My review of OXO Tower Restaurant’s Vegan Afternoon Tea – enjoy a completely vegan Afternoon Tea while overlooking beautiful views of London, all for £35 (available from the 1^st January, 2019).

Where: 29 York Road, Waterloo, London SE1 7NJ

Website: http://www.harveynichols.com/restaurant/the-oxo-tower/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/oxo_tower/

CHECKED OFF MY LIST: 30^th November, 2018

ATMOSPHERE AND EXPERIENCE

Walking into OXO Tower Restaurant, the views are absolutely stunning. Overlooking the River Thames, with St. Paul’s visible in the distance, the sweeping windows of the restaurant offer an incredible view of London, that you can enjoy from lush seating inside. The whole dining experience certainly feels like a luxury. For a very reasonable price of £35 per person, you can sit down to afternoon tea and enjoy a full vegan spread of delicious savoury and sweet treats.

Last week my friend @welltravelledvegan and I got a sneak peak of OXO Tower Restaurant’s Vegan Afternoon Tea menu, which will be available on the 1^st January, 2019 in celebration of Veganuary. Check out my Instagram story highlights for some behind-the-scenes of our visit, and here is everything we got to sample:

VEGAN AFTERNOON TEA MENU

Finger Sandwiches:

• ‘Cheese’, pickle, on onion bread
  • To me, this vegan cheese had quite a lovely flavour and realistic texture.
• Golden beetroot, aged balsamic, rosemary, on Russian rye bread
  • The beetroot added quite a sweet flavour to this sandwich – it wasn’t my favourite but I really enjoyed the texture of the rye bread.
• Cucumber pickle, dill, yellow mustard seeds, on beetroot bread
  • My favourite part of this sandwich was probably the bright pink colour of the bread!
• Lemon tofu, roasted garlic, oregano, sage and onion stuffing, on cranberry bread
  • This was the absolute favourite of both myself and Anjuli – I only recently have started adding tofu in sandwiches, and I love the combination. The flavours from the garlic and stuffing added so much to the overall taste of the sandwich as well.
• Wild mushrooms on toast
  • You really can’t go wrong with mushrooms on fried toast.

Savouries:

• Berbere lentils
  • This dip tasted earthy and delicious, and the crisp-like thin bread for dipping was nice and crunchy.
• Avocado shot
  • I personally didn’t love this dish – because of the way it was presented, my taste buds expected a sweet green smoothie, but instead it was like sipping savoury guacamole.
• Chestnut and mushroom ‘sausage’ roll
  • These rolls were really yummy, the outside pastry was flaky and the inside was well filled with deliciously cooked mushrooms.
• Parsnip and shallot bhaji
  • I also was a fan of these bhaji – so unique and I love the addition of parsnips.

Condiments:

• Orchard chutney
  • I’m not big into condiments personally, but I have to say that this chutney was delicious!
• OXO picadilli
• Mint yoghurt

Sweets:

• Lemon meringue pie
  • This meringue pie was so impressive! The meringue, made from aquafaba, was light and sweet and looked picture perfect. The lemon underneath was tart and sugary, making for such a delicious treat.
• Apple mousse
  • The mousse was quite sweet, but I loved the apple topping.
• Coconut and pineapple cake
  • This cake was lovely, moist, and filled with lovely tropical flavours.
• Penny’s homemade scones, strawberry jam, clotted ‘cream’
  • Out of all the sweets, these scones were my favourite. Despite being super full, I ate my share of two scones because they were just too delicious not to finish! The scones were light and buttery, the clotted ‘cream’ was so rich, and the jam added the perfect sweetness to round out the combination. I don’t think I’ve had scones with cream and jam since going vegan almost three years ago, but these were even better than what I remember from the past!

This would be such a lovely treat to bring someone for a luxurious afternoon tea experience, but for a reasonable price. I definitely recommend checking out the OXO Tower Restaurant this coming Veganuary!

Have you ever experienced a fully Vegan Afternoon Tea?