We had been looking forward to this since we made the reservation months ago, but frustratingly it didn’t quite meet our expectations.
Mary Poppins is about childhood magic and imagination, right? I feel like this was what was missing with the experience. It felt very.. bland?
The food wasn’t themed at all and having looked back at photos from the launch, you can see they’ve just not bothered to continue with it. I think this was the most disappointing part considering the price has remained the same (rather expensive). For example when the tea was launched there was a chocolate hat just like Mary’s. Now it’s a “blob”, absolutely positively not the shape of any hat, which is still referred to as Mary’s hat.
The menu which was printed on a mirror was unreadable as it had been scratched considerably. This is something that realistically you would expect to be repaired.
The best part of our visit was that the scones were delivered via Mary Poppins special bag but that was over in a matter of seconds. (They were also under-baked!).
The candy floss machine / prop was tucked away in a corner too which seemed a shame. This is the type of prop that really could have set the scene and been quite memorable for good reasons.
Most of the staff were friendly however and they even bought Ita a plain ham sandwich which she really appreciated. We did have an issue with the waitress leaning over Ita when pouring the steaming tea but this is a practice issue that is likely to be the restaurants fault. It’s basic training.
Overall I probably wouldn’t recommend it.
Our favourite themed teas remain Beauty & the Beast at the Kensington (which has now ended) and the Peter Rabbit Tea at Le Meridian in Piccadilly.
Garcia Family UK 