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

[Coddy]

Somebody suggested this to me and I’ve never thought of it that way.

You don’t get very men going for afternoon tea do you? The Mark up on afternoon tea is absolutely enormous aside from staffing and cost of the building and stuff- it must be money for old rope for the businesses concerned. Specially the ones that charge over 50 quid ahead.

Are we being conned by the whole afternoon tea debacle?

(yes cake is nice I get that)

It is a rip-off, largely aimed at women, though to begin with probably was as well a way of dating I guess in older times.

Thank you. It took all of my limited brain power.

So you ordered from the ‘saver’ menu and you bought the small size of everything?

my DS would still be starving after eating that.

It is easy to spend about £15 a head in McDonalds.

I don’t understand all these posters who still seem to be living in 1997 when a meal was £3.79. Check the prices on the website

McDonalds 🙀🙀🙀🙀
Faints.

It is easy to spend about £15 a head in McDonalds

But that must have bought 2 large burger meals and extra sides/dessert as well. That is not a normal amount of food for one person.

I went to McDonalds a couple of weeks ago and had a meal, it was under £6 and that was at a service station so probably more expensive than average.

Surely that's just any dining not just afternoon tea? Does a full English cost £14+ (it does in some of the nice cafes around us)? It doesnt. Do ingredients of a pizza amount to £18? No they dont.
But you pay to sit down and have a nice meal.

I checked little ones- stupidly overpriced but a special occasion! Didn't realise they only served afternoon tea, thought I'd be able to get myself a breakfast.

Of course not! Much as OP would have you believe that you shouldn't pay more than the cost of a Tesco 'take home' meal deal, to have excellent service in a lovely setting, with beautifully prepared interesting sandwiches and varieties of cakes made by professional pastry cooks, she's wrong.

Now this being Mumsnet, I have no idea whether that poster was asking 'where are people having afternoon tea for only £40 a pop' or 'where are people paying as much as £40 pp for afternoon tea'.

roast-restaurant.com/afternoon-tea/

£45. Then only another £4 for a cocktail.

Now of course it's actually £52 ish as 12% service also added.

@Longsight2019 Oh. I’ve just booked afternoon tea with some reluctance for my wife’s birthday. And now I’ve read this and it kind of proves my fear/point. It’s a bloody con! Should I cancel

Depends on whether you actually view it as a con or not. We usually pay roughly the equivalent of 40 pound when we go but feel this represents value TO US. Yes, theoretically, we could make scones, and sandwiches and savoury tarts, and pastries for less at home. The reality is we couldn’t though as you need to make batches of the stuff really so at home there is no way you would whip up the same variety for low cost. We also don’t want to have to slave in the kitchen and cook everything we’d get generally at an afternoon tea. We also like the nice venues, and nice waitstaff and not having to clean up a kitchen after ourselves. We also like the fact it gives us some time out of our very full home where we get to have a 1:1 conversation and just relax for a bit. To us, paying for all of that IS worth it, it represents value to us. It’s not just the cost of ingredients, or food itself, it’s the total experience. This is where everyone has to make their own decisions and their is no right or wrong.

Still zero idea how it is an offence against women though.

I disagree with women being conned. Men go to afternoon tea all the time. I frequently go to the Ritz. It’s a lovely way to spend an afternoon with top notch service. Well worth the money, even if it is a considerable mark up!

They were underwhelmed as F&M afternoon tea is no good. There’s an art to it which F&M lack. Just go and buy the teas, don’t stay for the ‘experience’.

I'm a bit obsessed with afternoon tea although I think I like the idea of it more than the reality - I get full very easily and can't eat all the cakes, but always take leftovers home, but I never know if more tea is available, I could drink gallons of the stuff, but don't really want to pay again for tea after having paid so much in the first place.

But I think I've spotted a bit of a bargain. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is one of my favourite places and they do afternoon tea for £21.95 (£27.95 if you want prosecco) and it clearly states unlimited tea plus it includes entry to the sculpture park, which is £9, so the tea is only really £13, so something I'm definitely going to go do this summer.

https://ysp.org.uk/visit-us/food-drink

Also how much of the eye watering prices do the staff get?

Well the wages are probably similar to most other hospitality, NMW more or less.

However, I know someone who works at Betty's and she gets endless freebies - maybe slightly wonky, or on the BBE date but still perfectly lovely.

Also someone else I know who used to work in a five star hotel got loads in tips and again, loads of leftover food and they used to steal nips from the posh whisky on night shifts.

DH and I did afternoon tea at the Ritz earlier this year. It was a birthday present for me. I ate the sandwiches, and thought, yes, I could make these. We ate the two additional plates of sandwiches which were offered to us too. I ate the scones and know I can make excellent scones, just like theirs. We drank four different types of tea from their extensive range, which I could buy in at home. We ate the very delicate patisserie, and I knew that I certainly couldn't make them at home. We also had additional chocolate mousse cake and rum baba, which was brought round on a trolley and I blew out the candle on the fabulous individual birthday cake I was given, whilst the pianist played Happy Birthday. Yes, it was expensive, but all in all it was the most lovely afternoon and certainly we could not recreate the ambience of the place, where the decor is amazing, the layout of the room packs plenty of people in whilst maintaining privacy at your own table and the waiters are ever present, but melt into the background and know exactly how to interact with you. We loved it and think it was worth every penny. It's what known as a treat and was not underwhelming at all.

I’ve had afternoon tea a few times and always with my (now ex, a man). I like cake but I have always found them to have too much cake and not enough sandwiches (although maybe I didn’t realise you can ask for more sandwiches?). I actually like little crustless finger sandwiches 😊

Well I don't think it is a rip-off as such, because you have a choice whether to go for afternoon tea or not. So you know what it will cost and decide to by-pass it or to go for it.

I have occasionally gone for an afternoon tea with my DH, but what we have been happy to pay extra for is the ambience and excellent service. The feeling of being pampered for a 'treat'. It therefore follows that I wouldn't pay for afternoon tea where it didn't meet those criteria.

There is a place in central Edinburgh which is well known for the beautiful Christmas Decorations, both inside and outside of the building. Afternoon Tea there last Christmas was £29.95 pp and £34 per person if you wanted a glass of prosecco or £36 pp if you wanted a glass of champagne. It was great value in my opinion! But I wouldn't go there except at Christmas time, because that is when the place is beautifully decorated! It was also our wedding anniversary

I don't think it is designed to rip-off women. Lots of couples were there and the place is always fully booked out long before the Christmas season. Bookings are already open for 28th October t through to 5th January2024 ( when the decorations are up).

I quite like an afternoon tea ,and it really depends where you go to how expensive it is ,I went to the plaza in Manchester and it was £20/ head with one of those Groupon,thingies. With a glass of, prosecco thrown in
Yes I'm.sure I could make it all.myself for half the price ,but that's the same with any dining experience
If you don't like it and feel you are being ripped off don't go.

I meant to add these to my previous post!

Thank goodness you've told us that as women we are being exploited, we would not be able to decide ourselves obviously!

@Silvers11 beautiful 💗

We've had fabulous afternoon teas, and complete rip-off ones. We visited Norwich a couple of weeks ago and were pleased to find an afternoon tea place which didn't require a booking. The sandwiches were so cold I thought the bread was frozen (it wasn't). The cakes were just huge slices of whatever they were offering with coffee. Nothing dainty or special. The scones came with those little sealed pots of clotted cream you see everywhere. And it cost £58 for the two of us. I think our expectations have been ruined by holidaying in Holt, tbh.

In my part of the world anything over £30 for afternoon tea is extortionate.