Hotel dining can be a very expensive experience, but if you are there as one of those bucket list fulfillments like we were, then it's not unusual to go the whole nine yards.
Since the stay coincided with my birthday, the first day was set aside to have dinner at the Chinese restaurant upstairs and was one of those sublime experiences. Of course, it had to be Peking Duck, expensive champagne, and several cocktails.
Oddly enough, breakfast wasn't included in the room rate, but that seems to be normal for a lot of hotels. It can be if you want to pay upfront, but we don't always have breakfast, particularly if we have dinner the night before.
Or can be bothered getting out of bed the next morning because quite often the breakfast hours do go with staying in bed.
During this stay, we decided to have breakfast one morning, cereal, bacon and eggs, coffee, toast, you know, the usual stuff.
No paper placemats here and the silverware was just that, silverware. This was going to be full on old world charm.
Coffee served from a silver coffee pot, fine bone china from Staffordshire, not Thailand, tea service for milk and sugar, condiments all in a row.
The only disappointment, I don't think the eggs were free-range.
And, when the conversation dries up, there's always a steady stream of people coming and going through the front door, and the doorman is always at the ready to open the door.
WE went once for lunch, and yes, we had to go to the famous Afternoon Tea, for which you had to book or stand in a very long line. We booked and discovered preference was given to those who were staying at the hotel.
Out came the silver tea service, and one could imagine that this was the same as what it had been a hundred years ago. I had tea, after all, it was afternoon tea!
The cakes were interesting, there were quarter sandwiches rather than finger sandwiches, and though I'm not a fan of fruit scones, I'm always up for something different.
After it, it's probably not a good idea to go out for dinner too.
Overall, the experience was worth it.