My 2 friends and I went for afternoon tea (note, not high tea) at Clipper Lounge on Monday. This is the second time I visited after they renovated. The first time was about 2 years ago and I had good memories of it. This time however, I was shocked at what they served as sandwiches. Little cubes of bread with the fillings on the outside. . How are you supposed to get at them? If you use a fork, the glass tray tips, if you use your fingers, they will smell of fish or egg or whatever else and frankly, they are an insult to the sandwich invention. We were also disappointed with 2 ugly slices of plain cake that were on a plate and not on the 3 layered tray. They look the most unattractive, worse than a slice of Sara Lee's marbled cake.

And I always had a problem with the tea at Clipper. It always goes cold since the refill hot water is brought at the beginning with the tea, so by the time you refill, the water isn't hot and the other thing is, the tea strainers holes are too big and tea leaves go through them.

The only saving grace had to be the scones. The waiter let us choose plain or raisins and we all went for plain ones. They are still very good although the clotted cream isn't thick enough.

Need to find another place for afternoon tea next time. Nothing is anywhere near the nice hotels in London