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    The Library at County Hall

    4.1 (19 reviews)
    Closed 2:00 pm - 8:00 PM

    The Library at County Hall Photos

    THE LIBRARY AT COUNTY HALL ATMOSPHERE

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    Lovely view with afternoon tea.
    Merrill O.

    Ambiance.... Lovely. View.... Pretty. Afternoon Tea...Mediocre, At Best. Service.... Lackluster. There are much better places in London for afternoon tea. I recommend you try those.

    Henry's T.

    There is so much rich history to enjoy whilst in London, and there are also many places to enjoy breakfast, but wouldn't it be great if you could enjoy both simultaneously? Well, we discovered that you actually can. "The Library" is located within the London Marriott Hotel County Hall and provides an experience we're not exactly sure you can find elsewhere. This historic building housed the local London government (London County Council) for 64 years (1922-1986). Anyone wanna venture a guess as to what was housed in the space currently occupied by this restaurant? (And with a singular and rousing voice all present responded in unison: a library!) Correct lads and lassies! The bookshelves remain filled with books from that era which the elected representatives would (hopefully) consult during their tenure as public servants. Since we've already established that the atmosphere here is amazing, we should also have a chat about the food and the service. I attempted, but failed, to eat literally everything on the menu and I've included as many pics of the meal options as possible. Everything I had was splendid and I was impressed with not only the food quality, but also the plethora of Vegan options. In addition, every server we interacted with was nothing short of wonderful (our favorite though was Felicia ). As you may have already gathered, we enjoyed breakfast here A LOT during our visit. Suffice it to say that we got to know the service team well enough that hugs were exchanged on several occasions during the fortnight. I'd give "The Library" my highest recommendation. And that's...Henry's Take. #londonbreakfast #historiclondon

    Demond S.

    What does a Library and a Restaurant have in common? To answer that question, one must visit The Library at London County Hall. The Library, is located within the Marriott at London County Hall. This restaurant Library appearance and charm is fascinating. They offer a fixed menu but the options vary enough to allow you to enjoy different English style breakfast options. I ordered the traditional English style breakfast: egg, sausage, toast, potato, and tomato slice. It looked and tasted like a proper English breakfast. The sausage had the most flavor of the items on the plate. Service was a bit slow as there appeared to be only 2 servers, doubling as host as well. Overall, the experience was good. The views outside to the river and other historical landmarks were enjoyable. Will definitely visit again.

    Ashleigh S.

    This was such a beautiful experience. The ambiance alone is enough to draw me into this place, it's the cutest library setting with an amazing view of Big Ben. A reservation is highly recommended, they were able to squeeze us in the day of and I was very grateful of that!. We did the bottomless Prosecco with afternoon tea package and it was the greatest experience I could've had while visiting London. Every single thing was delicious and the tea selection was nice and large. Definitely keep this place in mind if you want a luxurious tea experience!

    Uma P.

    cool spot for afternoon tea. amazing views! excellent and amazing service! you can get tea or coffee so if you don't live tea it's fine but their coffee is just okay, i recommend tea. each person gets sandwiches and desserts of a variety, which were good. i didn't love them all but most were yummy! excellent presentation. the books are real! sit near the window. great for groups or a cute date. it is a little pricey...but what isn't in london. located in a very touristy area as well (in a hotel). but again, we got seated quickly, great ambiance and service and excellent views. it is touristy

    Sandwich spread
    Heath F.

    Top notch! This was the first place my wife and I visited when we got to London. We read on Yelp that the afternoon tea was really good here and we were not disappointed! Gareth met us at our table and recommended a tea unique to The Library and it was out of this world! The scones and accompanying condiments were next level (especially the clotted cream and truffle cream cheese )! The desserts were (the strawberry and basil cheesecake clock face was my favorite! The sandwiches were good, not my favorite things on them, so not truly fair to judge them too harshly (the Mature Cheddar Ploughman's was the best of the five, for me). Overall, outstanding food, service and views of the Thames and London Eye. We enjoyed every minute of our experience!

    Enjoyed a very nice tea at the Library at County Hall. The service was excellent. There were many different loose teas to try and a tiered plate of finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts. It was worth the experience. The view was amazing and the setting was beautiful old library.

    Desserts
    Anna L.

    Honestly this place was a mixed bag. It's very pricey and even though my new fiancé and I were celebrating, they almost forgot about us. We got the afternoon tea with champagne and they only poured one glass and forgot about us. All the tables around us had many glasses, but they didn't for ours. Made it not worth it for the additional price. It honestly wasn't great and we left when we could. They were nice with accommodating for dietary restrictions, but would not come again. We were younger than the rest of the crowd there, so maybe that's why. Just made us both very uncomfortable.

