One of the best things about Mr Persnickety is that he never says no to his “Little Piggy.” I can tell you for a fact that she (being Moi) was absolutely overjoyed to finally get a chance to go to Fortnum and Mason’s Parlour Restaurant. I have been wanting to visit the ice cream and sweets shop ever since it opened, but being that we don’t live in London, it did take some time to have my Little Piggy wish granted.
Now, I have to say that I am a housewife who LOVES her ice cream, though if truth be told, I find that the ice cream in England rarely compares to the ice cream in America. My absolute favorite ice cream is Baskin Robbins‘ pistachio and almond flavour. Lucky for me, its available in the UK, though its hard to come by my flavor outside of London. So, as far as I was concerned, The Parlour Restaurant had some pretty high stilletos to fill.
Lets start with the decor. The decor was lovely. Everything was charming and girly. It has a kind of candy store feel. Its a bit Willy Wonka meets Barbie. It would actually be a fantastic place to meet up with friends for a little girly party or something.
The ice cream and deserts are served up in quite a grand fashion. We didn’t order any hot drinks, but I did see others who did order them, and the saucers had convenient little contraptions on them that held little baby ice cream cones on them. They looked absolutely darling. (Picture source: Flickr, taken by pmorgan).
Hubby ordered an iced coffee (see top picture). This was served with a double shot of expresso and a scoop of Sandringham coffee ice cream. Unfortunately I have never developed a liking for coffee. It actually makes me a bit queasy (I don’t know if maybe I’m alergic to it or something), so I declined to try it. Hubby’s opininon was that it was okay. I don’t think he would order it again, but he thought that the ice cream itself, in the drink, was quite tasty. All I can really tell you was that it was beautifully presented.
As for me, I had the Patio Nut Delight. This was another beautifully persented treat in a beautiful old fashioned sundae glass. It had three scoops of ice cream: Pistachio Siciliano (nice with a great nutty aftertaste), Praline (also good), and vanilla. It normally comes with coffee ice cream instead of the vanilla, but as I said, I am not partial to coffee flavours, so I had that one substituted. Its also supposed to come with a carmael sauce which I declined in favour of chocolate (what can I say, I am not an easy customer). Topping the sundae was some superb whipped cream (not the cheap stuff, this was the real thing), lovely and crunchy flaked almonds, and some wafers for garnish. I enjoyed it, and it was definitely a beautiful thing to look at, but can I be honest here? It was no Baskin sundae. It won in the beauty category, but if the Baskin Robbins sundae is a 10 in taste, this was a 5.
So to summarize, I felt that Fortnum’s Parlour Restaurant is a fun place with a great atmosphere, but now that I’ve tried it and got it out of my system, I don’t think I would bother going back. There’s too many other great places in London… like Baskin Robbins *wink*.
What’s your favorite ice cream flavour?
OMG, these look absolutely delicious! The Parlour looks like the place to be on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Loved your post and blog.