Welcome to FlyerTalk tobyjake.

I'm not a big fan of the dry nano-sandwiches (although on rare occasions they have been decent) and stu1985 knows what I think about the champagne offered!

I've not been on an afternoon tea flight for a while. The old trick was to go into Manage my Booking and order a seafood special meal (or something else if you don't like seafood) you then received a reasonable sized salad and could still request scones if you wanted. This was best option all round.

They've removed the seafood option now. Officially due to lack of demand, but realistically I think they realised people were using it to circumvent their cost cutting.

I did suggest people who liked seafood to try requesting the muslim meal (as when I've seen pictures of it in CE it's always been identical to the seafood meals I've ordered), has anyone tried this yet? I will do when I encounter afternoon tea again.

All the special meal options seem to replace the sandwiches with a salad at afternoon tea time so pick the option that matches your tastes most closely.