Free Flowing Champagne!
Probably not the wisest choice at 2.30 in the afternoon, but it was a Saturday and who ever says no to free flowing bubbles?
Once we were seated in our little booth we started off the afternoon with a peach belini before being shown the menu. The waiter informed us that we could choose from either a Vintage Afternoon Tea or a Gentleman's Afternoon Tea which both included the same set of 'fancies', but had very different sandwich options.
We opted for the Vintage version which included the usual egg, salmon, cucumber and ham. The fillings were tasty, but there could have been a lot more of them and in bread a little less dry.
Onto the second level - the scones. In this case it was just the one scone each, but it was nice and came with clotted cream and a little pot of Tiptree raspberry jam. I would have expected another scone each, but perhaps that's just being greedy!
The top layer held the 'fancies'. This was indeed a vintage selection of a rather tasty rhubarb and custard pot although no spoon was provided so I had to use the one that sat with my tea cup. Whilst on the note of tea, I had a rather nice jasmine blend, with my friend opting for a green tea. This actually was forgotten when taking our order, but the waiter covered it up well, topping us up with champagne as he subtly asked what tea we would prefer.
Other 'fancies' included a flourless chocolate and orange cake (nice, but a little burnt), a pistachio macaroon, a slice of battenburg cake and a cherry bakewell cupcake. These were all perfectly adequate, but perhaps a little uninspiring. Still, the free flowing champagne was indeed free flowing and keeping us from feeling too hard done by!
So after we had gobbled up our afternoon teas we were surprised that rather than offering us a top up of sandwiches, our tea stand was hastily cleared away. When we asked about maybe trying the Gentleman's sandwich choice we were informed that this would come at an additional cost, as would a top up of finger sandwiches, scones or fancies. We decided to pay the extra however, and were presented with a tasty looking slate of Gentleman's savouries.
We shared a slice of sausage roll, a mini Welsh wagyu burger and a Hanger steak and Herefordshire snail open sandwich. They were nice, warm and tasty, but again few and far between.
All in all the afternoon was a pleasant experience. You couldn't fault the staff or service and our glasses were kept well topped up throughout the sitting. Although the tea was nice, it was clear that they had made a decision to provide either champagne or food and opted for the champagne option. Maybe a compromise could be reached with simply an extra scone or sightly fuller sandwiches? Or maybe even just some less burnt chocolate cake...!
