Cedar Court Grand Hotel
Station Rise
York
North Yorkshire
Y01 6GD
Date Visited : 21 February 2015
Price:
Grand Afternoon Tea - £22.50 per person
On a cold
and blustery February day, what better time is there to escape the miserable
weather and treat yourself to afternoon tea? The Grand Hotel in York is a large Georgian
building situated opposite the historic city wall, not too far from York
Minister. I’ll admit this hotel is a
little posher (and pricier) than the places I normally head for afternoon tea,
but this was bought as a birthday present so I was really looking forward to
trying some place new – and the fact I wasn’t paying made it taste just that
little bit sweeter!
Tea was
served in the Hudson’s dining room, a large and bright room with high ceilings,
white and cream furnishings, elegantly set tables with linen table cloths and a
scattering of vintage pictures of York adorning the walls. It was all very fancy.
 |
| York's Historic Wall with York Minster in the background |
Now being
quite a family of quite fussy eaters (we like things plain), we asked if we
could make a few slight changes to the choice of sandwiches. Nothing major – just a simple ‘no mustard’ and
‘no mayo’. While the staff were more
than happy to accommodate the changes, we did have to wait an extremely long
wait before they actually arrived and after a good half hour our waitress
informed us that the sandwiches were not up to standard so they were being
remade. It’s good that they ensured
quality, but an hour waiting for some simple sandwiches to arrive did seem a
little excessive. When they eventually
did arrive we had five sandwiches each served on a white rectangular plate
consisting of cucumber and dill, egg mayonnaise and watercress, ham (no
mustard), and roast beef and black pepper (no mayo), on an assortment of white
and malted brown bread. The gluten free
option had the same fillings but there was an extra portion.
 |
| Gluten Free Sandwiches |
The cakes
were served on a classic three tier stand and comprised of a banoffee cream and
banana crumb dessert in a glass, a lemon cupcake with vanilla frosting, a dark
chocolate delice, a selection of fruit and plain scones with Masham clotted
cream and preserve, a slice of tea loaf and a rhubarb and custard cone, which
was especially delicious. The amount of cakes certainly made up for the long
wait for the sandwiches and we ended up taking most of them home as we couldn’t
manage them all.
The gluten
free cakes consisted of an enormous slice of chocolate cake and lemon cake with
vanilla frosting, a bakewell tart, jam shortbread, fruit scones and a slice of fruit
cake. The slices of cake were very tasty but we noticed that the jam shortbread
was definitely a Mrs Crimble’s product which was a little disappointing. It made us wonder if all the other cakes were
also shop bought rather than baked fresh on the premises.
 |
| Spot the Mrs Crimble's Shortbread! |
This
afternoon tea was okay – pleasant enough, but far from the best we had had. For such a high class and fancy hotel we were
expecting something a bit more ‘wow’ than we got and it fell a bit short of my
expectations.
Ratings: Gluten Free:
Tea: 7/10
Sandwiches: 6/10 6/10
Cakes: 7/10 6/10
Scones: 7/10
Service: 6/10
Overall: 6½/10
Would I return? Probably not, we have had much nicer
afternoon teas elsewhere.
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