    Full spread of afternoon tea

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    3 years ago

    Delicious food and tea. The environment is elegant with a beautiful view of London. Highly recommend.

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    Review Highlights - The Library at County Hall

    The ambiance alone is enough to draw me into this place, it's the cutest library setting with an amazing view of Big Ben.

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    Candella Tea Room - Afternoon tea

    Candella Tea Room

    4.4(138 reviews)
    3.1 miKensington
    ££

    Love how small and cozy this tea room is. :) I had the traditional afternoon tea service and…read morehands-down the standout was the homemade clotted cream scone. Perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside! Served quite warm as well. Pretty alright tea finger sandwiches overall; the cucumber sandwich had a nice lemon zing to it though the smoked salmon sandwich and egg sandwich had bread that was a bit on the stale side. Regarding desserts, the raspberry macaron was very tasty and had a great slight chew to it but the red velvet cake was pretty dry. There were more food items at the tea service but I'm just highlighting the most noteworthy ones. :p For tea I had the jasmine lychee. Satisfyingly bold lychee taste! Recommend if you want something bright-fruity with slight tartness. Service was very polite and all-smiles but could've been more attentive. I'd say I would return here mainly for the tea and the scones!

    We had to get a spot of tea in London and Candella was truly a fantastic experience. We had a…read morelittle mishap with running behind our resy + then slight miscommunication from staff which led to our table being given away. The owner was so kind and apologetic and was generous enough to comp the whole afternoon tea. We were just happy to get a table! Luckily the London weather in December held up surprisingly well and we snagged a table outside. You can't beat this price! For about £25pp, you each get a choice of tea, and 3 tiers: sandwiches, scones, and desserts. The warm cheese sandwich and smoked salmon sandwiches were delish. I absolutely LOVE a scone and it was everything I could hope for and more. (I could eat the whole thing of clotted cream!) The owner truly made our tea feel so special. I def recommend checking this place out compared to the bigger dept stores for a more authentic feel.

    Photos
    Candella Tea Room - Candella Tea Room entrance

    Candella Tea Room entrance

    Candella Tea Room - Decor

    Decor

    Candella Tea Room - Afternoon tea

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    Afternoon tea

    Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem

    Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem

    4.5(2 reviews)
    2.4 miSouth Kensington

    Enjoyed the afternoon tea here. First, pls make reservation online in advance. They do it by…read moreshifts/rounds. I failed to book 3pm so have to wait till 5:30pm. Then it took some time to find the right venue. Need to go through the door in the middle of sculpture exhibition hall, across the garden, enter the other building door. Do not get confused by many other food choices (coffee, hot meals, cakes or others). It's on the left side of entrance with reception table for you to check in. There are 3 options, depending on whether you need to celebrate anything, with price varying at £30, £35 and £38. You will get 5 pieces of sandwiches, 5 pieces of sweat and the your choice of tea. I chose traditional one, English breakfast with milk and sugar.

    High Tea in the William Morris Room was a wonderful experience. The service was lovely and…read moreunhurried. There was a choice of tea or proseco or both to go along with the savory and sweet tea sandwiches. It was pricey, 30pounds, but I wanted to splurge a little. Caution, I emailed my request for reservation twice, they never got it. We had to wait until some other party who had a reservation did not show up for 45 minutes after their appointed time. Worth the wait. Make sure you double check your reservation. There were empty tables, but they do not take walk ins as there is only a certain amount of food prepared depending on reservations. The museum was fun to walk around after tea.

    Photos
    Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem
    Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem - Menu

    Menu

    Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem

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    Little Cottage Tea Room

    Little Cottage Tea Room

    5.0(1 review)
    44.9 mi

    Kind of ashamed I didn't review this place last year when we visited. So last year we were on our…read morehoneymoon and my wife's birthday was during our trip. All she wanted for her birthday was a nice afternoon tea. We left London and were basically driving sort of toward the coast just stopping wherever we found a tea shop. Unfortunately, every tea shop we hit was closed because of some bank holiday we were unaware of. Except one! We got to Glynde, parked outside this tea shop, went in, and found a large sign that said "cash only". OMG this wasn't our day. We had to go to the next town over to use the ATM which sucked, but we weren't in any hurry and we really liked the look and feel here. We came back, got seated, opened the menu, and right at the top it said afternoon tea available with reservation only. We were devastated. I saw the look in my wife's eye and there was no way I was not getting her this afternoon tea! I approached the woman working and explained our situation and before I could even fight for the experience she told me not to worry, she would get us taken care of. BLESS HER! We had a wonderful visit and would recommend the experience to everyone in the area. Fast forward to this year. I knew how much my wife loved that visit and decided to reach out and ask if they had any ideas of what I could get her for her birthday this year. Joanne reached back out with an amazing gift and shipped it to us and it amazingly arrived on her birthday! She also included a nice birthday card for her! Amazing people that went out of their way twice to make us happy. They will forever be apart of our story and hopefully we have the chance to return soon! Thank you!!!

