Lady’s Pret a Portea Afternoon Tea Review

I was recently invited to experience the Pret a Portea afternoon tea at The Berkeley hotel in London. The unique fashionista afternoon tea offering featured cakes and cookies designed to resemble the season’s catwalk trends. Here’s my review.

Pret a Portea Afternoon Tea

I had been to Pret a Portea once before, and I couldn’t wait to see how one season compared to another.

The menu changes every six months, and this time around I was eating from the Fall / Winter collection. It featured designers from Lanvin to Burberry, Miu Miu to Valentino.

I met a friend in the lobby of the hotel, from where we proceeded to the Collins Room for our Pret a Portea afternoon tea.

Afternoon Tea Experience

She ordered a delicious pear caramel infusion, and I a fresh mint one, and soon the classic teapots and cups materialized.

They were followed shortly thereafter by the savory sandwiches, which ranged from cardamom chicken on tomato bread to cucumber and cream cheese.

Each one was unique and delicious. They set the stage for the famous fashionista afternoon tea cakes and pastries the Pret a Portea afternoon tea is famous for.

Those came on a classic tiered tray that featured a plate of unique taster spoons in lieu of traditional scones, a layer of beautiful cakes, and a small dish with two cookies and glasses filled with brightly-colored concoctions.

Our server set down the tray and pulled out pictures of the season’s catwalk shows to point out which cake went with which designer.

We saw a Valentino orange-and-ginger clutch cake, a Bottega Veneta pink-and-gold pear mousse and clementine cremeux coat, a Dolce & Gabana gold-starred chocolate eclair, and a Stella McCartney polka-dot sponge cake dress.

We drooled over a Burberry double-breasted chocolate biscuit coat, a Miu Miu high heeled shoe cookie, and a Jil Sander pomegranate-and-grenadine mousse dress.

Then we took in a Lanvin cassis bavarois dress with creme de mure jelly and a Sonia Rykiel striped chestnut cream-and-almond sponge cake dress with metallic sparkles.

We settled in for our Pret a Portea afternoon tea, ready to eat it all. Two full trays were brought to the table so that each of us could try everything on offer.

We worked our way from the coriander-and-fennel crusted tuna with plum jam and the spiced duck with chili fig compote to the cakes and cookies.

Our favorites were the Valentino clutch and the Sonia Rykiel sponge cake dress.

Pret a Portea: The Verdict

The overall experience was similar to my last trip to Pret a Portea afternoon tea, with the format being the same and the ratio of cakes to cookies stable. But the fashions had changed, as had the recipes.

It was nice to return to the same place for afternoon tea in London, but to have a different variation of it.

The only thing we didn’t like was that our spoons were too big to get to the bottom of the glass pots with the Lanvin cassis bavarois and the Bottega Veneta pear mousse.

It might have been for the best, though, as we’d had more than our fill of sugar and sweets that afternoon with the rest of the cakes.

And if we hadn’t, there were two boxes of cakes waiting for us at the end. Each of us was sent home with a Burberry trench coat cookie and an orange-and-ginger clutch to remind us of our Pret a Portea afternoon tea at The Berkeley.

Hopefully they will also inspire our wardrobes in the coming season. If not, we might have to go back for a second look.

Find this post helpful? Buy me a coffee!

New here? Join thousands of others and subscribe to the A Lady in London blog via email.

Some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links. At no cost to you, I earn a small commission when you click on them and make a purchase. It doesn’t affect the way you shop, and it’s a great way to support the A Lady in London blog.