Cost – £12.50 (Sept 2016)
Background – We were visiting the Southwold area to celebrate a significant birthday for one of our family. We had a large holiday home in nearby Thorpeness for eight of us. As usual, I was straight onto the internet to research possible Afternoon Teas to try out in the area. I found several. One that looked interesting was available at the boating lake café in Southwold.
The café at the boating lake is in a small building behind the small square pond that is the children’s boating lake. Behind the main building there was a sort of conservatory area which looked out on to an area with streams and tall reeds. It was a lovely view.
Unfortunately, having booked our tea in advance, we discovered that the advertised Afternoon Tea did not include any cake! However, we enjoyed the tea very much and all felt it should still be included here as it was nearly a Tea. My scoring system means that the Tea has quite a low score as a result as four points are allocated to the cake section.
There were four of us having this Afternoon Tea.
Contents – 4 finger sandwiches each (your choice from egg mayonnaise, ham, tuna or cheese), a small mixed salad and some ready salted crisps. A very large scone (your choice from fruit or plain), a mini Tiptree jar of strawberry jam and a small dish of clotted cream. The tea was made with tea bags.
Comments – This was a very unusual Afternoon Tea in that there were no cakes!! However, it was advertised as an Afternoon Tea so I have included it in my reviews.
We chose to sit in a small conservatory like area to the back of the café, the front of which overlooks the Southwold Boating Lake.
The tea arrived in a large pretty china teapot. The rest of the Afternoon Tea then arrived on a three-tier spindle cake stand with round patterned plates. The china was all mismatched vintage type patterned china.
We had to choose the fillings for our sandwiches from a list of four. I chose egg mayonnaise. The fillings were very generous and the sandwiches freshly made on ordering. They were accompanied with a small amount of salad and a handful of crisps.
We were also given the option of fruit or plain scones. I chose the fruit scone. It was very big indeed! The mini jam jar wasn’t really enough to cover it adequately but there was enough cream.
Sadly there were no cakes, despite the café selling some very tasty looking cakes and slices.
The tea was quite strong and we asked for, and received, a refill.
The service was friendly and quite quick.
| Sandwiches | 1.5 |
| Scone | 2.0 |
| Jam | 1.0 |
| Cream | 1.5 |
| Cake (variety) | 0.0 |
| Cake (quality) | 0.0 |
| Tea | 1.0 |
| Presentation | 1.5 |
| Service | 1.5 |
| Value | 1.5 |
| Total | 11.5 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 