Royal Garden Hotel & Kensington Gardens

A few weeks ago, our friends came to visit us in our new place.

Backstory: They met at our wedding and are now in a long distance relationship (USA/England). So when my friend Alyssa said she was flying over to England to visit, I knew that they had to come up and stay in London with us.

And what’s a trip over to England without Afternoon Tea?

Enter the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington. The restaurant overlooks Kensington Gardens and is merely a short walk from High Street Kensington station.

It’s quite a picturesque setting. And luckily we had one of the last gorgeous days of the season for it.

We kicked off our Afternoon Tea by smelling the tea leaves to see which we’d like to try.

The lads went with a classic, English Breakfast and Alyssa went for the Darjeeling black tea. I dared to be different and decided to try the Green Jasmine tea.

And well, you could tell the Green Jasmine about a mile away. Plenty of floral to go around.

It was a bit like drinking a flower. So I watered it down a bit with milk. Everyone else was head over heels for their classic black teas.

And what’s afternoon tea without crustless sandwiches? Of course, there’s always a usual variety of sandwiches, egg, chicken, beef, salmon, roasted vegetables… If you can name it, it’s likely it was on our plate.

We gobbled these up in the most inappropriate afternoon tea manner.

After we polished off the sandwiches, they brought out the sweets.

Cue our instant mouthwatering.

The tiers were layered with all sorts of sugary treats and warm, soft scones wrapped carefully at the lowest tier.

Amazing.

We divyed up and tucked in. I was particularly drawn to a pistachio delicacy (top right of the photo). I have next to no idea what it was, but it was oh so good. The rest of the desserts were delicious as well but nothing could hold a candle to the flavor of that pistachio one in my book.

And alright, I’m going to admit something that may be a sin in the afternoon tea world… but our overall conclusion? While the desserts were amazing, we definitely would have liked more of the savoury sandwiches and a little less of the sweets.

There, I’ve said it.

Regardless, we found the experience absolutely worthwhile. And you can’t beat a lovely day out with your best friends.

Once we decided to come out of our food comas, we headed for a walk through Kensington Gardens. The weather was beautiful. It was one of those days where you could get away with bare legs and backless dresses without any hint of a shiver.

And of course, some classic university poses from us sorority ladies.

And some photobombing from Matt for good measure.

Shop the look below…

         Dress – Zara                    Boots – Office                Bag – Michael Kors        Necklace: Chloe+Isabel

We carried on, walking about the scenic gardens, enjoying the beautiful autumn day the crunch of leaves beneath our feet.

The gardens are lovely and I think I could wander for hours weaving inbetween the greenery.

About as spooky as it gets today with @alyssamill22. #halloweeninlondon

A photo posted by Kelly (@kellyflateleven) on Oct 10, 2014 at 2:42pm PDT

I should also mention that if you visit Kensington Gardens, you can also visit Kensington Palace.

We didn’t go in for a tour that day. However, if you visit the park and you fancy a walk through, you can find your information here. 

We had such a great time visiting with Alyssa and Matt… I definitely think they need to come visit again soon!

Kelly xox