To think this is alot of money for an afternoon tea?

[Mummyof287]

A Hen do is being planned for next year for a close friend (I am one of the bridesmaids, but another whom I don't know is planning the hen party)
I'm very honoured to be her bridesmaid, and obviously i'm going to attend but can only go for the afternoon tea daytime part (Some are staying overnight, which the organiser said would be paying a higher price but not sure how she has worked it all out)

I am just abit shocked at the price of the afternoon tea, which she has said will be £40- then they are splitting the cost of the Bride (which I am MORE than happy to contribute towards) which brings the total p/p for day guests to £60.
Tbh i was expecting the cost to be about £25 max (then the contribution for the bride on top)
The going rate around here is £15-20/head for afternoon tea, or £25ish at the poshest venues I guess.
I mean its £45 p/p at The Ritz in central london! :-/

AIBU to be thinking of asking the organiser where the place is and ringing to confirm the cost is correct?
Money is tight, and whilst I want to be there for my lovely friend, pay my way and contribute to her having a wonderful hen do, I don't want to be paying towards everyone else.

That's hugely expensive! At Slattery's on the outskirts of Manchester (very much the place for yummy mummies and the like to meet up), it's £16.50 for a lovely cream tea, £5 extra if you have a glass of champagne with it.

Oops, afternoon tea, not cream tea (was distracted by seeing that on the menu...)

Afternoon tea definitely seems to be one of those “saw you coming” rip off “treats.” I prefer a (much nicer) cup of tea at home with a bar of Fry’s chocolate cream.

No it's not expensive for an afternoon tea at all!
Tea at the hotel where I work is £35 per head and we're a small, very rural hotel in east midlands, nothing grand like a London hotel.

If you go to the Ritz, it's £67 (£45 is for the children's tea) and if you have champagne on top of that, it's an extra £22. London hotels are very expensive, the Dorchester tea with alcohol and extras is about £95 a head.

I would say the price which covers a share of the bride's tea and (presumably) champagne or something (and possibly room hire if there are a number of you??) is about right.

Plus you’d need a taxi as you can’t drive whereas afternoon tea you drive home after. Easily more than £40 for taxi & drinks and no food.

Very strange that organiser hasn't linked or specified where you are going.

Even stranger that the brides costs add £20 for each attendee.

However I think whatever it was you'd be unlikely to get change from £50 from any event, so maybe it's just a case of gritting your teeth and paying up.

If you are going to ask for venue you could say if it's planned locally that there are other less expensive options but then offer to organise the afternoon tea yourself. But then you'll probably end up just as out of pocket when someone doesn't turn up.

The Wolseley next door to the Ritz does a lovely afternoon tea for £36!

There are a few places that do savoury afternoon teas with scotch eggs and sausage rolls but they are bizarrely known as ‘gentleman’s tea’

It doesn't sound like a lot to me but I live in London where it's £65ish without a champagne, so more like £80 with.

How many are going?

Tbh I disagree intensely with the excess of modern hen parties with huge spends, for me it should just be something far more accessible.

Afternoon tea varies widely!

I love afternoon tea when it is done properly and would happily spend a lot on it. But then I would be expecting an endless amount of a selection of interesting sandwiches on different artisan breads, scones, a selection of beautiful handmade pastries, maybe a hot savoury, a wide choice of rare teas and typically a boxed gift to take home. Done like this it should be a memorable experience and you definitely wouldn’t want to eat another meal later on.

If instead the offering is normal tea, a few simple sandwiches, a couple scones and some basic cakes then I wouldn’t be that interested and would expect it to be cheap.

We sometimes have afternoon tea at a hotel in Suffolk which is £25 per head but extra if you include a glass of Prosecco or champagne

How many people in the party?

