Last Sunday we had a jaunt to York for the afternoon, for a stroll in the sunshine and a change of scenery. I haven't been to York for a few years now so it was wonderful to revisit the narrow streets, the variety of sweet shops, and to take in the sights like the stunning York Minster. There's something about the streets and shops that make me feel like I'm in Harry Potter, and that can never be a bad thing!
We were kindly invited to The Royal York Hotel for a complimentary champagne afternoon tea for two. The hotel has recently undergone a huge refurb and I take my hat off to the design team. The areas we had a nosy round are visually very, very beautiful. The location for their afternoon tea is the 'Garden Room', where we were seated by one of the huge windows looking out to the gardens and Minster.
I've never experienced an afternoon tea that came with a starter before, but this savoury trio were most welcome to balance out the sweetness that was coming up. The starters consisted of an avocado mousse with Whitby crab and sieved egg, a red onion and goats cheese tart, and a parmesan scone topped with cream cheese, pumpkin and toasted seeds (all delish but I think the scone was my favourite).
The sandwiches were tasty, although I've developed a difficulty with the texture of smoked salmon over the past few months so the egg filling was my favourite of the two. It had a twist to it, mustard I think, and it was a bit different to the usual bog standard egg sarnies I make for my pack up ;)
We were surprised and rather delighted to get two scones each; a plain and a fruit scone a piece, complete with clotted cream and home made jam. By this point, full of champagne, tea, our starters and the sandwiches we were starting to bulge around the middle a little so we slowed down and debated undoing our top buttons to fit it all in!
The mini cakes and sweet things on the top tier were a real treat for the eyes. We were promised a box to take any leftover cakes away with us so we tucked in to what we could manage and took the rest home for our tea. My favourites were the eclair with a chocolate cream filling (and gold leaf!) and the battenburg. I'm an absolute sucker for battenburg and as Paul doesn't like it I got the whole piece. Result!
We both thoroughly enjoyed our food, drinks, attentive service and the setting of the Garden Room. The champagne afternoon tea is £25 which we feel is really good value for the quality and the amount of food you get. We both agreed it would be nice to return to The Royal York Hotel for a weekend away in the future. If the rooms are as impressive as the rest of the hotel they would be the perfect place for a sleepover!
Image may be NSFW.
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