Tea for you and me

Join me on my epic quest to find the best tea ever

Author Archives: tealeaves


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Waitrose Cafe, Newbury

Oxford Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1NB   (View on map)

Bear claw, pot of Earl Grey tea and Waitrose chocolate at Waitrose Cafe in Newbury

This Waitrose has a cafe and it serves proper pots of tea and some scrummy cake. I had a pot of Earl Grey tea and a Danish Fruit Bear Claw. All hot drinks come with a little Waitrose chocolate as well. I chose the Bear Claw as I’d heard it mentioned on American TV sitcoms and drama and wasn’t sure what it was. It appears to be named after the shape of the pastry, which sort of looks like a bear’s claw. If only they sold Twinkies and had Chinese takeaway in the little white cardboard pots, then my American food curiosity would be satisfied. It stays open almost as late as the store so can be a good place to go for a pot of tea with free parking and toilets when the other cafes in Newbury are closed.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, Waitrose Earl Grey.
Milk jug? Little one.
Price? £1.45 for tea and £1.30 for the bear claw.
Cake? Yes – danish pastries, cakes, cupcakes, muffins, chocolates and more.
Go again? Yes.


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The Petersham Hotel and Restaurant

Nightingale Lane, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6UZ   (View on map)

The view from our table at The Petersham

I had never been to The Petersham before, but my Mum had and she recommended it as somewhere to go for my Dad’s birthday. S, R, Mum, Dad and I all met at The Petersham in order to have some afternoon tea. The hotel was hotel-like with squishy carpets and a big piano and grand staircase in the entrance hall.

We were squashed on two small tables put next to each other, in a corner, in fact everyone who was there for afternoon tea was in a corner area of the restaurant, with diners finishing off their Sunday lunches in the main section of the restaurant. We ordered our afternoon tea and chose the tea we wanted. The tea came about ten minutes later and then we waited another 35 minutes for the afternoon tea food to arrive. As we had specifically booked for afternoon tea and had eaten lunch a long time ago in order to fit the afternoon tea in, we were not that impressed.

The fake snow at The Petersham

The tea was Twinings teabags but I still thought mine tasted a bit odd. R had three teabags and the rest of us had one, or rather, R had three teabag strings and tags hanging out of his pot and the rest of us only had one. Later we discovered that we all had three, but only R had had the strings and tags taken out of the pot for all three teabags – the rest of us had the string and tag still wrapped round two of our three teabags. By the time we realised what had happened the cardboard tags were disintigrating and bits were floating around in our tea – so no wonder it tasted odd. We didn’t complain as we couldn’t get anyone’s attention in order to complain, so just gave up.

The jam came in tiny pots and the service was very slow; on the plus side there was a fake snow flurry just outside the window at one point (to keep with the festive theme) and the food was good. My Mum has been during the week and says it was much better then, but overall we were disappointed with The Petersham.

Afternoon tea at The Petersham - note the tiny jam pots and differing numbers of teabag tags.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, Twinings teabags that hadn’t been unwound properly. Not nice.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £19.50 each.
Cake? Yes, pastries and cake and scones.
Go again? No.


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Nelson’s Diner

Kingsclere Service Station, A339 Newbury Road, Kingsclere, RG20 4TA   (View on map)

Tea and two milkshakes at Nelson's Diner

Nelson’s Diner is an American style diner, bizarrely situated next to a petrol station on an ‘A’ road in Hampshire. I say bizarrely, but now I think about it every American style diner I can remember seeing has been at the side of an ‘A’ road. Did anyone else ever go to ‘AJ’s Diner’ on the A1? Strange.

I had been chatting to J about wanting to go somewhere that served milkshakes in those steel tumblers and tall glasses as I always saw them on Neighbours. J said she knew just the place and a few weeks later we were having lunch at the small but perfectly American Nelson’s Diner.

Far too much food at Nelson's Diner.

We had a milkshake each and I also ordered a pot of tea as I wanted to see what it would be like. One of us had a strawberry milkshake and one of us had a ginger one, but I can’t honestly remember who had what. They were both really really good though – thick and in the right tumbler and glass combination. Also extrememly large – enough for two glasses full. Tea came in a pot so that was all okay.

The portions of food were large too and just thinking about the visit makes me feel a bit queasy. I admit that I ate far too much – hot dog and chips and milkshake and tea and pancakes and ice cream. I over indulged and felt sick for the rest of the day, but I would go back – just order less food.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, teabags.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.70 for the tea, £2.70 for the strawberry shake, £3.85 for the ginger shake, £7 for cheesy hot dog, £9.50 for a ‘Houston’ burger, £2.95 for onion rings and £4.85 for some very tasty pancakes.
Cake? Not really, more desert and American food. And lots of milkshakes.
Go again? Yes.


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The Chandos

29 St Martins Lane, London, WC2N 4ER   (View on map) 020 7836 1401

Tea with a doily at The Chandos.

