The Ritz London — Sandwich Room

Afternoon tea at The Ritz is less a meal than a performance — one that has been refined since 1906 and is executed with the precision of a particularly delicious military operation. The finger sandwiches arrive first, on a three-tiered stand, and they are the thing that matters most even if nobody quite admits it.

Smoked salmon on brown bread with crème fraîche. Cucumber with cream cheese on white. Egg mayonnaise with cress. Coronation chicken. Each sandwich is an inch and a half wide, crustless, cold, and precisely the right thickness. None of them are revolutionary. All of them are done exactly right, with ingredients that are better than the versions you make at home.

The setting does the rest: gilded ceilings, pink tablecloths, a string quartet on weekends. You eat sandwiches in a room that would embarrass most châteaux. Whether that justifies the price is a question each visitor must answer for themselves. The sandwiches themselves earn their keep.