Have been to tea at Brown's many times in the past and have always enjoyed it. After quite a long absence, we went back again on Saturday. The service is wonderful, the ambience is delightful but the food was very disappointing. Afternoon tea sandwiches should be delicate little bites but Brown's sandwiches were not good. The chicken sandwiches were coronation chicken flavoured-why? Even the cucumber sandwiches had an overpowering flavour. The scones were ok, nothing special. The small cakes on the top tier were awful. We were then offered a slice of Victoria Sandwich or lemon drizzle cake. I figured they couldn't go too far wrong with a Victoria Sandwich cake. How wrong was I! A very dry tasteless cake was served.
Clearly Brown's have delegated the preparation of the Afternoon tea to their very junior kitchen staff. This is a shame as the room they serve afternoon tea in is beautiful and afternoon tea at Brown's used to be a wonderful treat.