The Tea Terrace - Afternoon Tea in a Princess Carriage

A perfect treat for any little girl - or grown up - who loves princesses and all things pink. We enjoyed afternoon tea at the Tea Terrace in Cobham for our daughter's fourth birthday last year and she was thrilled. Unfortunately that restaurant has now closed but they have another venue in Guildford where you can have the same princess carriage experience - to find out more hop on over to my other blog, Mini Moo Life.

They have an extensive menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner options as well as afternoon tea. The white chocolate and cranberry scones were especially good, and the mini cakes were delicious. The restaurant was very quiet when we were there so we were able to hop over to another table in the corner and sit on throne-type chairs - though my daughter and I definitely preferred sitting in the princess carriage! 

You do have to pay extra to hire the carriage which you get for an hour and a half, and it can add up at £12.95 per person - I think it would be better to have a flat fee per carriage as you aren't exactly going to share it with anyone. There is also a minimum spend of £21 per person if you sit in the carriage so you can't just book it to feel a bit fancy while drinking a coffee! We had planned to go for afternoon tea (which my daughter and I ordered while my husband had a panini from the lunch menu followed by a cake and with a drink as well which came to more than the minimum spend.

While we haven't been to the Tea Terrace's remaining venue in Guildford it looks from the website to be quite similar to the now closed Cobham branch, and most importantly has the princess carriages, but doesn't have Theresa the robot!

Afternoon Tea at Vicinity Tower Bridge

Few things say London more than Tower Bridge and Vicinity, a bar and restaurant in Tower Hotel, offers an afternoon tea that capitalises on that with a Tower Bridge-shaped cake stand. This is a good afternoon tea for tourists in London, as you have a view of Tower Bridge from the window, and can indulge in the quintessential English finger sandwiches and scones and a selection of patisserie and petit fours.

My husband I were given a voucher for afternoon tea here some time ago, then Covid prevented us from using it; the hotel luckily offered to extend the expiry date so we were able to finally make a booking just before Christmas last year. We took a day off work while our daughter was at nursery and made the most of it, following our afternoon tea with the Money Heist Experience!

If you are coming here, whether it’s to see the bridge (which is a tourist attraction you can visit) or to go to the hotel or restaurant, I recommend walking from London Bridge if you can. It’s a lovely walk alongside the river and in winter, there is usually a Christmas market which creates a magical atmosphere – and you get a good view of Tower Bridge as you approach.

The restaurant was fairly quiet when we arrived at lunchtime on a weekday but quickly filled up, with what looked like a few office Christmas lunches as well as tourists. We had excellent service from someone who appeared to be the maitre d’; we were given a table next to the window with a view of the bridge and a menu for the afternoon tea. I always think it’s a shame when the menus are taken away once the food comes and you are trying to remember what each of the petit fours and mini desserts are – though in this case I could be forgiven for not remembering as I realised they didn’t match up with what was on the menu. 

I asked the waiter and the maitre d’ then came over to apologise, blaming supply chain issues – I didn’t mind that the cakes were different at all, I just wanted to know what we had in front of us! He told us what each one was, and they were delicious – as was the cocktail that they gave us as a complementary treat and the extra portion of mille-feuilles as they said they were trying out a new recipe and asked for our opinion!

I would recommend afternoon tea at the Vicinity for the food, cocktails, service and view – and at £24.95 per person it’s not as expensive as some of the more lavish, luxurious London hotels, so it won’t blow the budget either.

Cherish Finden's Shiok - Expensive but worth it

Beautiful presentation, fantastic flavours but you will get a ‘shiok’ from the prices!

I had a £16 individual dessert in Bake Off Professionals star Cherish Finden’s new patisserie… and was it worth it? Find out what I thought of the Apple Tin below!

Cherish Finden is a celebrity chef known for her appearances as a judge on Great British Bake Off: The Professionals and as the pastry chef at London’s luxury Langham hotel. Her formidable demeanour combined with fabulous outfits and comments to the contestants that have launched countless memes have made her something of an icon, so when I read that she had opened a new patisserie just up the street from my office I decided to pay a visit.

Part of the Pan Pacific hotel but in a standalone building with its own entrance (so you don’t go into the hotel itself), Shiok! looks fairly unassuming from a distance, but as you get closer you can see rows and rows of perfectly formed sweet treats on the counter. There’s a seating area that gave off a peaceful, tranquil vibe - possibly because there was only one other couple in there on the weekday lunchtime when l visited. 

