The Wallace Restaurant

Nice oasis after an overdose of art. Good food. Good service. Lots of interesting people to watch

Went there for afternoon tea, and it was affordable (19.5£ per person), yummy and vegetarian friendly! The patio is very cute, all pink, with a glass ceiling so a lot of natural light but also no risk for rain. The tea selection is good, I was very satisfied with my rose tea, the quantity of hand sandwiches was generous and they could be made vegetarian, which us a feature I really appreciated. The sweet treats were also very good, staff was very polite, it was overall a great experience! And you can even visit the Wallace Collection afterwards. If you're looking for a traditional afternoon tea in a nice place for a good price, this is the place!

One of the best afternoon tea that I had. The price is very affordable especially giving such a nice environment and great variety of food. The tea is also decent. The service is very attentive. I enjoyed my time with my friend and I’ll definitely comeback again

This is a review for the collection and not the cafe. If you are interested in arms and armour at all, this is well worth a visit. Such a display of swords, armour, guns etc from all over the world and through the centuries.

Great place for an informal though well-served meal. Strongly suggested a booking for an early lunch to avoid crowd and enjoy more the nice indoor atmosphere the place offers. Very polite and attentive members of staff.

Set in the central courtyard the restaurant is wonderful. We had something different and everybody’s was good well presented and extremely tasty. The service was punctual and friendly.

We visited this place at November 2019 and had a lovely light meal in the hall restaurant. It's bright and food is better than we expected. Beautiful gallery! However the gift shop is quite price and a box of pencil cost about 30quid. The quality was very good though and kid loved it.

Beautiful museum which I wish I had known of earlier! Entry was free and easy via obtaining a ticket on their website. Due to COVID restrictions a one way system was in place, which was well thought out.

Grayson Perry Thinking about Perry... Overly bright colours bright designs bright colourful presentations....apparent but fake joy happiness exuberance.... But 1....laced through with political swipes, anti history anti tradition contrary threads and barbed comments and 2....dark themes, black secrets, death, despair, shadows in plain sight, cat gate keepers, tortured repressed soles, facades with horror hidden, finally 3....lost soles....yours, you the gawping tourist have been lost captured locked in a dystopian world of endless turmoil and bloody violence, based on property theft....inheritance denied. A screaming explosion a howl for redemption a gorgeous trap....Perry's Delusions. Xx

First time having afternoon tea. £35 per person is quite expensive imo considering what they offer, but I guess that's the price for this experience. Tea was tasty and the service was good. Location is good as well, and the atmosphere is lovely.

Excellent afternoon tea experience for reasonable price. Our family of three (including a 7 year old) greatly enjoyed the rather non-posh atmosphere and the attentive service by the staff. The building itself offers a good look into fantastic art.

Had a cake and glass of wine in the cafe section. You wait to be seated, to the right if going to the restaurant and to the left if going to the cafe. The cake and wine were nice and came to £14 with service added. The restaurant is like a greenhouse so expect hot temperatures in summer. Attracts a fairly diversely posh arty crowd. Food looked pretty decent. Seating is comfy and atmosphere is buzzy without being too loud.

Go for the Collection, Stay for the Tea We were in the mood for Afternoon Tea, and The Wallace beckoned with an irresistible bonus: free admission to its magnificent collection. That sealed the deal—we settled in for a midday treat on their stunning glass-roofed terrace. Ironically, the most wonderful aspect of Afternoon Tea at The Wallace isn't the tea, nor the dainty gâteries—it’s the art. The museum’s impressive array of artefacts, offered to the public at no cost, easily rivals the experience at far pricier tea rooms that lack anything close to this cultural gem. It's truly one of London’s top free attractions and well worth a visit. That said, we found the Afternoon Tea offering less flexible than expected, which dampened our enthusiasm. We chose the “Delusions of Grandeur” set, but it didn’t quite live up to the name. An à la carte option would have been a welcome alternative. On the brighter side, the savoury items were standouts. The sweets were decent, but the scones—with clotted cream—undeniably stole the show. Unlimited tea refills made us feel warmly welcomed, and the service from our waitress was as delightful as the setting.

+6

Great spot for £45-55 afternoon tea - we had a special edition Grayson Perry, came with mini pie, sandwiches, scones and dessert. You can try as many tea as you want. Service was decent, we had a someone with diet restrictions and they were quick to swap out anything or make suggestions. Ambiance was lovely

The Wallace Restaurant offers a cozy atmosphere with charming decor, perfect for a relaxed meal. Though a bit pricey, the quality of food and attentive service make it worthwhile for a special dining experience.

