Tea for you and me

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

Tag Archives: Maidenhead


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Boulters Restaurant and Bar

Boulters Lock Island, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 8PE

The tea and the stunning view of the river.

Boulters Restaurant and Bar doesn’t seem to think we need an apostrophe for ‘Boulters Lock’ and so I haven’t put one in, but I feel there needs to be one. Confusingly, the River Thames website sometimes uses one and sometimes doesn’t; I’ll stick to using one when talking about the place and not using one when referring to the bar and restaurant.

Anyway, confusing apostrophe use aside, the river looks beautiful here and the view from the balcony of the bar is stunning. We were lucky enough to have a sunny day with blue skies and to get the last table on the balcony for lunch.

This is not the cheapest place to eat or drink but the terrace bar is much cheaper than the brasserie downstairs. We had a chicken ceasar ciabatta which sounds odd, but was very good and not too dry. The tea was over £2 and yet still didn’t come in a pot, which was disappointing, but the tea bag used was a good one.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2.05 for tea, £7ish for the sandwich.
Cake? Puddings and scones rather than cake.
Go again? Yes, as the view is stunning.


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Forno

126 High Street, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1PT   01628 670051

Tea, ciabatta and tea cake at Forno

We were looking for somewhere to drink tea and get lunch that I hadn’t already stuck on the blog and Forno had the dubious honour of being the first place we came to that fitted the criteria.

It all turned out okay though as Forno is an Italian restaurant that has a good choice of things that could be eaten for lunch. There is a list of fillings and then a choice of bread, ciabatta or jacket potato to have them with. I plumped for the tea cakes and was pleasantly surprised when they arrived and turned out not to be hot cross buns. (You’d be surprised at the number of times I have been served hot cross buns when I’ve ordered tea cakes.)

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.50 for a pot.
Cake? Not really, some deserts, some muffins listed (but sat on the counter in plastic packets so I didn’t order any), teacakes and the usual Italian restaurant fare.
Go again? Not for tea, there are other places in Maidenhead I’d prefer, but would come back for lunch or for an evening meal.


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French and Fresh Bakery

No. 2 The Colonnade, High Street, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1QL.

Tea at French and Fresh Bakery

The French and Fresh Bakery always smells gorgeous when I walk past as they bake everything on the premises and bread cooking is a heavenly smell. The sign above the door says it’s a Boulangerie and Patisserie and it certainly smells like one. Inside there are rows of bread and tarts, cakes, quiches, pizza slices. The cakes and tarts start at around £3 and a baguette to eat in is £4, so I just stuck with my tea.

A pot of tea to drink in was £2 but the tea pot was relatively big  (the cup was huge, making the tea pot in the photo look all tiny, but that’s just a trick of the cup, I promise you) and it was a satisfying and relaxing tea drinking session.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, Twinings tea bag.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2 for a pot.
Cake? Lots of good complicated cakes, tarts, quiches, salads, etc and biscuits in tins as well.
Go again? Yes.


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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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Bridge that gap cafe

Customer Service Centre, Town Hall, St Ives Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1RF

Tea in an excellent teapot at Bridge that gap cafe

Bridge that gap cafe is in the Town Hall and has a good range of lunch food to eat in or take away and of course, tea. It’s run by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and staffed partly with people with learning disabilities. I had a jacket potato with cheese and it came with salad as  well, very good.

The tea pot was very impressive and from Whittards if I’m not mistaken as I have matching plates. Worth a visit if you need somewhere for a pot of tea at a reasonable price. And though the pot looks small it had a rounded bottom so is normal teapot size really.

Teapot? Yes and an excellent one at that.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? About £1.50 for a pot of tea.
Cake? Not much, some biscuits etc.
Go again? Yes.


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The Stables Cafe

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.


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Cafe five

5 King Street, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1DZ.  01628 622286

Cream tea at Cafe five, note the toasted scones

Cream tea at Cafe five, note the toasted scones

Cafe five is a small cafe and was the first independent cafe I came across when walking back down the main street. They had tea and fried stuff but had run out of danish pastries. The waiter noticed my crestfallen expression and offered me a cream tea instead. I accepted happily.

The cream tea was well presented and tasted very good. The scones came toasted and my first thought was that they were stale and they had been toasted to hide this, but they tasted fine. I actually quite enjoyed the hot scone with the cream and jam. The staff were friendly and I was also offered hot water to refresh my tea after I had drunk the pot.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £5 ish I think.
Cake? No, but cream tea.
Go again? Yes, but perhaps not if I fancy something sweet to eat.