Cost – £14.95 (Sept 2016)
Background – This was the second Afternoon Tea we tried whilst on our trip to the Southwold area. This time we stayed in the village of Thorpeness which is just along the coast from Southwold.
Thorpeness is a fascinating village that was originally built as a holiday village. The buildings are lovely and very interesting. There is a large boating lake and a pub. There is also the Hotel and Golf Club which is reached by walking along the road that backs on to the boating lake.
We had booked ahead for the Tea. On arrival we went through to the bar area which was covered in lists of past golf captains and winners etc.. We were then given a choice of where to eat our Tea. We chose an area away from the bar with comfortable seats and a large low table.
Contents – 3 finger sandwiches each (egg mayonnaise with tomato, beef with rocket and cheese with pickle), a piece of ciabatta topped with smoked salmon and cucumber. A large square fruit scone, a small dish of strawberry jam and a small dish of clotted cream. A small cube of chocolate Brownie, a small cube of cheesecake, a slither of lemon tart (1/6 of a small tart!!) and a raspberry cup thing topped with cream. The tea was made with tea bags.
Comments – There were six of us eating together for this tea. We were sat in a side area of the hotel away from the bar area, with pretty views out.
First of all the tea arrived along with the cold drinks that we had also ordered. The rest of the Afternoon Tea then arrived after a while. The sandwiches, cakes, scones and jam for three people was on one three-tier cake stand with round white plates. There were two of these between the six of us. Then another three-tier stand arrived with the raspberry cups, pots of cream and the ciabatta on for all six of us!
The sandwiches were adequately filled and there was plenty of salmon on the ciabatta. There was a mix of brown and white breads plus the ciabatta adding a nice bit of variety.
The scone was large, fresh and warm. There was nowhere near enough jam but there was an adequate amount of clotted cream. One of our party doesn’t like cream (!!) so we asked for some butter for her scone, which was provided.
Unfortunately, we felt the cakes were a little too small. Which was a shame as they were nice. The slither of lemon tart, which was very tasty, was ridiculously small. The raspberry cup, which was in one of the dreaded shot glasses, was interesting and flavoursome but was topped with (and I can’t believe I am actually writing this) too much clotted cream!! In fact we used some of the cream topping on our scones!
The tea was of a good strength but we didn’t ask to have the pot refilled as we all had a cold drink as well.
The service was very pleasant but a little slow.
| Sandwiches | 2.0 |
| Scone | 1.5 |
| Jam | 1.0 |
| Cream | 1.5 |
| Cake (variety) | 1.5 |
| Cake (quality) | 1.0 |
| Tea | 1.5 |
| Presentation | 1.5 |
| Service | 1.5 |
| Value | 1.5 |
| Total | 14.5 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 