Review: Sketch

Welcome to my one hundredth blog post. Yes, that’s right 100th.

It was my birthday earlier in the month and to celebrate I decided to take 8 of my closest friends and family for afternoon tea at Sketch. I’ve been wanting to go for ages and I’m pleased to tell you that it certainly lived up to my expectations! Sketch is the destination for food, art and music. Housed under the roof of a converted 18th century building in Conduit Street in Mayfair, London, at the weekends afternoon tea is served in the Martin Creed Gallery Restaurant. Described as a room that renders a curious mind with the floor, walls and ceiling all a work of art. None of the table wear or furniture matches making the room a colourful enchanting environment to relax in.

It’s best to book in advance, particularly if you’re going in a large group like we did. You have to give your credit card details to secure your booking and there is an cancellation fee. That said the customer service during your booking and leading up to your visit is great.

On arrival, we were greeted by a very flamboyant host who showed us to our table. Comfortably seated, we opted for the classic Afternoon Tea which is very reasonably priced at £34 per person.

The menu offered over twenty different varieties of tea, each were served in pots with fresh tea leaves. You could order as many flavours as you wished for – space for all the teapots permitting!

Shortly after we were served an extravagant selection of savoury sandwiches, sweet cakes, petit fours, scones and homemade jams. The cake stands were beautiful, displaying the cakes in all their glory. Starting at the bottom of the stand, we dug into the finger sandwiches. Carefully choosing which to eat first (because you always try and save the best till last night?!) I firstly sampled the egg and mayonnaise, quail egg and caviar. Not only was it beautifully presented it was delish! Next to take centre stage was the cucumber, ricotta and broccoli sandwich, followed by the warm comté cheese croque monsieur which was packaged in grease proof paper with a yellow ribbon tied in a bow around it. The final delight had to be the smoked salmon and Jacob’s cream. My mouth is genuinely watering thinking about this as I type.

Making our way up a level, we were presented with a beautiful selection of cakes. Cakes, cakes and more cakes. I believe you’re supposed to eat the scones next, but really it’s about whatever takes your fancy… And those cakes didn’t half take my fancy. Where to even start!?

salted butter caramel macaroon
fig and port tartlet
gianduja Chocolate éclair
coconut and praline lollipop
orange blossom, lemon and passion fruit marshmallows
lemon meringue tartlet
in a glass: greek yogurt mousse, blackcurrant marmalade and créme de cassis jelly

My favourite had to be the salted butter caramel macaroon which topped the cake stand, but the coconut and praline lollipop was also gorgeous.

The warm fruit scones were hiding inside the pocket of a napkin, there was one each. Served with clotted cream and either homemade fig jam or strawberry jam. I was so full at this stage that I could only manage half a scone. The fig jam was yummy, smooth but bitty.

As a complimentary birthday treat Sketch delivered me a special surprise to our table which was lovely!

I can’t end this post without talking about the toilets at Sketch. Afterall they must be within the top 10 London toilets?! They are amazing little white pods, the ceiling is made up of multicoloured lights – it’s pretty awesome.

After feeling very spoilt surrounded by my favourite friends and family all day, I can safely say Sketch is awesome and was the icing on top of the cake. The building is a piece of modern art and I LOVED it.