To Have a Mini Afternoon Tea Rant

[AfternoonTeaTotty]

Disclaimer: complete first world problem, that goes without saying. Not at all important in the big scheme of things.

I was gifted an afternoon tea voucher for myself and DH by a very lovely and amazing friend who knows I love going out for afternoon tea. She's a wonderful soul and so thoughtful so would never say anything at all to her because I truly appreciate her. We went and had a lovely time because it was just special to sit and enjoy a quiet moment of calm and relaxation. But...

Has anyone else noticed how much places are taking the p@!? when it comes to afternoon tea now? Used to be lovely scones, nice slices of cake, decent sandwiches, lovely pot of tea and maybe a glass of bubbles if it's a special occasion. Yesterday it was tiny, tiny sandwiches with odd fillings, tiny strange combination micro cakes which were just weird and tea that I'm sure was Tesco red label tea bags. A glass of prosecco that tasted like a £5.99 bottle special. Scones were good to be fair. But if we had paid for it, it would have been £40 each for this experience, so £90 for two of us 😮

There was a table next to us, a group of ladies who didn't look very impressed with the food but were trying not to say anything. Their bill would have easily been £400-500.

I completely get that places are struggling with the cost of everything but surely it would easier and cheaper to do an old style afternoon tea. With slices of cake and straightforward sandwich fillings? Less time and less fiddly.

Has social media killed this off now because everything has to be Instagram worthy instead of tasty? Since when did they charge so much for so little?

Plus it didn't help that the guy tried to charge me for the meal when we left despite knowing we were there on a gift voucher. Tried to charge me £50 saying he'd give me a discount. That was until I gave him the hard stare and reminded him it had already been paid for. He tried to insist but saw he wouldn't get anywhere so caved. Cheeky F@#!?#

No one eats it all, they let you take the leftovers home.

Is this great mystery solved for you now?

This thread is making me feel old, because there was one of those weird-MN collective moments of madness threads ages ago (must have been pre pandemic so maybe as much as 10 years ago) when a poster came on here complaining of just this, over-priced tiny afternoon tea with measly finger sandwiches and teabag tea, and the entire board, as one, totally refused to believe her. Every single poster insisted that afternoon tea by it's very nature was hugely generous and filling. The word lashings was thrown around a lot (lashings of cream, lashings of jam etc). The competitive over and under eaters emerged with some claiming to have eaten 100 scones at their last tea and others saying they couldn't eat for a week such was the nutritional quality of crustless cucumber. It ran to many pages and things got ugly after a while with the OP being accused of greed, obesity, cheeky fuckery and grabbiness for daring to suggest that hotels might rip guests off with such a thing. The whole thread left me scratching my head as though I'd entered a parallel universe. I like a good high tea well enough myself but the relative pricing of what's basically a cup of tea and a few snacks compared to a proper meal (at a hotel or restaurant that is, cafes are different) has always seemed a bit bonkers.

I'm glad to see sanity seems to have prevailed on MN now although a bit rubbish that so many people have now experienced poor quality and over priced teas!

One friend and I found a lovely afternoon tea at a hotel near Bayswater this year. Everything was fresh and plentiful, and the cost was £40 pp - a bargain for London. We always meet early afternoon and treat it as a late lunch.

DH has a theory that he might have been scamming. He reckons he could have put £50 through on a card and pocketed £50 from the till so the books would balance and no one would be the wiser. That's why he got irked when I challenged it and wouldn't back down.

Not sure if you can do that sort of scam though? It's an independent hotel, so maybe if it isn't a chain you can? I don't know, but it didn't work.

I’d speak to the manager and give them feedback.

This is the absolute best one ever. £52 so on the pricey side but all delicious and a good amount of savoury food. Have a look at the pages and pages of fancy teas, all made with leaves in little teapots which you can have refilled. They call it ‘High Tea’ here but it’s down as Afternoon Tea on the website.
https://www.angelabergavenny.com/uploads/documents/Festive_High_Tea_2025.pdf

You can get afternoon tea that is extremely good value.

This very generous tea was £20 for 2 with unlimited tea and soft drinks, and was absolutely delicious.

If we go for afternoon tea, that's our main meal for the day.

I can't usually manage it all But DH helps.

We have a old train station near us that does a good 'proper' tea (although jam and cream are in packets... the more expensive ones are always disappointing. It always feels like someone has misunderstood the concept.

