Cost – £14.95 (July 2015)
Background – The Gonville Hotel is a medium sized hotel in the centre of Cambridge overlooking Parkers Piece. It has a pleasant garden area which unfortunately suffers slightly from traffic noise from the busy road outside. The hotel is near to the famous Fenners Cricket Ground.
Contents – 6 finger sandwiches (2 each of cucumber, egg mayonnaise and crab mayonnaise), 1 fruit scone and 1 plain scone, a small pot of strawberry jam, a small pot of clotted cream and a slice of pecan pie. pot of your choice of tea (refillable).
Comments – We were given a choice of where to eat; in the conservatory, in the restaurant or out in the garden. It was a lovely afternoon so we decided to sit in the garden. We were the only people out in the garden.
As usual the tea was served first in a large white teapot. Unusually the teabags were separate with just the hot water in the teapot.
The sandwiches were served on a wobbly two tier cake stand with rectangular white plates.
The scones and slice of pecan pie, plus the jam and cream were served on a second, identical (but even wobblier) cake stand.
The bread of the sandwiches was a bit dry but they were well filled. However, the crab mayonnaise sandwiches tasted dreadful! For the first time ever, neither of us could eat them. We did mention the problem to the waitresses but, whilst they listened to our complaint, they did nothing about it.
The scones were both good, tasty and fresh. However, we had to ask for both extra jam and clotted cream.
The slice of pecan pie was a reasonable size and tasted fine. However, I felt it was a very odd choice for the ‘cake’ section when it was the only item offered. It certainly would not be my personal choice of cake course.
The tea was made with teabags and we were offered a refill which we declined. The tea did get cold rather quickly as we were outside.
Service was not very good as we were left out in the garden on our own. We had to search for someone to speak to.
| Sandwiches | 0.5 |
| Scone | 2.0 |
| Jam | 1.0 |
| Cream | 1.0 |
| Cake (variety) | 0.5 |
| Cake (quality) | 1.0 |
| Tea | 1.5 |
| Presentation | 1.0 |
| Service | 1.0 |
| Value | 1.0 |
| Total | 10.5 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 