This doesn’t look like much from the outside but inside it’s small but perfectly formed and smells divine. The owner is a patisserie chef by trade and all the cakes, pastries and cookies are made by her. This is an up and coming road with many posh shops selling not quite useful things but this cafe does excellent tea with a homemade biscuit for only £1. A treat.
Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? No, milk put in with it.
Price? £1 for tea and biscuit.
Cake? Yes and many other lovely looking things.
Go again? Yes.
The view from the doorway of The Walk - look at the cake!
The Walk was the second stop on our tea tour of Nottingham and we weren’t disappointed. It has restaurant opening hours and opens for lunch onwards, on the Saturday we went we turned up 15 minutes after opening time and there was a queue. This cheered us no end – tea that causes queues must be good.
We didn’t have to queue for long, though had we wanted to sit outside we could have jumped the queue but we decided against it as it was a bit nippy.
Afternoon tea was on the menu but even we were tempted by the other things on there. Everything on the menu sounded excellent and the food on other tables smelt wonderful. I’d love to go back and eat more some other time.
There was no tea menu on the menu but we asked for our favourites and got them. We ordered an afternoon tea each which took a long time to arrive. We asked the waitress and she said they were putting the finishing touches to it. When it did arrive we understood why it had taken so long. Everything was fresh and tasted heavenly. The only problem is a familiar one – there were a range of cakes and pastries and none were the same. How to decide who gets what? How to decide what to eat if we’re not even sure what they are? In the end we took the honourable way of splitting every item into quarters and tasting each one. They were all lovely. My only negative point would be that the service was very slow, even drinks took a long time to arrive. It was very busy but perhaps more staff on a Saturday would be wise.
Afternoon tea at The Walk
Later we discovered that they will be introducing a tea menu and had tea sample boxes with vials of each type of tea to smell and choose from. We also spotted that the customers outside in the garden had blankets provided to keep out the chill. A momentary worry that we chose the wrong option was dispelled when we reassured ourselves our tea would have got cold if we had gone outside. On cue, a waitress came past with a tray of teapots in hand knitted tea cosies. Oh well, next time.
Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £15.95 for afternoon tea.
Cake? Yes, so much of it!
Go again? Yes.
It was that time again and E, H, N and I were off to try tea. We had picked Nottingham as we hadn’t tried that way for tea before and had done some online hunting that had yielded two potential tea places. The first was Lee Rosy’s Tea.
It’s not in the main shopping area, but instead a little way away oppostite the Broadway Cinema. We rounded the corner and spied the shop and it was just the kind of place I had been hoping it would be. Free wifi, a cosy atmosphere, adverts for book groups and knitting groups and so many different types of tea. I wished it could be nearer where I lived so I could go there more often.
I chose (after much deliberation) a pot of Darjeeling Puttabong which I’d never heard of before. We had the choice of a mug or a pot and I chose a pot thinking that it would give me more tea and it did, but it gave me too much tea! I never thought I’d say that but it had at least three mugs worth and I couldn’t finish it. It’s hard for me to admit that but there, it’s out in the open now.
Tea and a cappucino at Lee Rosy's Tea
The Darjeeling Puttabong was good and so was E’s Jade Oolong. N had English Breakfast which he said was nice and H had an ‘all right’ cappucino. A good find and worth a visit.
Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes, a very large milk jug, just how we like it.
Price? £2.50 for a pot of tea.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? No.
Village Life, Old Shire Horse Centre, Bath Road (A4), Littlewick Green, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 3QA
Tea and cake at The Stables Cafe
I’d driven past Village Life a couple of times before it clicked that it wasn’t an advert for a way of living but actually a collection of shops calling itself Village Life. It’s a strange idea of village life as the shops there wouldn’t be very useful in a village, for example: a gift shop, an expensive craft shop, a shop selling only Christmas decorations. The cafe was the only place with any people in it when I went and it had a selection of food and cake on offer. The cake was a nice fruit cake and the tea was hot. It’s a useful place to stop if you’re on the A4 and need a break and a cup of tea. The petting farm might be worth a visit if you have children but otherwise the other attractions don’t hold much attraction.
Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.60 for tea and £2.75 for cake.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? No.
It also offers a discount if you’re a Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Advantage card holder.
The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD
View from our table
Theatres and concert halls tend to have bars where you can buy tea. It’s a useful tip if you want to go somewhere quiet and a bit different. The Royal Opera House Amphitheatre Bar is open during the day for food and drinks and we headed inside to see if they had tea.
They had a range of cake, including macaroons and strange white bricks. We guessed cheesecake but when we asked the barstaff it turned out to be a giant marshmallow. Well, we thought, this doesn’t happen every day, we’ll share one.
It was minty. A big fat peppermint marshmallow. We tried to cut it in half but it sprang back at us and wouldn’t be cut. So I ate half and then my Mum ate the rest. Very strange and didn’t go well with tea. Worth trying, anyway.
Giant marshmallow and teabag tea.
The tea was a teabag in a cup job, even though it said a pot on the menu. I was disappointed. Nice view of the bar below though.
Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2 I think.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? No.
From the outside this place looked like just our cup of tea (sorry, I can’t help it). Inside it also looked good, but then the tea came and all was lost. We got a tea pot, excellent! But we got tea bags on the side. Why? Why give us a pot of hot water and not put the tea bags in? What’s the point? Perhaps if you like your tea not very strong that makes sense, but surely they could ask you if you wanted them on the side? And it wasn’t a very big pot for two people.