    Photos
    Little Cottage Tea Room
    Little Cottage Tea Room

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    The Rose Lounge - Sweets

    The Rose Lounge

    4.5(13 reviews)
    0.7 miSt James's
    £££

    Boy oh boy, this place was hard to find. Apple maps shows it's in some Chinese restaurant while…read moregoogle maps shows this place three blocks south. Thankfully said Chinese restaurant employee pointed us to the nearby Sofitel hotel. So look for the hotel, and you'll find the Rose Lounge in the lobby. Ah, our first British afternoon tea experience! Nothing to compare it to, but I say the experience is good. The Rose Lounge is decorated well, with Smeg applicances throughout. I never heard of the brand, but I'm not fancy like that. We ordered the cream tea which came with scones, tea of choice. £25 for a teapot. I left there pretty full and happy. Our server explained everything to us and was nice and accommodating. I really enjoyed the experience. BATHROOM REVIEW: located in the hotel lobby, the bathroom was super elegant and clean. There were two stalls and couple of urinals. The stalls had a solid door, from ceiling to floor and was clean. Lotion, soap, and thick paper towels awaits you after your do your thang. Sit or squat? Sit!

    My husband loves tea and being in England, we had to have a nice tea. Based on watching "Baking…read moreShow: Professionals" we saw some folks who worked at the Sofitel and we enjoyed the things they made on the show, so we used that as the basis to choose The Rose Lounge for tea. The rose theme is pervasive here, so if you don't like pink, this isn't your place. But it was truly lovely. Service was impeccable and the various savory and sweet treats were not only beautiful, but delicious. We had their "house" tea which had rose leaves in it and I loved it. We left feeling calm, happy and full. We added the champagne option as well and it ended up being about $125 per person, which isn't cheap but for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it's worth it.

    Photos
    The Rose Lounge - Inside

    Inside

    The Rose Lounge - Rose white chocolate mousse with strawberry filling

    Rose white chocolate mousse with strawberry filling

    The Rose Lounge

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    The Ivy - Squid

    The Ivy

    4.3(74 reviews)
    0.8 miWestminster
    ££

    This is the third day we've been in London staying in Westminster and we wandered into The Ivy…read morelooking for good food and we were amply rewarded. It was so busy on a Wednesday evening, we took seats at the bar. We had lovely cocktails (I a wonderful G&T and my husband a pear Bellini). We had an amazing starter of beef tartar made from well seasoned hand cut sirloin with a fresh chicken egg yolk. Since I am gluten-free, it was nice they offered GF crackers instead of bread with the tartar. My main dish was shepherd's pie which was presented as a round of shredded/ground beef with a topping of mash flavored with Monterey Jack cheese and cheddar. My husband had the monk fish and shrimp with sweet potatoes in a lovely curry sauce with coconut milk and sliced almonds. It was heavenly! The service was very nice and we felt very comfortable and at home.

    The most expensive dinner we had this week with the weakest hospitality and worst timing. SUPER…read moredisappointing. It took 25 mins to place our drink order- then about 30 more mins to get our food, after placing that order. Then we had to wait to place a dessert order. Then we had to wait for the check. One word for this comes to mind...'waiting'. We found ourselves waiting every step of the way for our waiter to acknowledge us. Honestly I can forgive A LOT if people are nice but that wasn't the case with our server. Low energy, not very warm and welcoming and slow. Actually to be fair, I got a smile from the busboy when I was on my way to the restroom- perhaps the 2 should switch roles if the restaurant is looking for repeat visits or nice reviews. Btw- the manager...not exactly sure what he was doing. One last thing, I've had sea bass in many restaurants and never had anyone leave the skin on-Just not what I expected. This restaurant gets 2 thumbs down for me. Go to Bills right around the corner - save some money - and get a smile from the staff and a nice greeting.

    Photos
    The Ivy - Upstairs bar

    Upstairs bar

    The Ivy
    The Ivy - Private dining room

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    Private dining room

    The Library at County Hall - british - Updated June 2026

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