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?

Not a fan. Sandwiches aren’t a treat and scones are pretty basic. I can buy delicious homemade cream cakes for £2 - 3 at any bakery.
Also not keen on cakes sat out late afternoon. Probably based on my last experience at the Ivy that gave me an upset stomach.

I've been to a few which were superb value at more than that. But I agree with you that some are a total rip off.
It's not all about the food but the food should still be good. I expect a decent selection, fresh and not shop bought or slightly stale cakes and boring sandwiches.
The environment is important for me too as is the service. But even if they were wonderful I'd not appreciate poor food.

There are no crisps in an afternoon tea! There should be finger sandwhiches; scone, jam and cream; petit fours (tiny fancy cakes) and something savoury - cheese quiche or similar - importantly everything must be individually small, not a large thing cut up. Also a selection of teas is nice.

You would expect some decent homemade cakes for that price. Most of the places local to me charge around that but they tend to offer a lot of food for the price and to be fair they are beautifully presented.

Well it depends on expectations and the product. I worked somewhere that was way overpriced and tried to serve 2 small triangle sandwiches each...whereas we recently went to 1 in a hotel that included a small cup of soup, delicious sandwiches, fresh scones, an array of home baked cakes and they made my child a burger for free when he didn't like the sandwiches

No crisps in afternoon tea…that’s a sign they don’t know what they’re doing

afternoon tea, well done, does tend to be expensive as there is a lot of work in it- handmade sandwiches, fresh scones, whipped cream (or clotted), then a selection of handmade cakes.

I usually don’t need much to eat before or after - it’s a lot of food often

Last one I went to in world of wedge wood recently- they even supplied their own doggy bags as so many people like us couldn’t manage all the lovely cakes served.

only go to places that you know make all their own cakes, or better still go somewhere that has patisserie chefs as that is really sort of cake you’d want served.

id have walked out before ordering, on seeing crisps on other people’s table tbh

My friend and I had a great afternoon tea at Reeves in Salisbury. Very reasonable price, unlimited pots of tea. We only went in and upstairs for a light lunch but afternoon tea was the cheapest option for us. What a find, more than we could eat and ended up taking some cake home as well.

I'd love to know what is "popty sourdough"

This. I have never seen sausage rolls or crisps served as part of afternoon tea.

I do like an afternoon tea but often get overfaced. Cream tea is lovely & more manageable.

The good ones keep replenishing as you go, too.

Booked one at a garden centre, me and 4 ex colleagues. We had to state what filling we wanted in the sandwiches.

On the morning of the day, one colleague (who does a lot of childcare with nursery age Gdcs) phoned me to say she wouldn’t be able to make it - she’d picked up a norovirus type bug from the Gdcs and couldn’t possibly be away from the loo!

So we told staff that the 5th friend wouldn't be coming - and explained why.

Response was, ‘Well, you’ll have to pay for her anyway - sandwiches etc. have been made.’
We thought this VU (the garden centre is always packed and the place is evidently a gold mine) and said so, but he was adamant.

So a bit later I told him that we found their stance extremely mean in the circumstances, and I’d be writing to the manager to say so.

Shortly afterwards, he returned and said we wouldn’t have to pay after all.
Result! 🙂

You get what you pay for and YABU for expecting a decent afternoon tea that price, in 2025.

How much would you expect to pay? Betty's in York who are synonymous with afternoon tea charge £29.95

I went to a gorgeous one recently, so much lovely freshly made delicious food we took things home. Guess it depends on where you go, the OP's one sounded like a disappointing rip off.

I went to a fabulous one in a very posh hotel in London, wish I could remember what it was called. It lives in my memory. In fact I have only been to afternoon tea 4 times and each one was good. Maybe I have been lucky

It sounds like the people doing the tea were very slapdash. This is a place near to me. It’s absolutely fantastic and less than a tenner more than you paid. You get ALL of this, including more sandwiches and scones if you really want! The cakes are small but even so I always take some home. And don’t need to eat for the rest of the day! It’s currently themed for The Little Mermaid.

£32.50 per person, £40 with a glass of fizz

Dainty Finger Sandwiches of;
Cheddar Cheese and Bramley apple chutney
Local ham and mild grain mustard
Egg mayonnaise and cress

Savouries;
Sausage roll
Parmesan and pistachio shortbread
Three-cheese toastie with smoked tomato chutney
Bridge roll with chicken Caesar, lettuce, crispy bacon, cornflowers
Fish goujon, ‘chips’ and tartare
Smoked salmon mousse pastry fish with lemon and chive

Assembly House Teatime Scones;
Cheese, Colman’s Mustard and chive scone, butter
Assembly House fruit scone, strawberry jam and clotted cream

Cakes and pastries;
Coral Reef Cupcake: A chocolate fudge cupcake with white chocolate fudge coral icing and a sugar crab, a raspberry tuille
Under the Sea Gateau Opera: Layers of sponge with vanilla frosting and blueberry curd topped with a wave of frosting and edible sand
Oyster Shell Macaron: A blackcurrant macaron with blackcurrant frosting, blackcurrant compote, an edible pearl
Shellebrate biscuit: A custard cream shell biscuit sandwiched together with pistachio cream and an edible pearl
Shoal Mate chocolate: Every mermaid has a fish as a best friend…A white chocolate with lemon meringue filling
Tail End of a Dream dessert: A strawberry and cream cheesecake with a mermaid’s tail and treasure

It depends on the place. It’s £45 now at Betty’s which is reasonable, £81 at The Ritz, which is also fine. Unless it’s an independent place, I would be dubious of somewhere that charges less than £30.

I used to be a baker in a tea room and it is very time consuming. Freshly made creams, pastry and breads have a small shelf life compared to food which is full of preservatives so it would all be repeated every second day. It isn’t cheap to make if done properly, making pastry takes hours and building cakes and decorating is fiddly and slow. The tea room I worked in was popular but the cost of the rent and overheads meant it wasn’t sustainable for the owner which is a shame but you’d need to charge a fortune to make it work in a city centre with high rent costs. Or you’d need to branch out and cater for evening diners but then you’re not really a tea room. There was a lot of offices who would order for meetings etc but then covid destroyed that.

What blew my mind entirely is that in some really fancy places, they buy and slice the bread for the afternoon tea WIDTHWAYS.

Like instead of slicing bread the normal way, They slice long, so a slice of bread would be a foot long, but you would only get a few slices. But less crusts and therefore get more sandwich fingers out of it that way.

This seemed like the right place to post that. Most of you probably already knew that but I thought it was amazing!!

Popty is a little bakery family run in the town. It's for public and local businesses. People queue there in the morning. But once it's gone then they close. It's quite famous. In the summer tourists grab their bread and cakes to take home.

Popty translates to An oven in Welsh

I went to an awful one at a farm park and they had Mr Kiplings cakes and plain sweaty cheese sandwiches. Scones were nice though.

This sounds amazing! Where is it, please?!

I would rather have more interesting sandwiches/savoury and less cake, so I'm not a big fan of them, would rather go for a proper lunch with people.

I’m not a massive fan of afternoon tea, it’s too much starch and the sweet to savoury ratio is way off. As lovely as they are, I don’t really need 4 different cakes. Especially after I’ve already had a scone.

£25 does seem cheap though so I’m not surprised they’ve used cheaper food to pad it out. A friend treats herself to one at Gleneagles each year. Costs a small fortune but it does look amazing, and they do it gluten free which is impressive given the amount of flour they normally involve!