Afternoon tea is a rip off

[Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeahh]

Or maybe it's just the ones I've been to?
£25 per head- tea, coffee and water. Sandwiches, sausage rolls and crisps, and cakes with a couple of biscuits.
The scones were from Costco as I used to work somewhere that sold the exact same ones. There was the equivalent of about 2 Sandwiches each, very basic plain fillings too.

I expected so much more for the price, haven't been to many afternoon tea places so maybe this was just a bad one?

I like afternoon tea, but I agree it varies in quality. At its best it can be quite on occasion, with lots of different flavours to sample, really nice tea (and many varieties at that). There is a place close to us in Norfolk which does the most amazing bottomless tea where you can have as much as you would like. It is great to spend a couple of hours with friends catching up, eating nice little cakes and sarnies (which are great) and then at the end of it all they will give you a bag to take home in a box shaped like the nice building you have the tea in. Great afternoon out for £25.

! If it’s a decent place, then afternoon tea will be expensive - it’s very labour-intensive.

Is it any more so than a cooked meal? A load of little sandwiches are very quick to make and typically its all served on a multi tier stand in one go so it doesn't require any more waitressing. Its a classic example of a format designed to coax you to spend more. You could just buy a sandwich for £15, instead by marketing it as a fancy "experience" you part with £25. The food itself is cheap, any cafe knows to make money you need people spending more per head (even if you provide more food/bigger portions).

Its very chavvy here in West Wales, paying 35+ and they think its sophisticated and the pics on FB afterwards look pretty poor tbh.

Great site, sign up for email notifications they send through the latest offers. Not just London.

https://afternoontea.co.uk/offers/

Unless previously booked you need a LOT of fresh bread and fillings which will be wasted on a quiet day and charging that money it has to be 'right'. Its heartbreaking to run a venue and have a quiet day and binning the stock or making something else out of it for another menu item - youd struggle with bread! Veggies are easy as you blend them down into soup and freeze them etc.

I don’t care how posh the surroundings are or how delicious the teeny tiny sandwiches are, I still think £25 is a bloody rip off. It’s businesses ‘adding value’ at its finest. Build mini desserts and they will come. And you will be rich.

Get yourself off to The Ritz for a truly fabulous Afternoon Tea experience. Pricey…….yes! But the tea - a choice of countless varieties, sandwiches, and cakes just keep coming. And you get to bring home anything that’s left on your serving plates.

We live near a family run hotel that's stuck in an 80s time warp decor wise but their pastry chef is an absolute belter. When you go for afternoon tea, it's £25 a head for no alcohol, but the bread is homemade, the scones, cakes etc... and it's small but utterly worth the cost. In comparison, we went to a Marco Pierre White hotel and the sandwiches were beyond rank - cheese and pickle (which I've never eaten in my life), rubbery egg and then plain cucumber. The scones were drier than the sahara but we'd been given the afternoon tea as a gift from someone and it was very awkward having to say it was a lovely gift but the food wasn't worth what they'd paid for in case they bought it for someone else.

I think they’re all just a bit crap tbh. I’ve been to some really fancy places for them, none of them have been less than £55 a head and it’s just always been a bit of a disappointment! Not sure if we all have really big appetites but I can manage the equivalent of 2 small sandwiches with crusts cut off, 2 scones and a few small cakes no bother, never had any left to take home!
I don’t drink tea and I don’t drink Prosecco either.
It’s just all a bit dainty for me. Fortunately it was just a phase in my circle and we haven’t been for years so it’s not something I need to purposely avoid but I wouldn’t go to another one now.

But as previous posters have said its very often about the venue, the company and surroudings etc. Also Auntie Edna etc may not fancy a pub lunch so afternoon tea it is.

I’ve been to two or three in my life but they’ve been special occasions (5* hotel type ones) and have been lovely.

Depends where you go.

