{"id":3238,"date":"2009-09-20T20:42:07","date_gmt":"2009-09-20T19:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noexpert.co.uk\/?p=3238"},"modified":"2021-10-31T20:33:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T20:33:53","slug":"the-berkely-pret-a-portea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=3238","title":{"rendered":"The Berkeley &#8211; Pret a Portea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KiA friend reserved a table for the Pret a Portea\u00a0at <a title=\"The Berkeley - Fashionista Tea\" href=\"http:\/\/www.the-berkeley.co.uk\/fashionista_tea.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Berkeley<\/a> &#8211;\u00a0the famous fashionista&#8217;s afternoon tea. Not that I qualify in any way for the description of fashionista, but there were plenty of them in the room to make up the shortfall.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-3238 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3882.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3882-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3883.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3883-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3884.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3884-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3885.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3885-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3889.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3889-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3891.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3891-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3893.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3893-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3895.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMG_3895-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMGP2405.JPG'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/IMGP2405-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The table was beautifully set, with individual stylised menus and a personalised name card.\u00a0 Our only criticism was the size of the font on the menu (see <a title=\"Food Vents\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?page_id=1875\" target=\"_self\">vent number 21<\/a>). We also\u00a0had some concerns when only one cake stand was set on the table for four people &#8211;\u00a0there was only two handbags!.\u00a0 However the waiter quickly reassured us that the plates would be swapped out as and when we finished them. He was true to his word as we discovered following multiple plate changes.<\/p>\n<p>The sandwiches (we had 3 rounds each and\u00a0were offered more!), savoury spoonfuls and cakes were all of a very high standard. In fact I actually enjoyed the afternoon tea more than the lunch we had a few months back in <a title=\"Marcus Wareing\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=244\" target=\"_self\">Marcus Wareings<\/a> restaurant!<\/p>\n<p>We also had a few glasses of champagne &#8211; they\u00a0offer standard or couture. The waiter serving the champagne was particularly proficient as he single handedly poured the champagne,\u00a0smoothly swapping from one hand to the other. He also used a small laser pointer to individually identify and describe the sandwiches and cakes!\u00a0I jokingly commented that he put on a better show than the <a title=\"Fat Duck\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=803\" target=\"_self\">Fat Duck<\/a>.\u00a0 So you can imagine my shock when Heston Blumental walked by a few minutes later. The Berkeley will be a rival to his planned new Restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental just around the corner (see <a title=\"Foliage replacement\" href=\"..\/..\/?p=596\" target=\"_self\">Foliage replacement &#8211; the gossip!<\/a>), so I guess he was just being neighbourly!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Top page - Noexpert.co.uk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\">Return to top page<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KiA friend reserved a table for the Pret a Portea\u00a0at The Berkeley &#8211;\u00a0the famous fashionista&#8217;s afternoon tea. Not that I qualify in any way for the description of fashionista, but there were plenty of them in the room to make up the shortfall. The table was beautifully set, with individual stylised menus and a personalised &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=3238\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Berkeley &#8211; Pret a Portea&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,192,25,309,7,8],"tags":[60,42,242,44],"class_list":["post-3238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-the-best","category-coffee-tea-and-cakes","category-expensive","category-favorite-posts","category-london","category-uk","tag-heston-blumenthal","tag-marcus-wareing","tag-pret-a-portea","tag-the-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3238"}],"version-history":[{"count":71,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29772,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions\/29772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}