The Chandos is a pub in Covent Garden that we went to when it was bitterly cold and a there was a tube strike on. We’d walked from St Pancras and were in need of some hot tea. Pubs can be tricky little things when it comes to tea, sometimes they’re great and sometimes they are rubbish. We went to the upstairs bar as there were no seats downstairs, lots of wood panelling and striped furniture. A good rule of thumb regarding the quality of pub tea is whether or not they serve food. The Chandos does serve food but had stopped serving by the time we got there, so we were taking a risk, but decided it was a risk worth taking.

The risk paid off. Tea for two came on a tray with a doily, milk jug, teapot, cups and saucers, teaspoons and all.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but nice teabags.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2.50 for tea for two.
Cake? No.
Go again? Yes.


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The Chocolate Teapot

4 Station Road, Esher, Surrey, KT10 8DY   (View on map)   020 8398 8866

The view from our table at The Chocolate Teapot (the window tables were taken when we arrived or we would naturally have nabbed one of those).

The Chocolate Teapot was recommended by a reader of the blog in September and it’s taken me a while to go visit but I have managed it.

The cafe is tucked away next to Esher train station and if you’re driving there you’ll need to park in one of the roads coming off Station Road. We headed over there on a Sunday for an early lunch and when we got there they were still serving breakfast (lunch doesn’t start until 1pm) which suited us fine.

The tables and chairs are nice and solid, with pretty tablecloths and flowers in vases. The china is patterned and a mix of different styles and colours and we all enjoyed seeing which teapot we got given. There were shelves high up on the wall with many different teapots on and while we were eating a couple brought in an unusual teapot for the owners to add to the collection on display in the tearoom.

A feast of tea and breakfast at The Chocolate Teapot.

There were a range of different teas available and a range of different breakfasts. Dad and S went for the full English and Mum and I went for the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. I haven’t made a note of which tea we chose but I seem to remember S and I had Lady Grey with Mum going for Darjeeling and Dad for English Breakfast. Apologies if I’m wrong.

The food was good and the tea was hot and kept on coming. We polished off all the breakfasts and then considered the cake. The Chocolate Teapot has one of my favourite things to see in any cafe or tearooms: a cake filled sideboard. It’s always a good sign as it gives you a range of cake and implies they are busy enough to get through all the cake on display without any trouble. There was a huge selection but we went for bakewell tart, chocolate fudge cake and apple cake (I think, obviously I was too excited by the eating and drinking at this cafe as I haven’t got my normal level of notes to refer to). All the cake was excellent, we were very happy.

Cake and tea at The Chocolate Teapot.

Teapot? Yes, lots of different pretty patterned ones.
Leaf tea? No, but good quality teabags.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.40 for speciality tea, £4.50 for smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, £5.95 for full English.
Cake? Yes, on the magical cake sideboard.
Go again? Yes, especially as they offer a basic afternoon tea for £5.95 and a larger version for £7.50.


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s&m

48 Brushfield Street, London, E1 6AG.

Checked tablecloth, tea, beer and juice at s&m.

Before we go any further, I’ll clarify that the ‘s’ and the ‘m’ here stand for sausage and mash respectively. s&m is a cafe opposite Spitalfields Market that sells, surprisingly, sausage and mash. Considering it names itself after sausage and mash I thought there was not a lot of choice of aforementioned sausages and mash, but never mind. The sausages were very tasty, but the mash was cold by the time we got it which was a bit of a shame.

The tea was okay, it was just a tea bag in a mug but they did give us a saucer for our dead teabags and a jug of milk as well, so not that bad. It did seem a tad pricey for just a mug of tea though: £1.80. It was a cafe that was made to look like an old fashioned ‘caff’, but it wasn’t really, so a bit odd from that point of view.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, a pyramid shaped teabag.
Milk jug? Yes, the menu also offered soya milk if you wanted it but they didn’t have any left when JF asked for some.
Price? £1.80 for the tea, £8.95 for three sausages and mash, £4.95 for a pudding.
Cake? No, but pudding.
Go again? No.


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Ponti’s

Unit 14, Liverpool Street Station, London, EC2M 7QH

Tea and a cappuccino in Ponti's

Ponti’s is a chain of ‘counter service’ restaurants that you normally see in train stations, shopping centres etc and I hadn’t been to one for ages but L and I wanted somewhere to wait as we were early. We bought a tea and a cappuccino and got two stamps on our loyalty card (which we were given without asking for it – impressive). As we were meeting a number of other people we came up with the cunning plan (so we thought) of getting everyone to use the same card and seeing if we could get a free drink by the end of the visit. It wasn’t to be, as when DM turned up and bought tea he was told he couldn’t get a stamp as it wasn’t coffee. This puzzled us as we’d already used it for tea once, but never mind, the coffee loyalty card is a mystical entity – sometimes you can use it for tea and coffee, sometimes you can’t; sometimes you can get anything for free when you’ve filled it, sometimes you’re not allowed hot chocolate or anything more exciting than a filter coffee or regular tea; sometimes you need five stamps, sometimes nine and sometimes seven.

