Date Visited: 22nd June 2013
Price: £19.50 Gluten Free (GF): £11.50
I stumbled across this tea room on somebody
else’s blog and thought it sounded quite good. It had been credited with lots
of tea room awards over the years, namely ‘‘Top
Tea Place 2010’ and a ‘Tearoom of Excellence’ in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Not bad, right?! After phoning to check that they could provide a gluten free
option, I thought I’d give it a try. It’s located in a small village in North
Yorkshire called Helmsley and from the outside it looks very quaint and
picturesque – although I happened to visit on an annual biker’s weekend so the
place was a little rowdier than I had expected.
The tea room
itself was nicely decorated and the tables were laid with nice white table
cloths and white crockery. There were a large selection of teas to choose from,
a whole menu in fact, and we chose the signature house blend ‘The Black Swan.’
Personally, I quite enjoyed the tea but my guests found it to be much too weak.
After ordering our tea, it was over 45 minutes before our sandwiches and cakes
arrived. Service was not the best here but the manager did apologise and bring
us more tea whilst we were waiting. When the food finally did arrive, it was
very well presented on a two tiered cake stand. There were three small finger
sandwiches each, consisting of ham, cream cheese and chive, brie, avocado and
tomato, smoked salmon and cucumber, and egg mayonnaise on a white roll. The
gluten free option was the same minus the white roll, which they substituted
for another ham sandwich. I found the sandwiches to be a bit small and I wasn’t
overly keen on the brie, avocado and tomato – a bit too fancy for my taste!
The cakes
consisted of three scones each with strawberry conserve and clotted cream, one
pink raspberry macaroon, a small banofee tart, a chocolate layer cake and a
lemon and raspberry panna cotta. My favourite of these was the scone - they
were very nice – and myself and my guests weren’t too keen on the raspberry
macaroon – it tasted very much like soap! The gluten free option was extremely
disappointing. Whilst they provided the same panna cotta and macaroon, they did
not provide gluten free scones. Instead, these were substituted by a millionaire’s
shortbread and treacle tart which my guest assured me were taken from a packet.
For an establishment that claims to have a patisserie chef, it is beyond belief
that, despite advanced notice, they were unable to provide fresh pastries and
scones. Overall, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
Ratings: Gluten Free:
Tea: 7/10
Sandwiches:
5/10 4/10
Cakes: 5/10 1/10
Scones: 8/10 N/A
Service:
5/10
Overall:
6/10
Would I
return? No
N.B. I would
usually take my own pictures but on this occasion I forgot to take my camera!
