Afternoon tea at the rubens is the closest you can get to taking tea with the queen from the palace lounge in this hotel on the doorstep of buckingham palace you may even witness some royal comings and goings this is afternoon tea on a grand scale often with a fun seasonal or topical theme there are always freshly baked plain and raisin scones served with cream and homemade preserve superb traditional teas like darjeeling and earl grey join herbal infusions and oriental options like jasmi