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Afternoon Tea, London’s top five

Looking for an afternoon treat to make you glow? Why not indulge in a plant-based Afternoon Tea?

Here’s our pick of London’s best options.

Brown’s Hotel, Mayfair

Elegant Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair offers a Tea Tox afternoon tea in their refined English Tea Room. It costs £55 per person or £65.00 with champagne. You can choose from tomato tofu and mint and crispy tortilla with avocado & pickled radish and there is potato & apple salad, horseradish and gluten -ree white bread.

You can follow it with salted date caramel sauce and toasted oats, passionfruit and coconut rice fonde and rose lychee and raspberry chia seed pudding. And you can try their chocolate and banana cake, matcha raspberry cheesecake and a choice of teas.

Do call and make a reservation as they get very busy.

Farmacy, Notting Hill

Farmacy offer a cool and decadent 100% plant-based afternoon tea in their Westbourne Grove restaurant. Their plant-based ‘High’ Tea is free from dairy, refined sugars, additives and chemicals. You can treat your mum to a CBD infused cocktail, homemade CBD infused chocolates, a selection of delicious tea-time sweet and savoury treats and a pot of hemp leaf tea.

A selection of warm scones is also served, with a side of coconut clotted ‘cream’ and pineapple and apricot jam.

Many items are also gluten-free or can be made as a gluten-free option on request.

Farmacy’s ‘High’ Tea is served weekly between 3:30 – 5pm from Friday through to Sunday by reservation only. The tea is for a minimum of two guests and costs £42 per person.

 

Hemsley and Hemsley, Selfridges

Hemsley and Hemsley in Selfridges offers you two delicious options for an all natural afternoon tea. Both are made with wholefood ingredients and are free from grains, gluten and refined sugar.

‘The Cream Tea’ (£12.95) is a selection of freshly baked quinoa scones with raspberry chia jam, lashings of clotted cream and a pot of tea from the London-based Rare Tea Company.

‘The Afternoon Tea’ (£29.95) is features mini sandwiches including smashed egg and truffle butter on flaxseed rolls and avocado, lime and smoked salmon on carrot and quinoa crisp-bread. Also included is their signature cinnamon banana bread and bestseller chocbeet fudge cake, as well as lemon and raspberry almond-pastry tarts and coconut and mango whip. All this, plus their quinoa scones and a pot of tea. Both options can be upgraded with a glass of zero-dosage Ayala champagne.

Afternoon tea is served from 3pm and they do not take reservations.

Fortnum and Mason, Piccadilly

If you like tradition, it doesn’t come better than the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at Fortnum’s where you can find a vegan afternoon tea.

Their vegan menu features finger sandwiches of grilled courgette with artichoke pesto, pulled jackfruit and cos lettuce and crushed avocado and chilli.

As well as scones you can pick raspberry and avocado mousse,  crispy rice grapefruit and coconut yogurt with citrus meringue, banana and chocolate teacake and vanilla cheesecake with rhubarb jelly.

There’s also a gluten-free version and both feature Fortnum’s Famous Teas and cost £55.00 per person, or if you choose a Rare Tea, it’s  £58.00 per person.

 

Wulf and Lamb, Chelsea

Finally, for a less formal afternoon tea  you can visit Wulf and Lamb

There’s no specific tea menu, but it’s easy to tailor make.

We are huge fans of their mango and passionfruit cheesecake at £7.95. There’s also an extensive selection of cakes, brownies and doughnuts to sample alongside an organic selection of teas (including English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Organic Jade Green Tea, Matcha Green Tea, Peppermint & Silver needle Jasmine White Tea).

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Meet The Glowgetter, Camilla Fayed

Sustainable, seasonal and nutritious, Farmacy was the first Glowcation to create a plant-based, refined-sugar free menu, heavily influenced by California in a super stylish West London interior. Camilla Fayed is the face behind Farmacy, Notting Hill’s pioneering plant-based restaurant which when it opened in 2016 was ahead of its time.

Launching the Farmacy Kitchen Cookbook this Autumn now means the plant-based recipes which have become such a success can reach a wider audience. Here Camilla reveals how she starts the day and what’s next for Farmacy.

Which is your favourite recipe from your new book and why?

The Farmacy White Macadamia Cookies are one of my favourite sweet treats. They are gluten and refined sugar- free, perfect for enjoying as an afternoon snack at home, or on-the-go. They are also fun and easy to make – the children and I make them about once a week at home.

What’s a perfect Autumn recipe from your book?

Forager’s Pie- it’s packed full of seasonal vegetable and a great warming dinner to feed the whole family as we enter the colder months.

What are your daily techniques and life hacks for running a business?

Never give in to fear! Draw strength from mistakes and surround yourself with a passionate and hungry team.

Growing a plant-based business can be tough and many fail in the first year.

What advice would you give to someone starting out now with a small business in the world of wellness?

Very few supported me and my vision at the beginning, never giving in to fear was the key. With a lot of hard work and dedication, from both myself and my amazing team (whom without, none of this would have been possible) –  here we are!

It has been over two years since our inception, and not only has the restaurant gone from strength to strength, but we have also launched not just a cookbook, but last year also cultivated our very own Farmacy Kitchen Garden.

We have a biodynamic plot of land in Kent, that grows fruit, vegetables and herbs for the restaurant.