Back to the point – the tea. The tea was okay. It had the diabolical tiny plastic pots of milk but it did come in a pot and it was hot. It had a Twinings Everyday teabag but I couldn’t taste that, it just tasted metallic, but it wasn’t awful. And only £1.30 which gave it many points in a cafe in a big train station.

Proud assertion of the filming of Mission Impossible inside Ponti's cafe.

I headed to the toilet after my pot of tea and had to go through the function room to get to it. There on the wall to my left a shiny brass plaque caught my eye: ‘The film MISSON IMPOSSIBLE starring Tom Cruise was filmed here on 29th July 1995’. This reads initially as if the whole film was filmed here and I’m pretty sure, though I admit to not seeing the film since it first came out, that it involved more locations than a train station cafe. I’m also not sure the bit with Tom Cruise in was the bit in this cafe, but perhaps I’m wrong. Anyone seen Mission Impossible recently and can remember this? Let me know. It did give me a buzz of star quality though and goes on my mental list of other celebrity tea encounters such as seeing David Walliams at Ladurée and drinking tea in Cafe Delicious while Kirsty and Phil were filming ‘Location, Location, Location’ a few shops down. Okay, so it goes on the bottom of my mental list, but it’s still on there.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but Twinings Everyday teabag.
Milk jug? No, tiny plastic pots.
Price? £1.30 for the tea, £2.10 for the cappuccino.
Cake? Not when we went, but then it was in the morning. Danish pastries and muffins etc.
Go again? Yes, nice and cheap and spacious for a train station.

 

 


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All I want for Christmas is…

There are some tea places that I hear about and mentally add to my wishlist of places to visit. Here are some of the tea places that I’d like to be able to get to soon (in addition to the lovely reader recommendations):

  • The Hummingbird Bakery – all American cupcakes and stuff with frosting, credited with bringing the cupcake obsession to the UK.
  • Bill’s Produce Store -we had some issues with scones when we first went; I’m hoping to do a re-visit soon.
  • TEA at Liberty’s – I attempted to get here ages ago and it was closed for a refurb.
  • Claridge’s – for afternoon tea, of course.
  • The Savoy – again, for afternoon tea.

Now I’m thinking about scones. And cream. And big pots of tea and tiers of good things. Ahh.

 


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More recommendations, hurrah!

I am shamefully behind with my posting on here, but there are such treats as an afternoon tea for £15 waiting to be posted about and I’ll get to them as soon as I can. (Update: this review is now done, read all about it here.)

I’ve had three (yes, count them again: one, two, three) recommendations since I lasted posted! This is an excellent new record for me.

Firstly, a recommendation for Stop the World in Leigh-on-Sea: ‘I thought you might be interested to know about my favourite cafe here in Leigh-on-Sea.  It’s called Stop The World and has an excellent selection of leaf tea – even a delicious decaf!!!, gorgeous food/brunch and a HUGE selection of homemade cakes and biscuits.  If you like your tea shops, this is a must try!’ I am definitely visiting this place when I can next get over that way, really looking forward to that one.

Secondly, one of you got in touch to say ‘I was watching Masterchef the professionals tonight and they did a dessert challenge in a hotel in London which apparently serves the best afternoon tea anywhere’. This was the Palm Court at the Langham, which won the Tea Guild’s ‘Top London Afternoon Tea 2010’ award. I have been before, with regular afternoon tea goers N, H and E, but that was almost four years ago now so the time probably has come to go again.

And last but not least, the final recommendation was for Sally Lunn’s in Bath. The comment was ‘Tea and a Sally Lunn’s bun with cream and jam. Amazing. Addictive.’ The 100th review on this site was for Sally Lunn’s but I had my bun with soup and this is obviously where my mistake was made. I’ll try to head back soon for the cream and jam version.

I hope to head to the recommendation from the previous post, The Chocolate Teapot, next weekend and will keep you updated.

If you want to recommend somewhere, please stick some info down on the form here.


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The Muffin Man Tea Shop

12 Wrights Lane, Kensington, London, W8 6TA

Tea, teacake and Queen Mother's cake at The Muffin Man Tea Shop.

Kensington can be an expensive place but A had been to a good tea shop that was affordable and thought we should try it. She couldn’t quite remember where it was but we did find it first time and so I was impressed (you have the luxury of the name and address, you lucky things).

The Muffin Man Tea Shop is a good solid tea rooms with proper food for not too much money. A had cauliflower soup (which she said was excellent) and I had ‘The Muffin Man’ which was a sandwich with bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo. We had a pot of tea for two that gave us a number of cups each and then finished the whole meal off with some cake. A had a toasted tea cake which she liked and I had the regal ‘Queen Mother’s cake’ – chocolate, dates and walnuts. Very rich and heavy, and probably not the most sensible choice after a big cookie and a large sandwich, but it was worth it.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes – The Muffin Man own blend – good and strong.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £5.60 for tea for two, sandwich was £3.70 and cake £2.80.
Cake? Yes and muffins and teacakes and sandwiches and soup and all sorts.
Go again? Yes – a little retreat from the hustle bustle of the main bit of Kensington.