There are comfy chairs at the back and more formal hard chairs and little tables at the front, and the three staff hovering at the counter were friendly if a little intimidating - I watched one line up desserts in the display and check the distance between them with precision that the GBBO judges would have loved.

I spent some time admiring the display of treats, as much for their finesse and beauty as deciding which one I wanted to order. I have to admit having a bit of a ‘Shiok’ when I saw the price tags (this is not where the name comes from, and it apparently means ‘very tasty’, but perhaps it should be). Most of the patisserie was priced around the £15 mark and the one I chose was £16. Obviously aimed at the luxury market (I would say mainly tourists and business travellers) it is nonetheless an afternoon tea lover’s heaven. From traditional Singaporean biscuits to what looked like a chocolate tea pot, this is a feast for the eyes.

Cherish has revealed that the Apple Tin was inspired by her childhood where she would open a tin of lychees and eat them straight from the tin. Here, the tin itself is edible too- white chocolate printed with a design. Inside is caramel sponge, apple compote, apple slices and cinnamon crumble. Each mouthful was delicious, a perfect combination of flavours and textures, and at £16 it probably does scale up consistently from when you pay £50 for an afternoon tea for similar bite size patisserie (as the sandwiches and scones aren’t exactly the expensive part). Even do it was definitely a one off treat and not something I would spend that much on every week!

If you do get a chance to check out Shiok I recommend it - but don’t expect it to be cheap!

Review: Houghton Lodge and Gardens, Stockbridge, Hampshire

On a sunny day Houghton Lodge and Gardens in Stockbridge, Hampshire, is a beautiful place for afternoon tea, a wedding reception or simply a stroll around the gardens. It has an orangery, a manor house, various sections of gardens, a river running through the bottom and – this is the best part – a field with alpacas.

 

 

My husband and I considered Houghton Lodge as a wedding venue as it was in the right area and we were quite taken by the idea of the above – a former work colleague of mine got married in the church in the village and had his reception at Houghton Lodge in a marquee by the river and the photos looked lovely.

 

 

 

However, when we came to look around the venue and ask questions, we were rather underwhelmed about actually having it for our wedding. The orangery by the entrance and the attached conservatory looked to me like a garden centre café – albeit a nice one. As we didn’t want to get married in church, the only option for enough guests at Houghton Lodge was to hold the ceremony itself in the orangery, a long rectangular room that forms an L-shape with the conservatory.

 

What put me off was that we were told if we did this and hired the orangery for the ceremony, the conservatory would remain open to the public as the owners didn’t want to close the entire place for a wedding. That meant there would be complete strangers sitting literally just behind our guests watching our wedding which I thought was very strange! Admittedly this was nearly two years ago and perhaps things have changed so if you are considering getting married here then you should get in touch with the wedding coordinator and find out what they can offer.

 

 

The reason I mention this, though, despite it being two years ago is that I went back a couple of months ago for a friend’s birthday. She had chosen Houghton Lodge for afternoon tea, having never been here before and not realising I’d considered it as a wedding venue- I was looking forward to visiting and seeing the alpacas again.

 

As my husband and I arrived, I joked to him that we might find that there was a wedding happening while we had our afternoon tea – and there was! As we paid for entry to the gardens, the lady on the till told us there was a wedding party arriving in an hour and that part of the gardens would be shut but we could still access the rest of the grounds. It was actually a wedding reception so they wouldn’t be having a ceremony here and we had a table in the orangery set up for us to have afternoon tea, so I didn’t think we would be in the way.

 

I had a quick look around the top part of the gardens, which I think is the walled kitchen gardens, then went to sit inside and waited for my friends. There was a door from the orangery directly into the garden so I figured when they arrived we would go outside and enjoy the grounds.

 

I also tried out my macro lens after doing a macro photography lesson recently.

 

 

 

 

However, when the wedding party arrived this door was locked, meaning we had to stay in the orangery (watching the bride through the windows which must have been a little odd for her) and then if we wanted to go out, walk around the outside and down into the other gardens, which in my opinion aren’t anywhere near as pretty. In fact we headed towards the river and saw a marquee being set up for the reception and thought perhaps we shouldn’t walk through that part either, so went the other way and down to the alpacas instead. 

 

 

 

By the time some of my friends arrived the wedding party was already here, meaning they paid full price for entrance to the gardens on arrival only to find they couldn’t actually go into all of the gardens. It was also surprising that the cost of afternoon tea didn’t include entry into the gardens and we’d had to pay for that separately.

 

 

The afternoon tea itself was nice though nothing that special, and my friend had pre-ordered a vegan afternoon tea for one of our party which the caterers had completely forgotten about, and the only vegan item on the menu they could offer her was a vegetable soup.

