Banking on afternoon tea

As a family we like to treat ourselves to an afternoon tea now and then. I do not mean just a cup of tea and I do not actually drink the stuff, as this is more of a feast of flavours. Usually it will be some combination of sandwiches, scones and cakes plus your choice of drink.

We have experienced some very good examples of this at places like The Dorchester, The Mandarin Oriental and Ivy Asia around London. It can be an expensive treat, which is why we do not do it too often.

Our latest experience was at Millie's Lounge at The Ned. This is the former headquarters of the Midland Bank near the Bank of England. It now contains several restaurants and bars plus a hotel and other facilities. Millie's occupies one corner with comfortable alcove seating surrounded by marble splendour.

Traditionally an afternoon tea will be served on some sort of stand. This is a vegetarian tea for two where you have a selection of sandwiches on different breads, plain and fruit scones with jam and cream and then the cake selection. Their bakers won Bake Off: The Professionals last year. There is a vegan option as well as a regular one that can contain meat and fish in the sandwiches.

I had coffee with mine, but they have a good selection of teas. I will say that they do use teabags with some of those, which may be considered less classy by some. I think at The Dorchester they took time to let you know exactly what you had in the way of breads, but not here, although the general service was excellent. They offered us extra sandwiches, which we accepted and they kept topping up our water glasses.

In a place like this you are likely to get some wealthy people. There were some around who looked like bankers or the wives of company bosses. Looking at the drinks menu I saw that they had several pages of whiskies with some costing over £300 for a glass. A glass of Champagne could be up to £65.

One of our group had a birthday and they brought them a little extra.

The place has a nice atmosphere. There was some gentle jazz playing and later on a guy was singing and playing guitar on their little bandstand. They seem to have retained a lot of the original bank features such as the counters. It reminded me a little of Gringott's in Harry Potter.

I know some people like to know if the other facilities are of a similar standard so here is a view of the gents, which is downstairs.

Also down there is the old vault with a massive door. Maybe they lock up the cakes in there.

Overall it was a very nice experience. You do not have to be super wealthy to go there, but it will cost a little more than your average cafe. You did not even have to dress up.

Highly recommended.