Tea for you and me

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

Tag Archives: cafe


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Sally Lunn’s

Sally Lunn’s House, 4 North Parade Passage, Bath, BA1 1NX.

Tea and tomato soup with a Sally Lunn bun at Sally Lunn's

Tea and tomato soup with a Sally Lunn bun at Sally Lunn's

Before we go any further, I would just like to say that this is the 100th review on this site. 100! We should all be very proud. I think it’s fitting that Sally Lunn’s is the 100th review as it is hundreds of years old. That’s a tenuous connection but it’s all I can think of. Let me know if you have a better one.

I would say that Sally Lunn’s is relatively famous for a tea room. It’s been around for hundreds of years and is famous for the type of bun that they serve, that Sally Lunn invented. It’s a cross between a bap and a brioche and tastes good. I have tasted the Sally Lunn bun before, when D very kindly bought me one last time we were in Bath. We didn’t have time to go in properly though.

This time my meeting finished with enough time for me to go and have lunch somewhere before I caught the train. I headed back to Sally Lunn’s to see if I could get a table. There was a queue which surprised me, but then I remembered it was half term, so not that surprising. The house is old and timbered and creaky with three floors, all with a room to eat in. I was on the top floor and it was full.

I was trying to be good and not eat cake for my lunch, which is what I usually do when I’m reviewing somewhere at lunchtime. It’s not as cheap as a cafe, so I picked a cheaper soup instead: tomato and basil. It was very good soup and the bun was good too. I could have done with more bun, but to be fair it does clearly state on the menu how much you would get with it so I should have just ordered extra. It’s a proper tea room, how do I know this? It had house blend tea and I was brought a pot of hot water without even asking.

Teapot? Yes, and the all important pot of hot water.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.68 for the tea, £4.58 for the soup.
Cake? Sally Lunn buns with cinnamon butter or chocolate butter or spreads etc, and cakes, and main meals.
Go again? Yes, I’d like to try a bun with something sweet on it.


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Eat Dirt

11 High Street, Maidenhead, SL6 1JP

Tea at Eat Dirt

This has to be one of the best names for a natural eating cafe ever. Eat Dirt has okay tea but gorgeous soups, jacket potatoes, baguettes, salads and lots more. I’d recommend eating lunch there. It’s warm and cosy and there’s always lots of staff so you don’t have to wait long.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.25 for a large tea.
Cake? Yes, and lunch food too.
Go again? Yes, their smoked salmon baguettes are divine.


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Lyttelton Café

National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX

Tea and cake at the Lyttelton Café

The Lyttelton Café is on the ground floor of the National Theatre and has lots of seats and space. We grabbed some tea and N and I got some cake to share and we all headed over to a spare table. We had just been wandering along the South Bank for no particular reason and got cold and decided some tea was a good idea.

There was a performance of something about to start and people started to mill around. Then, quite casually, DM nodded his head towards the other side of the room and said ‘There’s Alan Bennett’. We turned and it was true, there was Alan Bennett. Just walking along holding a picture frame wrapped in bubble wrap under his arm. We weren’t the only people to turn and stare but no one said anything to him or took photos of him, just watched him walk into a black door I assume was a stage entrance.

It’s not the first time I’ve seen someone famous whilst wandering round London, but it’s the first time I’ve felt the urge to jump up and rush over and just generally embarass myself by garbling compliments. I didn’t though. It’s Alan Bennett. You can’t just garble things at Alan Bennett.

After he’d gone we sat and talked about how much we liked Alan Bennett. A retrospective had been on TV recently so we had lots of things to say. Something that everyone said was, ‘He looked just like he does on TV’, which is a stupid thing to say, but true.

The tea was okay and the cake was nice if a bit odd. It was chocolate gluten free but seemed to have biscuit and apricot in it, nice but surprising. Really though I’d given up caring about the tea by then. I was still star struck.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No
Milk jug? Big one you helped yourself to.
Price? Around £5 for two teas and a piece of cake.
Cake? Yes, and cookies and sandwiches.
Go again? Yes, it’s in a handy place when wandering the South Bank and I saw Alan Bennett.


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La Baguette

7 Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1PJ.

Tea and jacket potatoes at La Baguette

La Baguette is a nice little cafe that seems to do most of its trade from take away baguettes at lunch time. You can also eat in and that’s what L and I did. We had a jacket potato and a mug of tea each. The service was good and the range of fillings was also good. I’d recommend it for a cheap light  lunch when in Reading town centre.

I’ve just looked up the website and apparently it’s also a B and B. I did not know that.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No
Milk jug? No.
Price? £2.75 for the jacket potato, £1.20 (?) for tea.
Cake? Some, mainly jackets or baguettes.
Go again? Yes, for the food not for the tea.


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Bettys Café Tea Rooms, York

6-8 St. Helen’s Square, York, YO1 8QP.

