I wasn’t too sure what to expect from the afternoon tea, having had a breakfast here not long ago and being a little underwhelmed I just wasn’t sure. On top of that we had booked it in for 11am so this wasn’t exactly an afternoon but to tell you a little secret I prefer to have an afternoon tea around this time as firstly its cake time and secondly it ticks the lunch box.
The Garden centre here is lovely and I had a mooch about before everyone else arrived and managed to spend some money so I think its worth making time for a look around. There is also a food court which is well worth a visit. The restaurant area was nice, it was quite big actually with plenty of tables – we had to pre book the afternoon tea which is always good cos you know then that you won’t have any trouble getting in.
We let them know we were here by going up to the counter and they let us know which table we were at and asked what drinks we would like so 2 teas and a coffee didn’t take long to come out. Before long the food also arrived and I was impressed!!
So, we had chosen the sweet afternoon tea but they do also offer a savoury afternoon tea here which is definitely on our list to give a go! On our plates we each had 3 sliced french baguette’s topped with cheese & chutney, pesto chicken and prawns, quiche, a large scone with Tiptree jam and cream and a selection of cakes (chocolate coconut, lemon and carrot) alongside some fresh berries.
It was presented really well and I liked the fact the sandwiches were a bit different and also included a slice of quiche which is not something you would normally get, although our preference would have been to have this warmed. The scone was huge, very tasty although it would have been nicer served warm and it was a little dry.
I think we made a lot of people in the restaurant jealous of our choice as we had a lot of looks and a few comments around how nice it looked! It was lovely, good selection of sandwiches done a little differently with a lot of topping and flavour, great option of cakes all tasting great and the size of the scone certainly made me smile.
As this was a garden centre restaurant I do feel that often makes the area feel a little canteeny and you lose that cafe, tea room feel – it would perhaps have been nice to have a corner or area separated from the main restaurant for afternoon teas where the tables and area could be decorated slightly differently. The cost of the afternoon tea was £19.99 each which is a reasonable and competitive price.
I would give this a 6.5/10.
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