The garden initiative has been hugely educational for the whole Farmacy team. Having harnessed their understanding of provenance and biodynamics, there are now many ingredients on the menu that have been replaced with more sustainable alternatives.

What has been the highest and lowest moment of running your business?

The highest: there have been so many…

The amazing, positive feedback we received from guests when we first opened and still do to this day.
The launch of our first cookbook earlier this year.
Creating the Farmacy Kitchen Garden [a biodynamic plot of land in Kent we use to grow produce for the restaurant] and getting the whole team involved and excited about
Winning the ‘Feed People Well’ Awards at the prestigious Food Made Good Awards hosted by The Sustainable Restaurant Association last month.

The lowest: I’m not sure. Even the tough bits have proved an exciting challenge, and on reflection – a useful learning curve – though I’m sure I didn’t think this at the time! 😉

What are your top 5 secrets for keeping that inner and outer glow under pressure?

A plant-based diet
Getting enough sleep
Spending time outdoors
Quality time with family or friends – when my phone is off
Using all-natural products – especially on my face!

If you were looking at making changes towards a plant-based lifestyle where would you advise people to start?

A lot of people expect plant-based cooking and food to be boring, and restrictive, but Farmacy, and the subsequent cookbook, was our opportunity to show people that it can be delicious, exciting and food that you can implement on a daily basis.

Many of the recipes in the book have surprised readers, showing how tasty plant-based food can be by using healthier substitutes.

This is especially the case with the dessert recipes, that use ingredients such as cacao in place of cooking chocolate, or dates instead of refined sugar.

My main piece of advice would be for people to insist on sourcing organic produce from local farmers markets and staying out of the supermarkets where organic food is overpriced and usually covered in plastic. A healthy and nutritious lifestyle does not co-exist with chemicals and pesticides.

 

A morning ritual is so important to wellbeing. How do you start your day and what do you eat for breakfast?

I’m a firm believer in the benefits of both fasting, and intermittent fasting. I start the day with a pure celery or green juice religiously. I therefore tend not to eat as soon as I wake up, and instead prefer to opt for an energy boosting mid-day snack, followed by healthy and nutritious lunch.

You’ve achieved so much. Where next and what are you dreaming about for the Farmacy brand?

We are due to open a second site in London next Spring and will soon be launching across the pond – watch this space!

You can buy Camilla’s Farmacy Cookbook by clicking here and you can read our in depth review of Farmacy here .

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Notting Hill: Farmacy, superstylish plant-power

The founder of Farmacy, Camilla Fayed, believes that people are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of the ‘conscious eating’ movement, so she opened Farmacy two years ago to reflect this.

Serving vegan food (plus eggs) and including many gluten-free, refined sugar free and raw dishes on the extensive menu…it has to be on our Glowcation hit list!

The setting

Farmacy occupies a large corner space on Notting Hill’s Westbourne Grove. As you approach, you see hanging plants and twining ivy surrounding the large windows and entrance.

Once inside, the plant theme continues and there is a useful, small waiting area (since it can be very busy).

The restaurant has been designed around a central green wood and brass bar. There are lots of wooden tables, plus plush booths and banquettes around the walls. The large windows flood the room with light and the many plants create a natural vibe which tones with the green upholstery and ties in with the food.

The little things

In every window there are coloured vases with plants. They have clearly thought really well about all the little details in the restaurant. There are plug sockets at the wall and window tables.

The fresh juice test

For my very first green juice test, I chose the greenest juice possible: the Alkaline booster – cucumber, kale, celery, spinach, romaine, lemon and parsley. Normally,

I like to include a sweet component like apple or pear, so this one was very green for me and not sweet at all.

I did like it though, as I got a huge vitamin boost, but the celery was too strong for me, so that’s why I’m not 100% sold on my choice.

What we ate

My friend and I shared two plates, one sweet, one savoury. Seeing they had waffles on the menu, I was sold in ten seconds and so we had the Chocolate Chip Warrior waffles and the Macro bowl. We started off with the waffles. As a serious waffle fan, I have to admit  I’ve never had such crisp waffles before – which I think is even more impressive for vegan waffles.

The delicious waffles came with house made “nutella”, coconut yoghurt, banana and cacao nibs.

The “nutella” had a very rich cacao flavour and no sign of crunchiness from hazelnuts. I t was a smooth paste, like real Nutella! That – together with the co-yo – was a great combination with the super crunchy waffles and cacao nibs.

Farmacy
Farmacy

The Macro Bowl was basic, minimal and clean – quinoa served with avocado, seaweed, sauerkraut, steamed seasonal greens & sweet potato with a miso ginger dressing.

I normally don’t really like salad dressing, but the miso ginger dressing had a very rich, nutty flavour and finished off the dish.

The bill

The green juice £7
Matcha latte £6
Waffles £10.50
Macro bowl £14.50

What else

You can get a chance to see the chefs at work on the way to the toilet as you pass by the kitchen. Plus there’s a private room with a huge square table, plants, posters and candles

What made us glow

Our dishes and the dishes around me. They were all so pretty that I couldn’t stop looking to see what someone else had ordered.

I really liked the interior.

Interiors are always important for me, as a well furnished restaurant makes me more excited about the food! And last, but not least, the waffles really made me glow! I was so impressed by the crunchiness of them!

To read our interview with the founder Camilla Fayed click here. 

Farmacy