Oh come to Somerset/Devon area, we have lovely tea shop's & they bake the cakes & scones daily & you choose your freshly made sandwich fillings. It's not cheap & not insta worthy but it's lovely. I'd never go for a chain.

ARGH! I had a similar experience a few years ago, a friend had been given a voucher as part of her 60th birthday celebrations for a gin based afternoon tea on the Thames... We should have known when the G&Ts were served ready made, weak and slightly flat from a tea pot and the boat was really cold, this set the tone for food, too. She was embarrassed and we decided to cut our losses and marched up to the American Bar at the Savoy for a fortifying glass of champagne... which helped, a lot.

We often threaten to gift each other something similar and she never told the gift giver how bad it was but did concede that it was certainly, an experience like no other.

Write a review on Trip advisor. Did you look at the reviews before you went?

It's nice that they have all those teas cardi but where's the ordinary English (or Welsh?) Breakfast!?

The best place near me currently offers 6 savouries, 3 kinds of sandwiches, plain scone with jam and cream, cheese scone with butter, and 5 little cakes and desserts, one of which is a themed variation of Gateau Opera. You can get refills on the sandwiches and scones. You can swap sandwiches out if there’s one you don’t like. And they give you boxes to take home what is left.

It’s all made on the premises. It’s AMAZING!

It’s £32.50 per person. Absolutely unbeatable in quality and value.

Doesn't sound very nice. To be fair, decent afternoon teas tend to be at the best hotels and, at least in London, are hitting £80-90 per head! So £40 is quite cheap.

That being said, I've been to a few of these top notch places and do feel some of the flavour combos ('creative') don't really hit the mark.

However, I would always, always ask for more sandwiches. And scones. Not that key on cakes generally so I overdose on the first two! ;)

I genuinely couldn't eat £40 worth of sandwiches and cake... all that stodge

Breakfast tea tends to have a high proportion of Assam in the blend, so that probably covers that base!

I really cannot see how this is profitable for her at all.

If I went to a cafe and ordered (sepperately) a coffee, a tea, a prosecco, a sandwich and two cakes and a scone i'd expect to be around the £30 mark already. By the time you're having 3/4 sandwiches and extra cake AND it's all homemade it seems like she is badly under charging.

Yes I didn't mean there's no such thing as a good tea. I'm prepared to believe such a thing exists. But the existence of one good value one doesn't preclude the existence of a rip-off one, no? Even the better ones in terms of quality I do feel aren't usually great value for money. E.g. at my local fancy-ish hotel you'd pay £15 for a sandwich and salad/chips, £5 for a hot drink and petit fours and £7/8 for a dessert from their regular lunch menu. So say £28 for a pretty generous two course daytime meal. The same hotel's afternoon tea is £38, for a very comparable amount and quality of food. I guess it's fair you pay something extra for getting 3 or 4 different types of sandwich and cake and having it served on the special plates but a more than 33% uplift, for something that hasn't had to be cooked fresh to order or anything (I suspect the tea stuff of being bought in rather than handmade, or at least made the day before and just put onto plates for the teas), is that really very good value? I wouldn't say so particularly. It still can be nice, like I say I have enjoyed it, but I fully believe the OP when she feels they were a bit stingy!

I’m another who is not a fan of afternoon tea, no matter whether it is at a top of the range venue or not.
Perhaps I’ve grown up conditioned to 3 meals a day but I have no enthusiasm for stuffing myself with sandwiches and cakes with tea and/or Prosecco in the middle of the afternoon. A cup of tea and a fancy cake is more than enough for me at this time of day

Eating a larger meal isn’t ‘stuffing yourself’. This is the sort of language that really irritates me and is very prevalent on MN. If you go for afternoon tea it’s instead of lunch and/or dinner (depending on quantity) not as well as. It’s not tea and cake. It’s a meal.

The cream brand is Rodda. @ZenNudist

You can do that sort of scam and an independent hotel may not be wise to it yet. Equally a dishonest business may be trying to increase their takings. Please report it to the hotel together with a complaint that it soured the present which they had already been paid for.

In some people's worlds, three meals a day is stuffing oneself...

Afternoon Tea (especially when called High Tea) isn't a snack.

I'd have to embarrass everyone and ask them if they have Builders' !

Cheese strings! omg!

I've been to a really really good afternoon tea and then seen loads of others offered by more low-key places that just don't seem worth it.

I'd have it as a late lunch and have a late breakfast if I was able to.