Afternoon tea is a rip off largely aimed at ripping women off

Iv done one super posh one with my best friend. So worth the money. It was a lively experience and they boxed up everything for you to take home. We had enough cake for a week

Which way round was it, the right way or the Devon way?

Is it true that in Devon it's cream then jam, the jam hiding the inferiority of Devon cream?

I like doing my own as then I can serve more savoury and hot food with cold drinks and then serve cakes, scones and puddings with freshly made tea. You can always finish off with gin or cocktails, too. I find the ones you go out for twee, overpriced and disappointing. The ratio of savoury to sweet food is always off, some of the savoury food just tastes weird with hot tea, and the tea gets cold and stewed by the time you get to eating the sweet stuff you want to drink it with.

One of my fav memories of when my girls were younger is taking them for tea at The Dorchester.
Yes it was expensive but they loved it.
We had our own waiter that told us that Brad and Angelina had stayed the previous week and they were agog.
The beauty of the place and the flowers etc was just amazing.
So yabu op. You aren't just paying for sandwiches are you?

I imagine it varies a lot depending on where you are? I personally have had afternoon tea on counted special occasions with family and while it has not been cheap, nowhere near £50 pp (more like 26 if I remember well) and it has been good value for money because the amount of food has been insane, a mix of savory and sweet and also we have taken leftovers in a box. And I am talking of different venues each time but same area (not London or somewhere very expensive). Oh and we had to prebook and pay i advance so they can bet it all ready, prepare it in the tiered plates and all that. I think it is nice as an occasional treat and not aimed at women in particular.

Afternoon tea is a thing because it fills the gap between lunch and dinner traffic for the venue 🤷‍♀️

Went a couple of months ago.
It's dearer now - about £40 a head.
The sandwiches initially brought out was the equivalent of 2 slices of bread per person, cut as fine sandwiches. However, we were told when served that if we wanted any more of any, or all, of the sandwiches to just ask and they'd bring them. We did and had plenty more.

You then got 2 small scones and then 3 or 4 small cakes each too.

You could select tea or coffee, and could ask for more - and switch between different types of both too.

You had the table for an hour and a half but if they weren't busy and had no one needing your table you could stay longer. They serve the afternoon tea to tables quickly so you aren't wasting any of your time waiting for food.

3 courses and several glasses of alcohol? Even if they were dubious quality £36 is a lot cheaper than having 3 courses in any high street restaurant (Bills/Cafe Rouge etc).

Like I say, it's profitable.. I'm sure there's many industries that offer a service that, due to the effort involved, is less preferable to others they provide but to stay competitive in the marketplace they continue with it.

No need for the sexism, it’s not based on fact anyway. Lots of men like expensive clothes. My uncle spends a fuckton on golf related stuff, and I know a man who has literally thousands of pounds worth of model trains. People have different interests and that’s ok :) and it has nothing to do with whether they’re male or female!

I just recently watched Mr Beard (competitive eater) put away a massive afternoon tea. It wasn’t a delicate tea though, it was a tea for blokes! Proper sandwiches and huge slabs of cake. 😁

Love afternoon tea and does H. Never paid anything like 50 quid for it.
Have you ever thought that you might have too much time on your hands

Yep and so is bottomless brunch.! I paid £36 to gi to a bottomless brunch that had a two hour limit, 3 courses of very mediocre food and 3 glasses of Prosecco.

Isn't the point that you and friend/s will be there chatting for a while, taking up a table? The more expensive places need to make sure people aren't hanging on to a solitary cold coffee and taking up dining space.

If I was your friend I’d stop offering a service I hated to offer 🤷🏼‍♀️

I once went to Harrods for afternoon tea. (With a wowcher voucher)

It was fascinating. I felt so out of place and like I didn’t belong. You could tell every other table were millionaires. Arab couples with hundreds of Harrods bags surrounding their tables. Personal assistants and personal shoppers coming to check on them. Children out with their nannies dressed immaculate.

Was it a rip off? Yes. Even with the voucher.
Did I enjoy it? Yes.

Skim read most of this thread, but I have a good friend who runs a coffee shop and HATES when people book afternoon tea. Profitable? Certainly. A huge fiddly pain in the ass to make? Absolutely! You're paying for the time and effort involved in the prep too..

Wouldn't you just order a Double Double with extra liquor to eat in for that at a Pie & Mash Shop?

Butter on a scone! No thanks, I want the clotted cream and jam.

And bacon and sausage sandwiches instead of cucumber and cold chicken.

A couple of local places do a 'savoury' afternoon tea option, if you prefer that to a traditional one. Dd went for that one when she went with her grandparent. The scone was a savoury cheese one.From her description it was a little like a 3 tiered ploughman's lunch I reckon.

Another one has bacon sandwiches, pork pies, a scone and a big chunk of one cake rather than finger sandwiches and lots of mini cakes.

Quite a few do unlimited savoury bits. You just order extra sandwiches when you've finished off the first set. Have done this at a few different places, the last place being Betty's in York. We took some of American friends there and we all definitely had more sandwiches and more teas than first given.

I love afternoon tea. It’s what myself and my oldest friend do often. We’ve been all over to do it in the UK and a few places abroad. We spend quite a bit at times but have no regrets unless it’s shit. We had a shit afternoon tea in Portugal. The best have been Edinburgh and London.

I love afternoon tea. So do my adult children , two of whom are men. I would go every week if I could afford it.

Give me a cream tea with scones, jam and clotted cream over an afternoon tea with dainty sandwiches and teeny tiny cakes any day. Having said that I wouldn't need my arm twisted too far back to clear a pedestal cake plate thing singlehanded/mouthed. If they're not too big they're not that fattening. Right?

I don't like all the cake. My idea of a good afternoon tea would be a huge plate of sandwiches and maybe some sausages. Then a nice selection of chocolate biscuits.