Cost – £19.95 (Aug 2018)
Parking and Access – The hotel has a large car park with direct access to reception and a flight of stairs leading up to The View Restaurant. There is a lift available which serves the restaurant and the hotel rooms. Toilets are available near the entrance to the restaurant with no steps to negotiate.
Background – This Afternoon Tea was another of my internet search finds. We wanted a Tea that was not too far away but that sounded interesting. All Saints Hotel located in Fornham St Genevieve, just outside Bury St Edmunds filled our needs.
The hotel has its own golf course and a spa. The restaurant is located on the upper floor and has views over the golf course behind the hotel, which gives it a very pleasant outlook.
The restaurant is not too large and was laid out nicely.
This Afternoon Tea needs to be booked in advance and payment is required on booking.
Contents – Six finger sandwiches each (three of each between two of ham with tomato, smoked salmon, egg mayonnaise with lettuce and tuna mayonnaise with cucumber) plus four cheese straws. One small fruit scone and one small plain scone, a small pot of strawberry jam and a small pot of clotted cream. A lavender macaroon, a cube of slated caramel chocolate brownie, a small strawberry delice, a shot glass containing lemon and basil jelly, a mini passion fruit curd tartlette, a cube of summer pudding and a cub of cheesecake. A pot of tea.
Options Available – There were no options available.
Comments – We arrived at the restaurant to be shown to our reserved table. There were only two other tables in use but we were placed right next to a family with children. However, we did have views out over the new outside terrace to the golf course beyond. Unfortunately, it was a little too windy to sit outside on the terrace.
The table was set ready for us with white rectangular plates, linen napkins and a knife and fork.
The English breakfast tea arrived quite quickly in a large white teapot along with a jug of milk. The tea was rather strong so we poured a teacupful each and asked for the pot to be topped up with just boiling water. The tea was made with teabags.
We also asked for some tap water and were given a carafe full of iced water.
The rest of the Afternoon Tea arrived a little while later on a three-tier metal stand with round white plates.
There were six sandwiches each. However, there were three of each filling between the two of us so we cut one of each in half and had one and a half sandwiches with each filling. The sandwiches were all well filled and fresh. There was a mix of brown and white bread, with a particularly nice brown bread used. We had asked for our ham sandwiches to be made without mustard and this was provided with no problem. There were also four cheese straws each which were really good!
The scones were fairly small but there were two each, one plain and one fruit. They were freshly made. There was plenty of strawberry jam and enough clotted cream. We had thought there didn’t appear to be enough cream so we were fairly mean with it on our first scones, resulting in our second scones being well covered when we realised there had actually been enough in the first place!
All of the cake layer looked locally made. The macaroon was flavoured with rather too much lavender for both of us and the lemon and basil jelly tasted strongly of basil with no discernible lemon flavour. We had to use the teaspoons provided for our tea to eat the jelly as no other implement was provided. The filling in the little tartlette was delicious but the tartlette pastry was quite strongly cheesy! Unfortunately, by the time we came to eat them, the two strawberry delice had completely collapsed and were very difficult to retrieve from the cake stand!
However, the remaining items were all really good, with the summer pudding and the brownie being our favourites.
The service was adequate, starting quite attentively until the Tea arrived, then disappearing for the rest of the time we were there. Luckily, we didn’t require a further teapot refill and we had been asked to pay on booking. So we had no need to go looking for anyone.
| Savoury | 1.5 |
| Scone | 1.5 |
| Jam | 1.5 |
| Cream | 1.5 |
| Cake (variety) | 2.0 |
| Cake (quality) | 1.0 |
| Drink | 1.0 |
| Presentation | 1.5 |
| Service | 1.0 |
| Value | 1.5 |
| Total | 14.0 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 