What do you think about this afternoon tea?

[SebastianTheCrab]

Very much a first world problem but curious as to opinions.

If you booked a Halloween-themed afternoon tea (yes they exist; yes my DC was excited) and this was the advertised picture on their website vs the actual offering - would you feel a bit put out?

We had a good time, the food was fine (although they did initially bring us off milk for the teas) and it wasn't as expensive as some afternoon teas, especially themed ones.

But... it looks a bit rubbish compared to the pic doesn't it?

Tell them that you know the image they're using as advertising is a stock image from a free stock image site and it's not good enough. False advertising.

Tbh, the stock photos looks nice, but I would rather eat the real ones, it looks way more tastier than cup cakes and cookies as some pp said.
And when it was on the cake stand, it must have looked quite nice too, compared to the one pictured on a plate.

If I had to pick between the two, I would choose the second picture (with green drink) and I’m pretty sure my DC would too. They should have made it clearer what you would get but I certainly wouldn’t be complaining!

As you get sandwiches and scones with both teas, I definitely think the first picture is much better and what I would expect as a Halloween themed tea. I would expect professional standard Halloween decoration on biscuits etc.

@SebastianTheCrab - tbh, if the main aim was to please your Halloween obsessed toddler, not to eat tasty cakes and be served by a waiter, then why on earth go out for afternoon tea and pay £45? You could have bought all the stuff in the advertising photo (all of which would have tasted like cardboard) from Sainsbury’s.

I think this really comes down to anywhere (but particularly a high end place) that serves food being unreasonable to use generic stock photos in their marketing, unless they are extremely confident of replicating it well. They'd be better off having a member of staff with a decent camera phone and a little bit of skill taking a picture of the real thing for their social media, if they can't run to a professional (which granted many hotels can't at the moment).

I work in marketing for a travel company and we would never just use any old beach to advertise Majorca for example; we use images that accurately represent what the client might expect to see! We wouldn't get away with using pictures of the Maldives to market Skegness for long

And, actually, it's also a bit disingenuous for you to post that first side-by-side pic and call it 'afternoon tea' rather than 'one aspect of our afternoon tea'.

This ^

I did have to look at the photos a few times and try to understand which was supposed to be the disappointing one, tbh. The 4 cakes and 5 biscuits looks like a pack you would buy in Greggs to me, and the one with the spider on the plate looks much more 'cooked to order' and appropriate for afternoon tea.

As you have said, your toddler didn't mind either way.

As an aside, Morrisons do a lovely afternoon Tea for Two for a tenner - I know it seems an odd place to go for afternoon tea, but I've kindly researched it all for you < you can thank me later > and it was gorgeous and you would NOT complain at all the food and tea we got for just £5 pp.

I'd be disappointed to be fair...

The first image is fully decorated and 'custom cut' biscuits and cakes. I.e ghost is ghost shaped and decorated accordingly.

The second image well, looks like Mr Kipling box and writing icing. Honestly, it looks like Halloween party food hurriedly put together. It's a brownie with RIP written on...not a chocolate headstone, a custard tart with a cobwebs drawn on....and from frozen cheesecake with googly eyes, not a scary but delicious monster. None of that requires any of the skill displayed in the first image.

Re. Neither demonstrate the full experience. I can't see the full advert but the first image, accompanied with the words 'afternoon tea', I'd expect the fancy cakes in question but expect regular afternoon tea 'mains'...so no weird dyes bread or slime inspired fillings etc.

If I got the normal afternoon tea affair, with the top tier as given...I think I'd be a bit disappointed. Personally I'd prefer cakes and biscuits done well than multiple mr Kipling cakes.

The ones in the second picture do not look like Mr Kiplings. They look like decent patisserie. I would far rather eat that than an iced biscuit and a muffin.

They look like decent patisserie.

They really do not 😂