A very nice place to have lunch after viewing The Wallace Collection Overpriced, of course, but there is a very varied menu and nice, quiet atmosphere

Restaurant is beautiful and service was great. We had to rush thru our tea as there was a train strike that day. For what we got the price is a tad expensive but over all a good experience. I would recommend to go early to enjoy the museum.

+1

A beautiful setting for any meal, very reasonably priced wine list, and the food was very good. The service was a bit slow when it came to taking our orders and there were long periods where our water glasses were empty. Otherwise, I’d highly recommend eating here, especially for the beautiful venue inside of a museum.

Afternoon tea was very affordable and service was great. The gallery holds amazing artwork so you can dine surrounded by exquisite pieces of art. I had a herbal tea but for me it wasn’t that aromatic.

A real hidden gem in London, not too crowded and you are able to wander at your leisure and enjoy this collection still housed in it's original setting. Please give a donation as they receive no funding to maintain the collection.

The cafe has very good food. The prices are comparable to other museum cafes in London. The atmosphere is lovely. Service is slow. They seem understaffed.

Remember you are in London, with London prices. The service was good, table service. Only wanted a light bite, so had a cream tea. This consisted of 2 small scones, clotted cream and any hot drink on the menu. I did not feel rushed and enjoyed a relaxing break whilst visiting the museum and accompanying exhibition. The surprise was a 12.5% service charge. I'm not against a serving charge, just the way it was applied with no choice. This addition could make it clearer. Would have no hesitation to visit again.

Booked Table. £130.00 paid for three set lunches no wine. Three happy ladies to meet up. Table behind us had a solo lady on a FaceTime business call on laptop. Very intrusive. Awful no waiter asked her to have consideration and be aware of other diners. Not a happy service lady, we felt a nuisance. We swooped early Christmas cards, and got told off big time by our lady waiter for having a Malteser with our coffee. Happy days- NOT! Merry Christmas🌲

Can do a booking in advance at their website. Had the afternoon tea. Scones are the best i had ate during the trip. The other items on the set was normal and the portions are decent. Very crowded place.

Reasonable price afternoon tea. The tea itself very good. Tha champagne excelent. The food good. The scon very good but The service not good enough. Workers running like headless chickens and not serving the tables. We have to wait a lot of time for even ask for our request. They don't care about you very much once you are sit in the table. Is a pitty because it's beautifull place and the food and tea are very good.

Not only can you get a better afternoon tea elsewhere, you can get much better afternoon teas for less money. Very overpriced for the quality and amount served. I appreciate it says afternoon tea, but the coffee lacked a certain amount of ... coffee/flavour! This was by no means remedied by the atmosphere or service (possibly the worst thing about the entire experience). All the staff (bar one smiley gentlemen) seemed positively miserable. But at least there was a really long queue for the toilets! The Wallace Collection however, was relatively joyous and opulent. Cracking weapons room!

Strange experience! The kitchen refused to serve my pregnant friend any of the meat items from the afternoon tea service. She had to really insist that, at the very least, they bring out the sausage roll. I knew that pregnant women are often surveilled and micromanaged by strangers, but to see it in action was rather wild. Who knew the mortal dangers posed by a sausage roll.

Cute space, very nicely decorated, but fails on quality and isn’t really value for money. Terribly overpriced. Toast was dry and the bread didn’t taste the freshest and the Orange & polenta cake was incredible dry. Generally I would not recommend this place. Overpriced and even the menus are print outs…. Quality is not something the strive for.

+3

Beautiful setting, average (to mediocre) afternoon tea. 🫖 went for afternoon tea for a friends birthday. Staff was kind but a bit scattered and not very attentive. The actual food was pretty bad- I found the cheese and chutney sandwich inedible, as well as a food portion of the desserts and they were overly/sickly sweet. I couldn’t eat all of it because it started making me feel sick, and I left a bit hungry. For around £50 (without bubbles), I don’t think this is a great deal. However the setting is beautiful!

We went with a baby about to sleep in a push chair (12:45pm 9th March 2025)The women at the entrance (wore black jacket) offered us a table with very small space around it - with a very arrogant manner. She basically said you can take this table or get out and que. The hospitality wasn’t great and food was over priced for what they were. It’s very shame because all other staffs at the Wallace Collection were very friendly and lovely.

Went on half term, very disorganised. There was no one at the front as the woman in charge had to go and do two jobs at the same time. We were planning to have lunch there but decided to go elsewhere. Had coffee instead. It took around 15 minutes to be invited to sit, people were kind of getting angry at each other as some people just sat because they didn’t see anyone ushering people in so they just assumed you could just sit. Total shambles, not a relaxing experience if you want to enjoy before or after watching such beautiful collection of art.

