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The Caledonian Afternoon Tea in Peacock Alley Review
A wise monkey once said, Expectation is the mother of all disappointment. The Peacock Alley is so nice, and the hotel itself is so nice, but as I said in my review of The Caledonian, the hotel isn’t amazing on the little things so WHYYYYYYY did I still have high expectations for the Afternoon Tea?! But, I did and I was disappointed and maybe it’s my fault because I expected something quite nice. Here’s my Caledonian Afternoon Tea in Peacock Alley review.
Caledonian Afternoon Tea in Peacock Alley review is part of the NFL in London, Scotland, and Dublin Trip Report:
- British Airways Club World A380 LAX- LHR
- London Edition – A Ritz Carlton Hotel is SOHO SEXY
- Marriott Park Lane, London
- Intercontinental Park Lane, London
- Virgin Train First Class Lounge King’s Cross
- Virgin Train First Class King’s Cross London to Edinburgh
- Caledonian Edinburgh, A Waldorf Astoria Property
- Caledonian Afternoon Tea in Peacock Alley
- Balmoral Afternoon Tea in the Palm Court
- No. 1 Lounge at Edinburgh Airport
- Aspire Lounge at Edinburgh Airport
- Intercontinental Dublin
- Lufthansa First Class Ground Services Frankfurt
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge Frankfurt Terminal 1
- Lufthansa First Class 747-8 FRA-LAX
Background
We love high tea, afternoon tea, whatever kind of tea as long as there is a tower and a big deal made of it 😉 Anyways, being in the U.K. created ample opportunities to indulge. For instance, my parents did 2 teas in 5 days while in London and we ultimately did 2 teas in 4 days while in Edinburgh…ya, we kinda like them. This was by far the worst.
We found a 3rd party deal online for Tea in Peacock Alley. It was a 30% off deal and we phoned the concierge to see if the hotel would honor the deal even though it was offered from a 3rd party. The concierge confirmed with the manager of the Peacock Alley that they would honor it and secured us the last seating of the day, 5pm with 3 vegetarians preparations.
5pm comes around
We enter the Peacock Alley to find an unattended check-in station. After a few minutes of waiting and looking around we approached the bar and asked if anyone could help us. Again, very friendly and eager to help. They sent for someone. A manager soon emerged, we notified him that we were checking in for our 5pm reservation. He had no idea. WHAT?! We made the res with the hotel concierge…
He was very apologetic and quickly whipped up some staff, but we still waited another 5 minutes. At this points we kind of knew that everyone was unprepared for us being there. To make matters worse, we were the last table so I think the kitchen had even started to close up. Clearly, there had been a break down in communication.
The Tea
It’s not cheap and we were still clinging to hope that it would turn around.
The first problem we incurred once tea started was the tea itself. The tea came out luke warm, improperly steeped, and the pots were filled with barely enough water to fill a cup and a half of tea. I’m not sure what was going on with that… if it was inexperienced staff, but everyone was super nice that was tending to us. The other thing that both my mom and I encountered was the tea itself…the Peacock Alley blend. It was INSANELY bitter. So much so, that we ultimately sent it back and exchanged it for a normal English Breakfast. Again…not sure if it’s just a bitter tea, or if it was improperly prepared, but it was NOT good.
The Food
When we ordered the tea, we reminded them that we had reserved vegetarian options. Clearly, since they didn’t have our reservation it wasn’t reasonable to expect that they would know we had requested veggie options. This created another problem, but ultimately what we got was pretty lackluster. The sweets were fine, but dry, and just another disappointment to add to the list.
The rock sugar was by far the coolest part
The scones…hard as a rock and not warm. The clotted cream was delicious tho.
Things could be worse – we made a memory and the next day we had Afternoon Tea at the Balmoral which is one of the very best High Teas ever. No Joke.
The Bill
So when we made the reservation we had asked if they would honor the 30% off and the concierge called Peacock Alley ( within the hotel, mind you) and made sure that this was ok. It was. The reservation was made. We showed up…no reservation. So we made sure again before we were seated that we indeed could have a vegetarian meal and it would be discounted to match the online offer we found. This was ok’d. Then the bill comes…full price. The waitress was very nice about it and got the manager who came over and told us that he would honor it…but we were under the impression that not once, but twice it was already sorted. Ultimately, it just wasn’t the note we wanted to end on, nor the how I would imagine the Peacock Alley wants their guests lasting memory being.
Overall:
Wouldn’t go again.
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
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
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.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
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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