London · The Strand
The Savoy
Tea under the gazebo
The Savoy serves afternoon tea in the Thames Foyer under a glass dome and a wrought-iron gazebo with a piano inside it, in the hotel that gave the world the peach Melba.
Richard D’Oyly Carte opened the Savoy in 1889 with the profits of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and Auguste Escoffier and César Ritz ran it before they went to Paris. Escoffier created the peach Melba and the Melba toast here, and the pastry tradition never left. Afternoon tea is served in the Thames Foyer, the central salon under a glass dome, where a pianist plays inside a white gazebo and the tiers are built around British classics with a Savoy polish. The Savoy Tea shop off the foyer sells the hotel’s cakes, teas and chocolates.
The Savoy is easier to book than the Ritz and Claridge’s, and its theatre-district hour makes it the tea to take before an evening in the West End; the American Bar next door remains the drink after.
The signature
The seasonal cakes of the Savoy pastry kitchen and a peach Melba in July
At a glance