 

 

We had a selection of sandwiches that were nice but fairly basic – ham, cucumber, cheese and smoked salmon followed by scones with cream and jam, and two or three types of cake – what I think was a lemon and pistachio savarin (a small ring-shaped cake) with icing, mini Victoria sponges and I think something else I can’t remember. I was a little underwhelmed, I suppose having had some amazing afternoon teas before, but it was nice enough (aside from the lack of promised vegan option).

 

 

 

 

 

You can spend quite a lot of time here exploring the gardens and walking by the riverside, and there are things to look out for around the gardens that would be fun for children (such as a dragon and a topiary peacock) but in my opinion it was a shame both for visitors that they can be charged admission then told parts of the garden are closed for a wedding, and also for the wedding party who have to put up with random members of the public walking around and watching them. Some people wouldn’t mind that as you can’t always expect exclusive hire of your wedding venue especially if you are in a hotel but given the size of the gardens I am surprised that they don’t just close them to the public, or at the very least warn people when they book afternoon tea that there is also a wedding booked. 

Afternoon Tea Greetings Card

I made this as a birthday card but it would work for any kind of greeting or even as an invitation to afternoon tea.

 

I had a set of 6x6 printed papers with different tea and cake motifs; on this one, the background pictures are quite large which limits what else I can put on the card as it would make the design too busy. I have some tea cup stickers I got from Paperchase that I have used several times before, and decided this would work in the centre of the card, mounted on a pink die-cut shape to create a distinction from the background.

Afternoon Tea at the Skylounge, Hilton Tower of London

Before I went away to get married and go on honeymoon, my colleagues surprised me with a lovely send-off by arranging a surprise afternoon tea at the Skylounge, the rooftop bar at the Doubletree Tower of London hotel. There’s seating both inside and out, with a great view over London from the 12^th floor of the hotel. It’s open for lunch or dinner or drinks in the evening (when there is sometimes a DJ), or you can have afternoon tea.
 

 

We had the champagne afternoon tea (£40, or £30 without champagne); I was expecting something quite traditional so was pleasantly surprised at a first course of sliders (mini burgers); everyone was served one each before the three-tier cake stand arrived.

 

The sandwiches were a mixture of sliced bread and mini rolls, with coronation chicken, cucumber and cream cheese, egg and watercress, poached salmon and horseradish.

 

 

The scones were nice and we had a debate about whether you should put jam or cream on first. But as I don't eat jam I just have the cream!

 

 

 The desserts were surprisingly large - the treacle tart was a proper slice, not a bite-sized morsel, and it was really good. There was a lovely light mousse - in a choice of two flavours - with a mini meringue on top, and a square of carrot cake, which I wasn't going to try because I felt I couldn't possibly eat any more, but was persuaded and was very glad I did!

This is not the best afternoon tea in London but it is very nice and the view is lovely - so I'd definitely recommend it for a summer's afternoon.

Review: Afternoon tea at Claridge's

  

I was very lucky recently to be treated to afternoon tea at Claridge’s as a pre-wedding family get-together: along with the Ritz, perhaps the most quintessential London hotel afternoon tea.

It was a surprise organised by my future mother-in-law: I knew we were going for afternoon tea, but not where. My parents were staying over the Easter weekend so my mum came while my fiancé entertained my dad; my sister came up by train for the day and we were also joined by my fiance’s aunt, cousin and sister-in-law (and briefly by his brother at the end as he was meeting his wife there for drinks!).

As we pulled up in the car just outside Claridges I was thrilled – I’d never been there before but always wanted to. We were a little early so sat in the bar enjoying a non-alcoholic cocktail – I was a bit shocked at the price of the alcoholic cocktails around the £20 mark and decided it wasn’t worth it!

Afternoon tea is held in the art deco foyer (though by foyer I would normally understand lobby, this was a room just off the lobby), Claridge’s china is a distinctive striped pale green and white so it’s not chintzy at all. The service was of course impeccable – I wouldn’t have expected any less.

We had a specially themed Easter afternoon tea – Claridge’s holds a few of these throughout the year, around events like Wimbledon and the Chelsea Flower Show. They don’t go for tacky themes but instead classic English events. What really surprised me though was the price: classic afternoon tea is £58, which is quite steep compared to other hotels (even more than the Ritz), or with a glass of champagne it’s £68. The special seasonal afternoon tea is £82 per person (with a 12.5% service charge added to your bill). That really has to be a one-off treat!