Tea at Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms, York

Ah, Bettys. Bettys is one of my very favourite tea rooms and I was a little perturbed that it wasn’t on the blog, especially as that meant I hadn’t got to go to one in over a year.

On New Year’s Eve we were all in York and just before they stopped letting people in, we went to Bettys. Bettys is popular and I have always had to queue to get in, but the queue does go down quickly and it’s worth the wait.

They are traditional and the waitresses have pinafores and the waiters have waistcoats. There is cake and then more cake. There are main meals and breakfast specials and ice cream sundaes and chocolate pancakes and on the day we went, four different types of mince pie. And the tea! The same company is also Taylors of Harrogate so they naturally have a very wide range of tea (and coffee, if you like that sort of thing). Taylors of Harrogate tea is gorgeous, if you are further south than Bettys and want to try some, try The teashop by the canal.

I had Christmas Spice Tea, that was spicy and orangey but made with a black tea also. Surprisingly it came out bright pink. R had China Rose Tea (my favourite), Mum had Bettys blend coffee, Dad had Bettys blend tea and S had Earl Grey. We also had food and yes, I did have the chocolate orange pancakes. They were scrummy.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes, Taylors of Harrogate.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £33 for 5 lots of tea and 4 lots of food.
Cake? Yes and afternoon tea and scones and main meals and sandwiches and ice cream and coffee.
Go again? Always.


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Warings Bakery

32d Church Street, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, RG4 8AU     0118 946 4749

Perfect mince pie and tea at Warings Bakery

Warings is a small chain of family bakeries based in Reading. They are also one of the few that still actually make the things they sell on the premises. A lot of other chains bake the products on the premises but they don’t make it there. It comes in from somewhere else and they just stick it in the oven. Warings does things properly and it smells good when you walk past, what more could you want?

I realised that it was almost halfway through December and I hadn’t yet had a mince pie. Warings seemed the place to get one so I went in. They had a choice of normal shortcrust pastry mince pies or Viennese style mince pies. I chose a Viennese style as it has crumbly pastry and they heated it up for me. It was my perfect first mince pie.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2.50 for tea and mince pie, I think.
Cake? Yes and soup, jacket potatoes etc.
Go again? Yes.


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Apostrophe

Westfield London, 1 Ariel Way, London, W12 7SH

Tea at Apostrophe

Apostrophe is one of a collection of cafes inside the Westfield shopping centre. In my opinion there are not enough cafe choices in Westfield, too many chains and all in the same places: clusters of cafes and people and then nothing for miles. It probably is miles too, Westfield is a scarily large shopping centre. Tea is needed when it’s time for a break.

Apostrophe is a chain of cafes in London and apparently their hot chocolate was recently voted the best in London by Time Out. I wouldn’t know about the I ordered tea as I’d seen people drinking pots of tea in the seating area. They had a choice of loose leaf tea and I picked Earl Grey Red Baron. The loose leaf tea was put in a big tea bag and dumped in a cup. Where was my tea pot? I was tired from shopping and couldn’t face asking for a pot so just stuck with my cup. It was very nice tea. The photo is not clear but there were flecks of red in the tea, hence the Red Baron presumably.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £5.20 for tea and a baguette.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? Yes, but I’ll ask for a pot next time and get someone to test the hot chocolate for me.


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Teashop by the canal – festive update!

The festive setting at The teashop by the canal

I’ve already sung the praises of The teashop by the canal but I thought I’d share with you a festive photo of my most recent visit. It was cold and raining but there was an armchair and a log fire, along with hot tea and sprigs of seasonal greenery on the tables. Heaven.


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Angel food bakery

20 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1HB

The range of cakes at Angel food bakery

Angel food bakery is another cup cake cafe. It seems they are popping up all over the place now, a few streets away there was another shop being fitted out that seemed to be called ‘Madame Cupcake’ though it wasn’t open yet. The Hummingbird Bakery is the first one I heard of, and the one that is mentioned in the press as being the originator of the cupcake craze, but I’ve not made it there yet. I have been to Sweet tooth cupcakery and preferred that to Angel food bakery because of the attention to tea and the atmosphere.

The Angel food bakery offered a range of cupcakes and had a steady stream of customers. It also had double height chocolate cake for sale. Or you could order your very own giant cupcake for a party, two were picked up in the 20 minutes I was there.

Red velvet cupcake and tea at Angel food bakery

I picked a ‘red velvet’ cupcake that looked good but I think was just a normal sponge mix with red food colouring and cream cheese or buttercream topping. I knew I’d heard of the ‘red velvet’ cupcake before, and thought that perhaps it was famous from being from Angel food bakery. I’ve just checked and it’s famous for being from The Hummingbird Bakery. I’m not that keen on the toppings and after eating the cupcake I did feel a bit sick, but otherwise it was very nice. I bought a blue topped one with stars on to take home to R, which he said was excellent.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £3.60 for tea and a red velvet cupcake.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? Yes, but I’ll try the double height chocolate cake next time.