Victoria Plum Tea Room
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| Victoria Plum Tea Room Otley |
Otley
Leeds
Date Visited : 24 July 2014
Price: £7.00
Otley is a
busy market town on the outskirts of Leeds.
It boasts a large array of shops, pubs and cafes and down by the river
is the beautiful Wharfemeadows Park where you’ll find a bowling green, tennis
courts and children’s playground.
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| River Wharfe Otley |
Since Otley
is such a nice place to wander about (the top of the Otley Chevin has some
fantastic views), when I visited I parked right at the top of the Chevin in the
Chevin Forest Surprise View Car Park and then walked down from there into
Otley. This car park is perfectly
located if you want to have a walk about as it’s not too far from the centre of
Otley – and it’s free. Plus, if it’s a
nice day the magnificent view of Otley from the top really is worth seeing. It’s all downhill on the walk down, so it’s
quite a leisurely stroll, but I should warn you that the trek back up is a
little more taxing! The steep climb back
up the hundreds of steps does make you feel slightly less guilty about eating
all that cake at the tea shop. Sort of!
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| Views from the top of the Chevin |
There are a
number of good little teashops in Otley, but we chose to go to the Victoria
Plum Tea Room mainly because they served gluten free food. The cafe is situated in the heart of Otley, just
on the corner near the All Saint’s Parish Church. It’s an old fashioned quaint cafe with
mismatched chairs and tables set outside on its cobbled patio. When we visited there were still signs that
the Tour de France had passed through with its yellow decorated bikes and
buntings strewn across the outside and in the front window.
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| Inside the quaint tea room |
The tea room is quite small inside but it has plenty of wooden
painted tables and chairs and it had a cosy snug feeling. Its white washed walls and original beam
ceiling are decorated with pictures of cupcakes, china cups and saucers and retro
signs. It had a big stone fire place with a more contemporary wood
burning gas fire. A large dresser sits
at the far end of the cafe, heaving with mismatched china cups, saucers and teapots
and more importantly all the delicious freshly baked cakes!
The High Tea
is served on a three tiered cake stand, which was absolutely brimming with food
- there were easily enough cakes and sandwiches for two people but I had it all
to myself! Most tea rooms I have been to
only give you four small finger sandwiches, but here the portions were pretty
substantial. There were three cheese finger
sandwiches in brown bread, two egg mayonnaise, and two ham and tomato, served on
large open breadcakes.
The cakes
consisted of a large chunk of fruit cake, a lemon sponge cake topped with a
thick layer of lemon icing, and of course, the traditional large fruit scone
served with strawberry jam and cream.
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| High Tea |
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| Gluten Free Meal |
My two
guests opted for a baked potato with cheese, garnished with a large helping of
salad and coleslaw, and a sausage sandwich.
They both agreed they wished they
had gone for the afternoon tea after it arrived looking so delicious. I could
probably have shared it really as I did struggle to eat it all. There was more than enough food for two
people, so I did have to save the fruit cake and take it home to eat later.
The gluten
free options were quite limited, and although they provided sandwiches
unfortunately they didn’t do any cakes.
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| It's all up hill on the way back... |
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| It's all down hill going! |
The food here
was excellent. Everything is made fresh
to order and the portions are very large, so it is extremely good value for
money at a mere £7 each. I think this is
possibly the cheapest afternoon tea I’ve ever had and also the most filling!
Ratings: Gluten
Free:
Tea: 8/10 7/10
Sandwiches: 7/10 Baked
Potato with cheese 8/10
Cakes: 8/10
Scones: 7/10
Service: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
Would I return? Yes
