Review: Jurassic Afternoon Tea, Ampersand Hotel

If you’re looking for an afternoon tea that will impress the whole family, the new Jurassic tea at the Ampersand Hotel is the perfect treat for dinosaur lovers of all ages. The cool interior design of Apero, the hotel’s restaurant, set the scene for an epic dinosaur experience.  

With our choice of teas, barista-made coffee and marshmallow topped hot chocolate, we relaxed whilst our attentive waitress presented the inventive and sumptuous children and adult menus, featuring thoughtfully age-appropriate tasty savoury treats, scones and a very fine selection of pastries created by their in-house team of pastry chefs. Appetites piqued, we waited in hungry anticipation of the tea stands and discussed in great excitement what surprises were in store.  

Gasps of amazement came from all corners of the table as our fully loaded cake stands arrived. Specially designed dinosaur stands, adorned with three layers of delicious creations, immediately captured the kids’ imaginations.  

We opted for two glasses of deliciously crisp Charles Heidsieck champagne whilst the kids were treated to some cute mock-tails in dinosaur egg cups. The best blinis I’ve ever tasted were accompanied by exquisite roast beef on brioche with watercress, and we couldn’t resist calling for another round. Meanwhile, the kids tucked into mini-hotdogs and my five-year-old chomped down dinosaur jam sandwiches with glee.

Reluctantly but enthusiastically, we moved on to the second tier. Deliciously warm, crusty but moist scones were perfectly delicious with strawberry preserves and clotted cream. But the team have also updated the traditional scone with a white chocolate and cranberry option, a squeezy tube of passion fruit and a choice of dried toppings to add an extra flourish of flavour. I honestly could or should have stopped there but the top tier was simply too enticing.  

The show stopper – a raspberry & lemon crémeaux volcano eruption didn’t disappoint. The kids loved watching the dry ice as it smoked spectacularly. With the choice of four or five delicacies, we were hard pushed to finish them but there was one more treat in store – the dinosaur chocolate egg hunt which kept the kids mesmerised till the end. The quality of the food is a testament to the expert in-house pastry chefs who had freshly prepared our dinosaur feast. It certainly seems they had fun creating the inventive Jurassic afternoon tea menus, the attention to detail is artfully delivered with every mouthful. We gratefully accepted the take-home boxes when the waitress offered and, like intrepid explorers, carefully carried our specimens to the Natural History Museum.  

We were delighted to discover Dippy is back on display for a brief installation until January 2023. The UK’s favourite diplodocus was the main attraction in the great hall until it escaped on a four-year tour. With memories of visiting as a school child, it was like catching up with an old friend, this time accompanied with lots of on-screen learning information. 

Fuelled with first-class dinosaur fodder, we energetically explored the dinosaur exhibition and climbed the stairs to gaze in awe at the huge tree sample on display before hitting the gift shop to pick up a game of dinosaur bingo to top off a truly unforgettable dinosaur fun-packed day. 

THE KID’S VERDICT: by Luella, age 11 

I really enjoyed the whole experience and the food was delicious. It was all presented beautifully and obviously, it was dinosaur food. I found there was a bit too much food for me to finish, but I finished all of the drinks. I had a lovely citrus drink and a hot chocolate. The citrus drink had a ceramic egg for the cup, coloured crushed ice and the drink itself was delicious. The hot chocolate was perfect and had little marshmallows and sprinkles in a dinosaur cup. All of the food was on a cute little stand and there was this one lava cake that was a volcano that erupted liquid nitrogen. Afterwards, we went to the Natural History Museum which is really close by and went and saw the dinosaur skeletons. It was a really nice combination of dinosaurs. 😊 

Book afternoon tea at the Ampersand Hotel   

Entrance to Natural History Museum is free 

Nearest station: South Kensington, District line 

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