Disappointed. For a place so stunning the restaurant/cafe services were ridiculous. Went on a Saturday around 2:30pm so the busyness was expected however the place seems extremely understaffed. After waiting 10 minutes for a table for 4 people, we got seated and already chose what we wanted from the menu while we waited to be seated. We then waited for 20 minutes for someone to come and ask what we would like and the unpleasant gentleman said “well I guess you’re ready to order then” after my mother waved him over. The cakes are decent but too over priced even for London and the tea pots are a safety risk. Although they’re cute, the handle was too hot to touch and I am very disappointed. £4 for a teabag is ridiculous. AND the waiters kept bumping against the back of our chairs harshly without apologising. Disappointed.

The afternoon tea was good in taste but way too overprised (35€/person + service fee) for what you get. What you see in the picture is what you get for 2 people. The service was not what we hoped for with regards to the welcoming and politeness. The staff were annoyed and impatient which affected the experience. The atmosphere was the best part since it is in a old mansion with interesting artifacts.

Few words: Overpriced but lovely staff. Disappointed and would not recommend. We came here because it was supposed to be a ‘reasonably priced’ afternoon tea. But seems that they recently increased their price and is now works out to be £50 per person with the ‘service charge’. Food was average, the cakes the only real highlight. The ‘service’ was friendly however when my wife started feeling unwell and we asked to take her cakes home, the only thing they could offer us was foil. Would be nice if they could at least offer a cardboard food container of some sort to avoid them getting squished. At £50 per person, I would recommend looking elsewhere for your afternoon tea experience.

Sorry not to be able to do a more positive review but v expensive for what it is and worst of all their lemon drizzle cake is NOT drizzly! Dry sponge with icing on it. LD is my measure of a cafe and test failed here. Main courses also very mediocre. You can have some cheese for £18. My friend and I agreed we'd want the entire Morrison cheese counter for that. We won't return sadly 😔

The teabag was OK although really I expect loose tea in such a venue and for such a price. What stuck in the throat though was paying by card, then after paying (without being given the option of paying a tip) my paper receipt showed I had paid a ‘discretionary’ 12.5% service charge. Discretionary … not when you are not given an option. Sharp practice or what?

The service is indeed poor. Dirty pot. Be prepared to wait a long time to be served, served the wrong food, wrong bill, you ask for help and be totally ignored. I am glad to be here alone, no way to come with a guest or for business. Beautifully airy on sunny days but it can get loud even before the lunch time starts. Ofc, overpriced. Plenty of good cafes in the area eg Arome.

I recently visited The Wallace Collection and was truly impressed by the museum itself. The collection is exceptional, the atmosphere is elegant, and the overall experience is peaceful and inspiring. It is definitely one of the hidden gems in London and well worth a visit. Unfortunately, the afternoon tea at the café/restaurant was a major disappointment. The presentation did not match the setting, the sandwiches and pastries did not taste fresh, and the overall quality was quite average. Considering the price, it did not offer good value for money. A venue of this calibre deserves a much higher standard of food and service. I would absolutely recommend visiting the museum, but I would suggest going elsewhere for afternoon tea.

Lovely museum but the restaurant not so much. Resevation made for lunch at 2.30 and once seated at the table the waiter told us they could not serve lunch, even though the receptionist gave us the lunch menu. No explanation . Sandwich or nothing. When i asked the receptionist about this she said she did not know because that was not her job “to know if the kitchen is open” Waited for 20 minutes for our water. Everyone looked miserable 😔 Avoid

The service is terrible!! The waitresses were not even make eye contact🤷🏻‍♀️ ridiculously pricey, and I ordered one cream tea. The butter and jam was too much, I wanted to order one more scone to finish theme and they said that they cannot give one scone 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️ it has to be two!?? Not recommended, will definitely not going again… also, teapots were very risky!

The collections was 5/5. But cant say the same for the cafe, slow service, distracted stuff, +10m waiting time for a coffee only. Cafe needs more organisation. Inside is hot, stuffy and feels like a green house...

An almost amusingly bad experience yesterday - I was seated at a table quickly and was able to order my drink quickly, but was then left for around 25min before a member of staff came back to me and asked me to confirm my drink order - which had clearly been forgotten. I got my drink, then after around 5/10mins a member of staff presented me with the bill and a card machine and said "You have to leave now." It was about half an hour before closing, and wouldn't have taken me long to finish my drink (I would've already left by that time if they hadn't forgotten my order!), I was so taken aback by it that I just paid without finishing my drink. Are all staff trained at the Fawlty Towers School Of Hospitality? Absolutely gorgeous surroundings after seeing a wonderful exhibition, it's really very odd for the restaurant to be such a let down.