The Parlour at Sketch

The Parlour
at Sketch
Mayfair, London

The posh Parlour at Sketch -- it's posh, and way more exciting than the Gallery restaurant in Sketch, and more affordable. Tea here is lovely in the afternoon, and the food is quite nice, gourmet as well. Not to mention, the Parlour actually gives you an accurate portion of food, versus the toothpick you get in the restaurant for 5x the price. The decour in this room is extraordinary. It changes every season. The designer mixes and matches fabrics, patterns, wallcoverings... it's intriguing really. I enjoyed this place. It's quite comfortable too! I came here with my colleague on a mission to observe the decour. Yes, this was a serious mission -- research -- lunch 'a la HBA!

This is the back of the Parlour area. This is where all of the comfortable, banquet seating is. It's more cozy back here, and you really feel like you're experiencing a nice, modern English tea time. It's lovely for conversation and an overall pleasant experience. It's quite modern European in cuisine and service. The service is almost exclusively French, but you'll find English people in this part of the restaurant for service.

Chinese Oolong Tea
Iron goddess
"With approximately half the caffeine of black or green tea this famous oolong tea
will help guard against cancer'

I'm a creme and sugar girl when it comes to tea. This was actually a black tea I believe. Or maybe oolong is on its own as a category. Either way, this is the most lovely tea with a bit of sugar and creme. Laura was impressed as well. The presentation here is superb. I love the tea set.

The Sketch Club
"traditional French baguette / preserved red pepper coulis /
grilled shiitake mushrooms / Paris ham"

What a sandwich! This has to be one of the most unique, best baguette sandwiches I've ever had, up there with the croques I had in French cafes by the Eiffel Tower. The ham was incredible. I think there might have been some tender chicken in here too, or maybe the ham was just that amazing. The ham was not lean, it was in rectangular small chunks, but it was good ham, and didn't have that ham-my kind of taste. It was quite good! I loved the coulis too. I'd never had preserved red pepper coulis before, and as a spread on this toasted baguette, it was extraordinary. The bread was fresh and tasty, and possibly had a bit of wholemeal in it as well. What a lunch. I enjoyed this. There was a bit of fine green in this as well.

The Greek
"Paris mushrooms a la grecque / pita bread / baby spinach"
Laura had this one. It looked good. Mine was bigger, but she had good things to say about it. It looked "healthy", but good. It had some feta in it too, of course.