Actually the Ritz is more like £80. In London you won’t get much for £45. I’ve got one booked for October costing £71 and that’s a bridgerton themed one with a signature cocktail. For that money I expect it to be amazing. The sort I’ve been to for £25 include a few mediocre sandwiches (no top ups if you enjoy them), some defrosted mini eclairs and the like that you’d find in Iceland - perhaps some clumsily cut chunks of Victoria sponge and a couple of scones. You really get what you pay for. I’ve done a fair few teas - it’s mine and my best friend’s ‘thing’ that we love and treat ourselves occasionally. The savoy is indeniably the best we have ever had - and yes it was £80+. I’ve had some decent ones around the £55 mark but once you dip below £45 it’s pretty average and definitely not worth the money.

Surely The Ritz would be nearer £100, especially if inc champagne?

£40 sounds on the low side to me, but will depend on venue & location. At that price, my expectations would not be high!

I have been to a few afternoon teas and they are ineffably shite. It’s £45+ for sandwiches, tea, a scone and cakes, and tea. It’s just so much tedious, boring, food - it’s basically a meal deal with notions. If you’re going to be spending that much it’s far nicer to go to a restaurant and have a proper lunch with wine and cocktails instead of wibbling over a French Fancy and an egg mayonnaise sandwich. They’re definitely the emperor’s new clothes of dining.

Imo that's cheap for afternoon tea especially if it includes a glass of fizz

I paid around £140 for two people for afternoon tea at the Ritz in 2020 without alcohol.

Is it definitely just regular afternoon tea and not a bottomless one?

I thought your £45 was low so I just checked - It's from £67 at the Ritz!
Presumably the tea you are going to will have some bubbly too - that will jack up the price considerably.
You are paying for the ambiance and service, not just the food.

Sounds about right tbh especially if you get booze with it

I’m a cake fiend, but even I couldn’t drink more than two cups of tea and two cakes 🧁 at one sitting.
Polly’s Tea Rooms in Marlborough when I was a child was very popular- but not been there for yonks.
Ritz is meant to be nice enough- Brother goes there sometimes.
Definitely the ambiance you pay for.

Personally I’d have loved to have gone to the tearoom featured in Withnail and I !

Depends where it is. I had afternoon tea at the Berkeley earlier this year and it was definitely more than that. But you could probably get it cheaper at a little tea shop on my local high street.

I recently had afternoon tea in a 5* hotel - started with a glass of water and a glass of prosecco or alcohol-free prosecco-like drink. Then a pot of tea each - a variety of choices, including peppermint and fruit/herbal teas. First course of savouries - finger sandwiches (cucumber and cream cheese, egg & cress, and chicken & something,) mini quiche, mini cottage pie and a couple of other bits. Then a course of sweets, starting with scones and cream (including a cinnamon scone which is very much a wrong thing, and the chef should think very hard about their life choices - but the normal scone was fine.) And various mini cakes, tarts, petit-four type things, including an apple mousse, rhubarb tart, strawberry macaron, yuzu thing, lemon & poppy seed cake, hazelnut praline.

No way could I eat again for several hours. Good balance of flavours and textures. Presentation was immaculate. They had no problem dealing with gluten-free (one was a coaeliac) nor with no fish/seafood - though we had informedthrm in advance. It was about £60 a head (I wasn't paying,) and for what we got, it was good - fair value, if not good value. But I suspect you can pay the same elsewhere and it wouldn't be so great.

So £45 seems cheap to me, but the devil is in the detail.

@maximist I’ve had afternoon tea at Slatterys, and at hotels in Manchester and London and you can’t compare the two. A bakery in a converted pub in Whitefield (cos that’s what it is) versus one at the Lowry or Midland hotels is like comparing a Ford Fiesta to a sports car. They both get you to the same place at roughly the same time but the experience is very different. You get what you pay for.

The 'Lancashire Tea' sounds much nicer than the 'Luxury Tea' on that menu.

I think it's really presumptuous. I just went out for my hen do for a night out. I'd hate to ask people to pay a specific price.

But it's all about show isn't it. Having said that if it was a close friend I'd just suck it up and pay as it's a one off isn't it.

But for afternoon tea that's actually cheap. I had a very nice one recently, the sandwiches were lovely and filling. I was okay with it. But on the whole I can't be arsed with these flashy dos. I prefer a trip down the pub.

The Ritz I thought was at least £60 for afternoon tea. Just be grateful she didn't want Harrods, which is £90.