They mentioned chocolate soup on the menu though and the cakes looked good. Someone go and try the soup and let me know if it’s better than the tea.
Lakeland Windermere, Alexandra Buildings, LA23 1BQ
Tea, scone and soup in Lakeland Windermere
I am a recovering Lakeland mail order addict. When things weren’t going well I would flick through the catalogue, then order online and be happy. The big cardboard box would arrive with all my treats and usually the free gift for spending over a certain amount. In my mail order catalogues there would normally be something at the back about their flagship store in Windermere that stocked everything and had a cafe. When we were in Windermere and I realised how near the fabled flagship store was I got very excited.
I had to stop the mail order habit as it was costing too much and the stuff I bought was taking up too much room. I moved house and never told them where I moved to so the catalogues wouldn’t follow me. I severed my ties with Lakeland. We went to the Lakeland store and it was big and shiny and marvellous. Fountains outside, free internet inside, TVs advertising Lakeland and the Lake District not only in the toilets but also in the toilet cubicles, I was impressed. I decided that the only way to avoid spending all my money was to not look round the shop at all. I walked through it all and up the stairs to the First Floor Cafe. I held firm. I was strong.
The cafe was waitress service which is a nice unusual touch in a store cafe and had a full menu. I had tea and a scone and R had tea and soup. It was a nice setting and the food and tea was okay. If you’ve never been to a Lakeland shop then go here and experience it at it’s best, with the added bonus of tea.
Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but jug of hot water came without asking.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £9.25 for scone, tea for two and soup. Bog standard tea was £1.45 and special (Earl Grey) was £1.55.
Cake? Yes, some. My scone came with tiddly pot of jam.
Go again? No, it was too hard to walk through the shop and not look.
After our very sickly but excellent Princess Cake at Bergs Konditori we went for a walk round the island. It was beautiful but a bit nippy and began to rain. Walking round the corner of a house we saw a hotel that looked like it might have tea and a cake or something.
There was no cake but there was a Smörgåsboard (buffet style meal) with six different types of herring, so we had that and I had some tea. Herring was good. Tea was disappointing as another mug of hot water plus tea bags, but good in that the water was hot, they offered a refill and a pot of honey too.
View from our table
Amazing view too. Peaceful and perfect end to a brilliant island day.
Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, but hot water.
Milk jug? No, but pot of honey.
Price? 220 krona for 1 tea, 1 latte and two meals.
Cake? Pickled herring, anyone?
Go again? Yes, but for the herring, not the tea.
Hamngatan 9, 44030 Marstrand, Västra Götland, Sweden.
A view of the cake from inside the cafe
Marstrand is an island, one of the many islands that edge Sweden. It’s very near to the mainland but we still caught a ferry to get there. It’s beautiful. The coastline is very different from the UK as there is no craggy rocks, everything is smooth and round and looks like it should be soft.
Our hostess had talked about ‘Princess Cake’ which is a traditional Swedish cake. It has layers of cake, custard and cream with bright green marzipan on top. Not sure why it’s called Princess Cake but my Mum and I had to try some before we left Sweden. We were headed to Marstrand and our hostess told us that we could find Princess Cake at Bergs Konditori, which is why we sought it out. It was indeed there, though it had an unexpected layer of jam, which apparently a new trend and means it should be called something else which I’ve forgotten, not Princess Cake.
A view of the sea from outside the cafe
The cafe had outside seating but it was all full when we went in, so my first photo above is of the inside. I’ve put it on here so you can see the green-ness of the interior which I think reflects the cake well. After we ordered one of the tables became free so we moved outside. One of the trends in Sweden which I loved was that they loved sitting outside. The cold was not a problem, almost all of the cafes had piles of blankets by the door so you could wrap yourself up. My Mum and I sat on the bench looking at the view with fleece blankets over our knees.
The cake was superb, a bit like trifle in an odd way, but very light and creamy. We would call it a gateaux here. I ate mine and then felt sick, but it was so worth it. The tea was the worst I had while in Sweden. The tea was loose leaf and in an egg thing, but the water was in a coffee pot on a hob and wasn’t boiling. Was stewed and flat and ugh. Not good.
Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? Yes but horrid warm water.
Milk jug? No.
Price? 107 krona for 2 pieces of Princess cake, one tea and one coffee.
Cake? Yes, and buns and biscuits and anything else you can think of.
Go again? To the island but maybe not to this cafe.
My favourite museum in the whole world (bearing in mind that I haven’t visited many outside of England) is the V&A museum in London. It’s a museum of design and has a wide range of collections from hats to wrought iron. When I read in my tourist information booklet that there was a design museum in Göteborg I had to go visit.
The Röhsska Museet had some things in English and one of the first things the English stuff said was that it was modelled on the V&A. I felt at home right away. It’s a great museum and if you’re ever in Göteborg you should go.
The tea was hot and in a glass again, with a tea egg thing. The cafe was long and large with wallpaper hung from the ceiling and pop art with two faces on that I don’t know but that were on books and magazines while I was in Sweden. A prize for anyone that can tell me!
Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? Yes, in one of those egg things.
Milk jug? No milk with this tea.
Price? 22 krona.
Cake? Not that much but some.
Go again? Yes.
Tea for you and me 