Chris Galvin is an acclaimed English chef, known for his refined modern French and British cuisine. He has built a successful restaurant empire, Galvin Restaurants, with his brother Jeff Galvin. Their establishments...
The Lanesborough is a 5-star luxury hotel located in Knightsbridge, London, overlooking Hyde Park. It offers an experience of uncompromisingly traditional British luxury with country house elegance in a Regency-style setting. The hotel is part of the Oetker Collection and is known for its intimate scale and butler service.
Customer Perception
Customer feedback for The Lanesborough's dining experiences is generally positive regarding service and ambiance, but mixed for the food quality, particularly the Bridgerton themed Afternoon Tea. Service is consistently praised as wonderful, attentive, friendly, and kind, with specific staff members like Ilhas and Raffaella receiving special mentions. The decor and setting are described as beautiful and exquisite. However, some found the Bridgerton Afternoon Tea underwhelming in terms of immersive theme and food quality, citing bland sandwiches (e.g., cucumber) and inconsistent scone service. Others, however, found the afternoon tea food incredible and generous. The Lanesborough Grill, offering a 3-course menu, received high praise for its ambiance, staff, and food presentation, offering a luxury experience at what some perceived as a modest price point for a 5-star hotel.
The Lanesborough Hotel features 93 luxury rooms and offers a selection of restaurants and bars. It is renowned for its exquisite decor and provides a high level of personalized service, including butler service for guests.
Afternoons are ideal for experiencing the popular Bridgerton themed Afternoon Tea. The Lanesborough Grill offers dinner service, suitable for evening dining experiences.
3
Beautiful location and lovely setting overall. One of the servers, Ilhas, was absolutely wonderful. He was kind, attentive and explained everything eloquently, which really elevated the experience. We also appreciated the thoughtful gesture for my belated birthday, with a small pastry specially decorated for the occasion.
Unfortunately, the Bridgerton themed Afternoon Tea felt underwhelming considering how it was marketed. Aside from the themed desserts, and the cake stand surrounded with plastic flowers, there was little else creating the atmosphere. No music, immersive decor or real sense of occasion connected to the theme.
The pastries and desserts were tastyand beautiful, however the sandwiches were dry, and the cucumber sandwiches really lacked flavour. The scones were also initially brought without jam or clotted cream.
Having tried Afternoon Tea at other venues in London, we have experienced much better food quality, more variety and a much stronger overall experience for a similar or even lower price point.
At a whopping £319 for two people, including two extra glasses of champagne, it felt very steep for the level of ambiance and food quality provided. Sadly, the experience lacked the wow factor we expected and is not something we would choose to repeat.
My sister and I attended the Bridgerton themed afternoon tea at the Lanesborough today and wow what an experience. We were made to feel so welcome and greeted by warm friendly staff who catered to our every need. We cannot fault anyone as everyone was just so lovely and kind.
The food was incredible and very generous with portion sizes and endless amounts of tea.
Special mention to Raffaella who was so lovely and made sure we were well looked after, she is an absolute credit to the Lanesborough.
We have been a few times before and will definitely be back soon, as we love the afternoon tea so much 💚
Thank you so much for such a wonderful experience!
I would have attended the Afternoon tea Bridgerton Themed and was utterly disappointed.
The pros.
Lovely atmosphere and service was somewhat ok, not as attentive as I would have expected for this type of establishment.
Cons.
The afternoon tea came as expected cute and beautifully garnished, however that really was it.
The savoury items were very bland, with the stand out being the harissa chicken basil sandwich perhaps because that was the only one that had some flavour.
The dessert items again lacked depth, with the table unable to figure out what exactly they were eating. The shareable cake was the only one that saved the sweets.
The tea, not sure if this is how it's done at this establishment but when the servers came to deliver the pots they began to pour into our cups however it was clear that the tea still needed time to steep as the water was still semi clear.
We also requested another tea selection and It never came.
Upon requesting the chicken sandwich again. They brought 2 for a table of 4. We asked again for 2 more and they seemed hesitant to give us the additional sandwich.
I've been to other afternoon teas in London with similar price points and really enjoyed it, so I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately it did not live up to that anticipation.
I like writing glowing reviews, but I don't flinch from writing bad ones. Nowadays life is lived in superlatives and so many are misplaced. You're a "legend" if you simply turn up somewhere with a bag of nachos.
Friends asked me to join them for a dining experience at the Lanesborough Grill. For a modest price, modest people can eat modest food from a modest 3-course menu. I was told in advance that the dress code was, inevitably, modest. So, suitably attired, our modest party turned up at 6:30pm and settled down with a glass of champagne to ease the burden of deciding what to eat. The large dining room is furnished with well-spaced tables sitting in little pools of light. The carpet gobbles up any sound. It's not that hard to imagine you're the only person dining. And yet, there's still the comfortable ambience of movement. It's the gentle vibration of a well-tuned engine.
The restaurant staff were friendly, efficient, intelligent and kind. They didn't hover like flies around a jam jar. They appeared when needed and disappeared when not. A special mention goes to our sommelier. I find sommeliers rise to the occasion when you're honest, tell them what you like and what you can afford. If living the dream is cracking the cap off a £10.00 bottle of chardonnay from Morrisons, the sommelier will have a good idea of what you like. They can point you in the direction of something that may be a little nicer than you're used to and still remain within budget. Our sommelier ticked all those boxes.
The food was nice and presented in a manner that befits a 5-star hotel. The wines were sensibly priced and our selection was sold by the glass. I'm pointing this out because no one in our party has more pennies than they can wave a stick at. We came for an experience we might not otherwise make the effort to afford.
Our visit and "experience" was, for me, exceptional and it's not a word I bandy around. Why, because the staff elevated it above the normal. In a 5-star hotel you expect not merely good service, but very good service. Our visit was better than that. But, I would add this. You get back only as much as you put in. Restaurant staff are not servants. They're agents performing a service. Engage with them respectfully, listen to what they say and leave them with the impression that what they do matters. If you want a good dinner, be a good diner.
What a wonderful experience we had at The Lanesborough in December. Me, mum and dad went for a few drinks in the glorious bar. From the moment we walked in the decor was exquisite. I have never saw decor like it. The staff were very welcoming and attentive. This is just a very pleasant place to spend some time. We cannot comment on the rooms as we weren't staying there but the service that we recieved was nothing short of fabulous. We got speaking to a gentleman who worked in the bar, his name i do not know, however he really made our visit so special. He made sure that he spoke to every table to ensure all was ok and had a chat if they wanted. We ended up finding out that he had worked for a company up in Scotland and he was telling us all aboit that. We were seated very quickly and serviced by another gentleman who even offered us a better seat when it became available. Places like this are expensive but the experience speak for itself and I would rather have a few lovely drinks in a place like this than loads of drinks in a standard bar, crammed with people and rubbish service. We cannot wait to return in summer when we are back down.
