If you follow me on Instagram then you will have no doubt seen that I love an afternoon tea and I seem to have had a few beautiful afternoon tea’s over the past few months. For a while now I’ve wanted to share more lifestyle/foody blog posts with you, and what better way than to share my five favourite places for afternoon tea in and around the West Midlands.
Five places for Afternoon Tea…
For me afternoon tea’s are a fab way to celebrate. Whether it’s a birthday or just a get together with the girls, I always find an afternoon tea is such a lovely way to treat yourself and have a lovely afternoon. Although a lot of people think afternoon tea’s are a trend thing, I always have a fab time and end up coming home with a belly full of food and a few cakes in tow. Anywho, I don’t want to ramble on too much as this post is going to end up really long. So here are my top five recommendations for afternoon tea, here in the West Midlands!
Laura Ashley Tea Room at Southcrest Manor (Redditch)
A recent afternoon tea and probably one of the best I’ve had was at the Laura Ashley Tearoom at Southcrest Manor. Based in Redditch, just a short 5/10 minute drive from the Kingfisher Shopping Centre it’s a fab location for a lovely afternoon. I’d booked here as a birthday surprise for my Mum as she loves a good afternoon tea, and i’d seen a few bloggers mentioning just how nice the Laura Ashley Tearooms are! We opted for the Prosecco Afternoon Tea, priced at £26.50 per person you get a lovely array of sandwiches, two (yes two!) scones with clotted cream and jam, and to finish a selection of cakes. As well as the food you of course get your glass of prosecco and unlimited fresh teas and/or coffee.
In comparison to all of the other afternoon tea’s I’ve been to, overall I wasn’t the biggest fan of the sandwiches but I LOVED the scones and the cakes, which to me are the most important bit! The cakes themselves we’re just different and somewhat unique in comparison to all other afternoon tea’s i’ve had, and we both really enjoyed them! The venue and location itself is absolutely stunning. All decorated with Laura Ashley wallpaper and furniture, in a lovely yet peaceful restaurant. Unfortunately on the day we went it was raining, so we didn’t explore the grounds of Southcrest manor but i’m sure in the summer it would be lovely to have a walk around the grounds.
Chateua Impney (Droitwich)
Just a couple of weeks ago for my Nan’s 75th birthday, my Mum and I took her to a location right on our doorstep here in Droitwich called the Chateau Impney. As you can see from the pictures, this venue is probably the most stunning place I have ever seen and the grounds are just as equally stunning. We opted for just their traditional afternoon tea priced at £19.95 per person and with that you get a lovely selection of sandwiches (all of which I actually liked, shocker), a scone each and a selection of cakes all accompanied by unlimited amounts of tea and coffee.
Out of all of the afternoon tea’s I’ve had, this was probably the best in terms of liking everything from the sandwiches to the cakes, but the one thing that let it down for me was the amount of cream you got with your scone. Call me a snob, but you’ve got to have ample amounts of clotted cream on a scone, else it just isn’t right! As we were dining on a Sunday, we dined in the main ball room right in view of the lovely grounds, which was absolutely stunning! Once we’d finished our afternoon tea we had a little wonder around the grounds, of which I’d recommend doing especially on a sunny day as the grounds are breathe taking.
Marco Pierre White Steakhouse & Bar (Birmingham)
Back in December as a pre Christmas treat, my Mum and I booked a Monday off work to visit the Birmingham Christmas Markets and whilst we were in Birmingham we decided to book an afternoon tea. After a little scour on Groupon, we settled on visiting Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse & Bar where we booked got an amazing offer on their prosecco afternoon tea where we essentially got a bogof offer making it super cheap.
If you haven’t visited before, the restaurant is located on the 25th floor of The Cube and has the most stunning views overlooking Birmingham. As we’d booked our afternoon tea in December, they’d made the table all festive and Christmasy with santa hats which was such a cute touch! The afternoon tea itself was actually really good, as we thought considering the amazing offer we got that it wouldn’t be the best, but it was really good! The sandwiches were really nice, the scones were lovely and warm, and the cakes were so yummy.. so yummy that we couldn’t finish them and we had to bring them home. Personally i’d really recommend visiting Marco Pierre White Steakhouse just to visit, whether it be for afternoon tea or a meal, or just drinks it’s such a lovely venue and would be even nicer during sunset!
The Abbey Hotel & Spa (Redditch)
Another afternoon tea location in Redditch that we visited for my Mum’s 50th birthday was at The Abbey Spa & Hotel, and we booked this as a spa day package through Spa Breaks who have so many amazing spa weekend deals! Now I did actually do an entire blog post on our day out, as an attempt to share more lifestyle content so you read all about our experience with this afternoon tea/spa experience.
The Whitehouse Hotel (Worcester)
Finally the last afternoon tea spot that I wanted to share, is The Whitehouse Hotel in Worcester which is located right in the city centre, literally across the road from Forgate St station. I’ve had the pleasure of having afternoon tea here a couple of times, once with all of the Nan’s and Mum’s of my family, and once for my birthday. Now, on both visits I didn’t really explore much of the hotel but the setting is always quite quiet and peaceful whenever I have visited, which is exactly what you need for an afternoon tea.
On both visits we opted for their prosecco afternoon tea, priced at £15.95 per person which is the cheapest prosecco afternoon tea i’ve ever had! Now you’d think at that price there would be a catch, but in fact for the portions that you get I couldn’t recommend this afternoon tea more! You get such a good variety of sandwiches, warm scones and plenty of yummy cakes, again which you can take home if you can’t finish everything! Being a local Worcester gal, i’d really recommend if you’re looking for a city centre afternoon tea spot as I think that this venue isn’t somewhere you’d really think about, but it is fab!
So those are my top five recommendations for afternoon tea in and around the West Midlands! Please do let me know if you end up visiting any of these locations, as I love hearing about other peoples experiences based on my recommendations.
What is your favourite place for afternoon tea?