Recently paid for 2 family members to go for afternoon tea. It was a big house of historical interest with gorgeous gardens

Apparently the cakes were amazing (but one of them likes any cake) and they spent about 5 hours there, wandering in the gardens having a coffee later on the verandah, staff spoilt them rotten. So it was worth it.

But some of the little tea shops near me seem a rip off. I think I want glamorous surroundings when having my mini sarnies.

It sounds really lovely. But it also just sounds like breakfast. Sticking a bunch of food onto a cake stand doesn’t make it afternoon tea, or beforenoon tea, as they have called it.

Of course I have always thought of an English tea as the height of life and have had some great ones in my day: at Fortnum’s 40 years ago, at the Savoy, odd places, and in New York once. But I can’t eat like that anymore. So would be reluctant to pay those prices again.

I love afternoon tea but you have to be very selective to avoid being served a buffet. You should expect a choice of tea, coffee, soft drinks or prosecco (for additional charge) and the drinks are available to be topped up. Usually there are a selection of finger sandwiches but they are very neat and delicate, no crusts. Egg and cress, smoked salmon and then some sort of ham/cheese is common. Usually there is maybe a mini quiche or ‘nice’ sausage roll. Then the middle tier is scones(homemade) with clotted cream and jam, and the top tier is cake. These are bite size and usually quite rich. I have had brownie bites, mini Victoria sponges, macarons, all very pretty and tasty. Often there is a little tiny mousse as well. It is an experience and I don’t go very often as it is a funny time to eat that much but very lovely.

There's Jamieson's in Leeds and Sheffield which are fabulous.

I hate afternoon teas - had them a couple of places, and all have been disappointing (don't get me started on the one at the Harry Potter experience thing - it was truly awful - sweaty, defrosted cake things with little flavour, lackluster sandwiches, told to arrive early, then they seated us late - and it was empty, they weren't busy - tea took ages to arrive even after that.)

OP, with respect, you need to find a better afternoon tea offer! Crisps??

To be fair, I think the place that does afternoon teas in our small market town (SE England) is bloody amazing and great value. For £24.99 you get: a range of 3 or 4 finger sandwiches with very generous and handmade fillings, three tiny cakes/macarons, a lemon posset/mousse of some sort in a tiny pot, a scone/jam/cream, and tea/coffee. The Savoury Tea is similar but the cakes replaced with tiny savoury canapés/pastries. Amazing value and baked fresh daily!

Crisps have no business in an afternoon tea

I've paid a lot more than £25 for afternoon tea before and not felt ripped off because it was great quality and a lovely experience.

I've also had really crap ones (slice of stale Soreen loaf anyone?!) so it depends really!

I have never been to one where the portions were tiny. Every time me and DH have struggled to eat it all and most times we have taken some home

I don't think I've ever had crisps or biscuits as part of an afternoon tea. Bit odd that.

I’ve been to a few times and last couple I was at were about €90 (with champagne) in high end hotels. Everything homemade and a lovely choice BUT I don’t think it’s worth it and personally I’d rather spend 90 quid and have a lovely meal in a good restaurant

The afternoon tea you had sounds crap I’m afraid… the ones I’ve had (of which there have been many), I would get as standard:
Fresh bottomless tea or coffee, a selection of fresh finger sandwiches, freshly made scones with hefty servings of clotted cream, a selection of fresh individual cakes, pastries or macarons. At some places I’ve had variations/additions to this, such as small freshly made quiches, onion bhajees etc. Never have I ever been presented with crisps!
I usually struggle to finish the whole thing, and it’s a really lovely luxurious experience, usually in a beautiful setting with friends, so worth the money in my opinion

Crisps in an afternoon tea?

£25 is a reasonable price. Our local posh hotel charges about £30. Usually includes a selection of finger sandwiches, small cakes and scones, jam and cream. What is brought out initially is usually plenty, but you can ask for more.

It's definitely not value for money purely food-wise, but there are other hidden costs and they have to make a profit to pay for the upkeep of the hotel, so I don't begrudge it.