Cost – £9.95 (Special Offer, Oct 2015)
Background – The Parkside Hotel, Woughton on the Green is in an old, pre-existing area of Milton Keynes. The hotel is currently owned by Mercure. It has been the scene of many family gatherings for my family over the years as some of my family live in the area. However, we had never tried their afternoon tea.
On this occasion we were able to make use of a special offer which gave us a reduced price. There were four of us eating the tea.
Contents – 6 finger sandwiches each (beef, ham, egg mayonnaise, cheese and pickle, salmon and cream cheese, cucumber). 1 fruit scone, a bowl each of strawberry jam and of clotted cream. Two small pieces of each of chocolate brownie, mini Victoria sponge, carrot cake and lemon drizzle cake each(!) plus 2 assorted macaroons. Tea was loose but was contained in a cage in the teapots.
Comments – We were sat at a large table (there were four of us) just off the bar area. The table was laid with a linen cloth and white china.
First we were brought two round stainless steel and glass teapots with 2 small jugs of milk.
The sandwiches for all of us arrived on a large square white plate all mixed together. Some on white bread and some on brown. They were fresh and tasty and generally well filled.
The cakes were brought out at the same time as the sandwiches on two large two tier white china cake stands. We were surprised at the amount of cake but still managed to eat it all as the pieces were all quite small!! The cakes were all fresh and moist. Very tasty. My only problem was that the cakes were brought before the scones. I generally prefer to eat the scones before finishing with the cakes.
When we had finished the cakes and sandwiches, the scones arrived on a rectangular white china plate. The scones were of medium size and were fresh and well cooked. There was plenty of strawberry jam and, unusually there was so much clotted cream that we didn’t manage to finish it all – a very rare occurrence!!
There was a wide choice of teas to choose from. However, the tea was a little on the weak side but was hot. There was plenty enough in the teapots for two plus cups each. We were offered a refill.
| Sandwiches | 2.0 |
| Scone | 1.5 |
| Jam | 1.5 |
| Cream | 2.0 |
| Cake (variety) | 2.0 |
| Cake (quality) | 2.0 |
| Tea | 1.5 |
| Presentation | 1.5 |
| Service | 1.5 |
| Value | 1.5 |
| Total | 17.0 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 