"Unfortunately unlike many other’s who have kindly posted reviews on here, our experience of Afternoon Tea at The Chesterfield was rather disappointing. The staff were very attentive and courteous and I really appreciated how welcome they made us feel. Unfortunately for some reason at our seating on a Friday at 4:30pm there seemed to be an issue with a shortage of cakes/pastries. When the afternoon tea came out, understandably there is not enough room on the tea stand to put out 3 of each type of cake, so I just enquired whether one of each type of cake for the three of us would be bough out later and the waitress said we could have more sandwiches and scones if we wished. I said thank you, we have one of each of those, it’s the cakes I would like more of please. I got the same reply offering more sandwiches and cakes. Just to clarify things, I said was I expected to cut each cake into 3 small pieces then ? She looked embarrassed and said I could ask for more of the one’s we enjoyed the most. I left it for a while and once we had had our thirds of cake each, when the waitress came back and asked which we enjoyed the most, I said the small pink cheesecake, could we have 3 of those please, again I was meet with the offer of more sandwiches and scones. I did not want to ruin my eldest daughter’s birthday treat anymore by making a fuss, so I didn’t pursue it any further but did contact the Manager a few days later regarding our disappointing experience. He suggested it was all a “miscommunication issue” on my behalf, that afternoon tea was an unlimited eating experience, and they only bring out a certain amount of cakes, so not to create food waste. This was clearly not the case, as everyone else at the sitting took home their uneaten items in food boxes provided by the hotel, which is usually the option when you go for afternoon tea and the kind waitress gave us 6 extra scones to take away with us, also extra sweets, trying to restore some joy to a very underwhelming and frustrating experience."
