pouring action shot.
The Darjeeling 2nd Flush I had was light and smooth and airy, and A enjoyed her Yellow Gold Oolong. For central London they were a very cheap purchase, definitely somewhere to stop if you’re round and about that way.
On the whole, ‘tea’ was like a Starbucks but with lots of tea choices instead of coffee choices. I think this is a good thing – trying to take the mystery out of drinking good tea has to be a bonus. It was just unfortunate that we were in the mood for something with a bit of mystery to it, something with ceremony and intriguing cakes.
Darjeeling 2nd Flush at the bottom, Yellow Gold Oolong at the top and chocolate shortbread to the left.
Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes and a really wide choice of leaf tea with simple and clear explanations of what each was like.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? An amazingly cheap £1.85 for Darjeeling 2nd Flush, £2.50 for Yellow Gold Oolong. They also do afternoon tea for £10. Not sure how much the cakes were but I remember thinking they were very reasonably priced.
Cake? Yes, but the usual muffins, chocolate shortbread, victoria sponge etc.
Go again? Yes, the tea itself was very good, but not when we’re looking for something a bit more special.
Tea for you and me 