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Miles and I LOVE High Tea so we took GrandMama Miles to High Tea at the Langham Pasadena
High Tea is a Monkey Miles family tradition. We’ve had High Tea all over the world. Unfortunately, I’ve just started documenting them. So a visit back to the Langham for High Tea was ABSOLUTELY necessary. We called up early one morning and asked if there was any availability that afternoon, and sure enough…they had avail.
The Langham Pasadena is one of my favorite hotels
I first came here when it was still the Ritz Carlton. The Langham took it over in 2008 and I’ve been back many times since. I’ve even stayed here a few times, the last being in 2014. I’d say the hotel as a whole needed a room renovation then, but they have invested a considerable amount of money redoing the restaurants. The neighborhood that the Langham sits in is incredible, full of historic homes and a great area to go on a joyride. If you end up here I’d also highly recommend walking the grounds. They’re beautiful and I think one of the coolest aspects are the bungalows. I love the character, charm, and luxury that this hotel exudes.
I’d actually done a high tea here a couple years back for Valentine’s day and it was on point. Service, ambience, and the overall tea and accoutrements were on par with the reputation of the Langham itself – 5 star. This is what lead me to want to take Grandmama Miles to Tea here…give her a right treat!
Check in –
So things didn’t exactly go smoothly. In fact, they didn’t have our names at all. I sort of wrote this off because they made every concession to accommodate us and we were seated very quickly. However, that’s where things kind of went sideways.
The Langham Afternoon Tea features Wedgwood fine china
As you can see here…there aren’t any spoons. Well how in the FLIP are you going going to have tea when ya ain’t got no spoons! Sorry, sometimes my Yorkshire comes out when at High Tea and I get a little upset! Ok, so they didn’t have our names even though we called in the morning and now the table isn’t set quite right. But, we were having a great time so it really wasn’t a big deal.
The Menu
The Tea basically came at the same time as the flight of food
This is unfortunate. While everything was delicious, it didn’t give us any time to enjoy the delicious tea and just converse. Again. we were having a great time, so it didn’t REALLY matter, but you’re paying for everything to be right. After all this is high tea at a 5 star hotel.
Once everything was placed we noticed that we didn’t have any milk for the tea. UGH
- First time I had to go and ask for something… milk
We started enjoying our tea and nibbling on all the sandwiches. They even swapped in some veggie options for some meat options to accommodate us as we don’t eat any meat. They actually made some egg salad sandwiches for us, and swapped out the chicken for extra salmon. This was all great.
Then we noticed that we didn’t have any clotted cream.
- So I got up AGAIN, a second time, to go and ask for some clotted cream with the scones.
We had a variety of Jellies, preserves, and jams to choose from. These were all very nice and my mom and I both ate a scone using these a couple of these. But, then we remembered that on the menu they offered Lemon Curd.
SO I then had to get up AGAIN! OMG – let is be known that Miles did not get up once. NOOOOO it was meeeee who got up A third time to go and ask for the Lemon Curd.
- It’s weird because every time they were apologetic and immediately got whatever it was that I was asking for, but I mean cahhhhhmonnnn this is ridics
Yes, yes, yes Miles, Dad will go ask for more stuff
The desserts were tasty, but in all honesty by the time we got to eating them we were pretty full.
The sandwiches were quite nice. Nothing amazing, and the egg salad, which was off menu, was my favorite of all we were served.
Scones were light, warm, and very tasty
Typically during an Afternoon Tea you get more hot water. They also give you normal water as well. Well we didn’t really miss the other water until we were almost ready to start eating the sweet treats, and of course noticed that we hadn’t been asked nor had we been automatically served any. OMG!
- I got up and asked for something a 4th time. Are you Flipnicking kidding me. These Teas aren’t cheap and we are paying a premium to be here…how have I left my seat once let alone 4 TIMES to ask for things that should have just been a part of the experience.
The overall
I still love the Langham, but there was still a huge let down in service. It wasn’t that they weren’t nice, but it was like the staff, or maybe just our waitress had a complete brain fart for the duration of service. We saw her when we got seated, the food was served, and delivery of the check. Other than that…it was when I left my seat 4 times that we actually got service.
Was it enough to not go back?
Maybe. I’ve been before so that’s weighing on my decision, but there are a few other spots to grab high tea in LA when mom comes back. It’s a shame that this happened, cause we still had a blast but half of it was laughing at the fact that it was a complete service meltdown. I kind of write this off that they were unprepared to seat us, but the aspects of service that were underwhelming were SOOOOO simple: Water, Lemon Curd, A spoon, and Milk. I mean…this isn’t brain surgery or writing a travel blog, you know?
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
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- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
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- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
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We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
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Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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