This weekend marked a birthday celebration, so I was off to the OXO Tower (a Harvey Nichols restaurant and brasserie) to celebrate with "Not Afternoon Tea" and cocktails. I had previously been to the OXO Tower a few years ago in a night that I will not easily forget. A group of colleagues and I had reserved a part of the balcony area, and in order to do so, you have to spend a certain amount of money on drinks. That was a good night. The views are the best in the city of London; St. Paul's and the large skyscrapers in the City are just across the river.
Not Afternoon Tea - OXO Tower
Fortunately, the weather turned out to be pretty nice after we got caught up in a downpour whilst waiting for our mid-day reservation at the OXO Tower. We had been sitting on a bench in front of Gabriel's Wharf, watching the people and cyclists returning from their cycle race and watching the hide tide on the river splash up against the wall, when we noticed the grey clouds moving in the distance. Pretty soon, we could see the rain obscuring the view of Centre Point and the BT Tower and we could start to hear it, so we ran to the OXO Tower. Of course, we were about twenty minutes early then, so we sat at the bar and shared a cocktail.
Raspberry Gin Daisy cocktail
We had the 'Raspberry Gin Daisy' cocktail. It is made with London Dry Gin, raspberry and soda. I sometimes find the cocktails here a little too strong for my liking, and I was saving for the 'Not Afternoon Tea'. This was a good start to our experience.
View from OXO Tower
We were shown to our seats next to the window, as I requested when I reserved. We had a really nice view of St. Paul's cathedral and the City's buildings. As it had been raining, the outside balcony area was closed.
MOËT ICE champagne
We had a choice of four different "Not Afternoon Tea" plates. "Berry Frozen", "Penny's Herb Garden", "Chocolate Bars" and "Blooming Lovely" were the choices on offer. Each choice comes with a plate of four small desserts and a cocktail. The cocktail for each choice is suited to the desserts. Choosing was a bit difficult as I liked various options from most of the plates, but the "Chocolate Bars" was the least appealing one for me. In the end, it turned out being a toss-up between "Blooming Lovely" which boasts floral desserts and a floral cocktail and "Penny's Herb Garden", which boasts herb flavours. I choose "Penny's Herb Garden".
Menu - OXO Afternoon tea
On top of the "Not Afternoon Tea" cocktail plates, an additional experience could be added. There were a choice of three, and we choose the "MOËT Ice Exclusive". In addition to our original selection, the extras in this experience is a glass of MOËT Ice, mixed berries with Limoncello, and a bag of treats to take away.
Champagne and Limoncello berries
The MOËT Ice was served with a glass with ice and summer fruits (strawberry, blueberry, and raspeberry).
Champagne
The Limoncello with mixed berries came with a slice of shortbread. The Limoncello is chunks of jelly served in a shotglass with the fruits underneath. The fruits included mashed strawberry and raspeberry and whole blueberries. After drinking the champagne, I could not taste the Limoncello, but I could taste the berries.
Limoncello jelly shot with berries and shortbread
The "Not Afternoon Tea" plates were then brought over after the Limoncello shots were devoured. The "Chocolate Bars" one is photograhed below. From left to right in the image below:
- Blonde chocolate and butterscotch parfait
- White chocolate coconut cherry mousse
- Milk chocolate peanut nougat
- Chocolate raisin hazelnut crisps bar
Also included on the plate are roasted nuts and chocolate-covered honeycomb pieces. The cocktail served with this plate is called "Not For Boys", and it contains coconut rum, normal rum, coconut milk and dark chocolate liquer.
"Chocolate Bars"
I was allowed to try a little bit of the "Chocolate Bar" sweets. The peanut nougat and the coconut cherry mousse were delicious.
Not Afternoon Tea
"Penny's Herb Garden", the plate that I had ordered, was brought out on a wooden board. The items on the board below, from left to right include:
- Lemon verbena and sour cherry mousse
- Thyme panna cotta, apricots
- Mint cake, blackcurrant ice cream
- Peach and bay leaf trifle
This was served with the cocktail "An English Summer", which contained wine, elderflower liquer, green tea and hibiscus liquer and bitter lemon.
"Penny's Herb Garden"
The desserts were nice. My favourite was either the mint cake with the blackberry ice cream or the trifle. The blackberry ice cream was delicious. Each of my desserts had a slight herb taste. The lemon and sour cherry was not as strong for my liking, however, but the others were spot on. These complemented their accompanying cocktails well.
Cocktails
The "An English Summer" cocktail was served in a copper cup, which I absolutely loved. I really wanted to take this home with me. The "Not For Boys" was served in an old-fashioned milk glass with candied coconut slices on the top. I loved my cocktail and it accompanied the herb taste so well. I was not too keen on the sip I had of the "Not For Boys" cocktail, however, as I am not a big fan of rum. "An English Summer" was not too strong at all, and I could have happily had another.
"An English Summer"
At the end of our meal, we were presented with our "pink chocolates to take away", which consisted of three different types of truffle tied with pink ribbon.
Pink truffles
But, that was not all. When I went to the washroom, I mentioned to one of the waitresses that it was my partner's birthday, and I left a message for her to include on the birthday dessert plate. She was really nice; in fact, all of the staff that I interacted with were friendly and helpful. After a short wait and attempted to deflect several badgerings from my partner to ask for the bill, the birthday plate was brought out. My partner was surprised!
Happy Birthday
Of course, no visit to the OXO Tower is complete without obtaining a few photographs. I managed to get out onto the balcony and take a few photographs.
St. Paul's
And the Dazzle Ship (Dazzle Ships Commemorate World War 1) is 'parked' below the OXO Tower, so there was a nice view of it from there.
Dazzle Ship
St. Paul's
We had a really nice "Not Afternoon Tea" and I would visit again. Have you visited the OXO Tower for "Not Afternoon Tea" before?
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