We started by selecting our teas; I’m not that adventurous and figured that if Claridge’s had a specially selected blend, they had put enough thought into it and I should trust their selection. I was also too busy talking to people and taking photos to read the extensive tea menu properly!

The traditional sandwiches arrived first with a mixture of fillings, including chicken and truffle mayonnaise, smoked salmon, ham and mustard, egg and watercress and cucumber (apparently with buttermilk and chamomile, but I didn't try this one). There was an additional treat nestling next to the sandwiches, which looked like a small biscuit -a Parmesan sable with cheddar, apple and walnut. The chicken sandwiches were probably my favourite, and we were offered a refill but I was already worried I wouldn’t be able to manage everything else!

As well as scones with jam and cream we had small hot cross buns. I'm not normally a fan of hot cross buns but these were very good and my mum was very impressed. I realised afterwards though that this was pretty much the only concession to Easter in the whole afternoon tea - Claridge's is too classy to do gimmicky desserts but it would have been nice to have something a bit Easter themed among the sweets and pastries!

For dessert we had four small morsels each, and of course I did try them all. The 'temptation', with chocolate sponge and dark chocolate ganache was rich but delicious, and the rhubarb and custard surprisingly good as I don't like rhubarb. It consisted of a layer of ginger and pistachio jaconde, a layer of vanilla custard and a layer of rhubarb jelly.

The Dulcey chocolate choux had a coffee sable and Maldon sea salt caramel- I was in heaven.

Finally the macaron, not in flavours I'm normally that keen on - blood orange and grapefruit marmalade - but it was excellent.

At the end, we were given a small simnel cake in a Claridge's box to take home, which luckily lasts a couple of months as I haven't actually tried mine yet!

What surprised me and I suppose slightly disappointed me was that the traditional afternoon tea is £58, or £68 with a glass of champagne, and the Easter themed tea with champagne is £82. As far as I can tell, the food is the same other than the hot cross buns and the simnel cake to take home, meaning you pay an extra £14 for those two things, which seems quite a lot. I'd be interested to see what they do for the other themed afternoon teas, such as Wimbledon (perhaps just an extra course of strawberries and cream) and the Chelsea Flower Show - edible flowers perhaps?

Overall afternoon tea at Claridge's is an amazing experience, and since it was also my 'hen do', one that I won't forget.

Afternoon Tea at Coworth Park, Ascot

 

 

I was trying to figure out why the view seemed familiar. Standing on the white-pillared terrace looking out across the gardens towards the polo tent in the distance, I knew I hadn’t been here before, so why did I recognise it? Then it hit me with a mixture of gratification and shame – I’d seen it on Made In Chelsea. I was standing where some of London’s finest toffs (you have to admit they are hysterical) had drunk champagne and watched the polo.

 

 

 

I don’t normally hang out in such illustrious places. We were at Coworth Park, Ascot – which is part of the Dorchester hotel group, and everything you might expect from that name. We were there for a 60^th birthday afternoon tea and it couldn’t have been better. The service was exemplary – our servers were just the right amount of chatty when it was clear we were celebrating (for instance recommending cocktails) but were also very polite and attentive in an unobtrusive way.

 

 

We arrived early and as it was a warm sunny day, sat outside on the terrace enjoying a cocktail. When we were ready for afternoon tea we moved into the conservatory, which we had all to ourselves, even though we were not a large group (four people).

 

 

This was a very traditional afternoon tea, with some modern touches but it wasn’t trying for novelty like some places do. We began with a selection of finger sandwiches – they brought a separate platter for the vegetarian in our group – and then moved on to the scones, which were very tasty but quite small. Strangely I decided that the scones we had at Esseborne Manor – where afternoon tea was far cheaper – were actually nicer!

 

 

The cakes were delicious and again fairly traditional with a twist. There was a red velvet cake with cream and a square of some kind of compressed strawberry (I’m trying to remember now if this was actually a piece of white chocolate with strawberry on top); mini raspberry tarts; mini lemon drizzle cake and a chocolate and coffee torte with a chocolate-covered coffee bean on top. There was a huge selection of teas as well. The crockery is so pretty as well, what do you think?

 

  

 

Afternoon tea at Coworth Park is priced at £29 per person – which is less than you pay in central London, but this hotel was outstanding and definitely worth coming to. With a glass of champagne it’s £42.50 which is somewhat pricier, and the cocktails we had beforehand weren’t cheap (around the £10 mark each I think) but they were amazing. The hotel is so beautiful that I couldn’t resist picking up a wedding leaflet on the way out… well, a girl can dream!