Cost – £19.50 (Mar 2020)
Parking and Access – The hotel has a small car park beside it. There is also parking outside on the street beside the harbour, which is free for three hours. The entrance to both the hotel and the restaurant is level. There are toilets which are also on the level but are a little confusing to find.
Background – The harbour area of Ipswich is a real up and coming area. There are many new buildings containing apartments overlooking the water and the boats, plus a few modern buildings containing parts of the University of Suffolk. Intermingled with the new, there are also some lovely old harbour buildings that have been renovated and given new uses. One of these buildings, an old warehouse, has been converted into the Salthouse Harbour Hotel. It has been extended with a modern building joining on to the original warehouse.
The restaurant is in the original warehouse building.
The Salthouse Harbour Hotel is a sister hotel to the Angel Hotel in Bury St Edmunds.
Contents – Two rectangular sandwiches (ham with mustard, egg mayonnaise), a very small half roll with smoked salmon and cream cheese, a small piece of sausage roll and a small medium sized cheese scone with sun-dried tomato in cream cheese in it. A small plain scone, a mini Tiptree jar of strawberry jam, and a dish of clotted cream. A small Battenburg, a lemon macaroon, a small cube of carrot cake, a micro éclair and a small piece of chocolate cake. Pot of your choice of tea.
Options Available – There is also a kids Afternoon Tea available. The tea is also available with a glass of champagne as a Luxury Afternoon Tea.
Comments – The entrance to the restaurant is right opposite the entrance to the hotel. We were met at the entrance and were shown to a table next to the side window of the hotel. The whole room was full with many people having Afternoon Tea.
The table was laid with pretty pink and white crockery, a full-sized knife and fork, a linen napkin and a glass each. There were menus on top of the napkins.
The waitress arrived immediately and explained how the Tea worked. She then asked for our choice of tea and whether we would like some water. We both chose English Breakfast from the choice of nine teas on the menu. We also asked for some water. She then removed the menus from the table.
Both the tea and the water arrived quickly. The water was in a small carafe and had both ice and lemon in it.
The tea was in individual teapots with the loose-leaf tea held in a cage within the pot. The milk was in a small white jug between us. The tea was rather strong, so we both asked for a top up of just water when we had emptied the pots a bit.
Unfortunately, we then had to wait another twenty minutes before the Afternoon Tea arrived on a copper metal three-tiered cake stand with round black plates.
The savoury part of the Tea was unusual in that there were only two sandwiches. These were both very well filled, freshly made and tasty. We had asked for our ham sandwich to be without mustard and this is what we received. The ham was plentiful and was thick cut. Both of our sandwiches were made with white bread.
Other savoury items included a small round open sandwich of smoked salmon and cream cheese on a piece of roll and a piece of delicious sausage roll. Finally, we had a cheese scone ready spread with cream cheese with sun dried tomato in it. The scone was tasty, with lots of cheese on it. Both the sausage roll and the scone had been warmed up.
The sweet scone was small and plain and had been warmed up. We had to ask for a second pot of jam, which was provided. There was just about enough clotted cream. However, the cream was rather too stiff to spread!! The scone was very good. It was just too small!
Finally, the sweet part of the Afternoon Tea contained five different items. Unfortunately, they were all very small!
The best things were the homemade lemon macaroon, which was sticky and actually tasted lemony. And the chocolate cake, which was moist and delicious with a chocolate topping, but was far too small!!
Service was variable. It was reasonably attentive to start with, then the staff seemed to disappear, despite the room still being half full.
| Savoury | 1.5 |
| 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 | 14.0 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 