Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Tea Time at Lords of the Manor @ Upper Slaughter and Sally Lunn's @ Bath

It was 2 very fine days in the area of West England and in fact it was very hot and unusual for UK. What else could be better than chillaxing with nice cups of tea in the afternoon. One of the day we headed for an al fresco low tea at Lords of the Manor and the other day when we were in Bath we chose to revisited Sally Lunn's after almost a full decade.

Lords of the Manor @ Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire

Charged Price: GBP25.00 per person + 10% service charge for afternoon tea set
Visited: 29 June 2015
Food: 7/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Value for money: 2/10
Services: 7/10
Scale: [1=poor ---- 5=average/standard ---- 10=outstanding/exceptional]

Lords of the Manor is a rather prestigious hotel in the area of Upper Slaughter in Gloucestershire. A beautiful hotel indeed. The restaurant of Lords of the Manor also comes with 1 Michelin Star price tag.

As mentioned, it was a beautiful day and why would ones choose to have their tea in the living as usual. Al fresco was without doubt our choice. The front lawn was gorgeous and spacious looking towards the old building of Lords of the Manor.

beautiful Lords of the Manor at Upper Slaughter

al fresco afternoon tea

hotel entrance in monochrome

Afternoon Tea Set (7/10) at Lords of the Manor comes in rather unusual format than other places. I have seen many places that offer free flow format but it is not the case here. The set comprised of finger sandwiches, 2 scones (plain and fruit), and small bites pastries. You may well go for a fancier set with an addition of GBP10 for a glass of Champagne Laurent Perrier Brut.

Sandwiches came in 4 styles: egg mayonnaise and cress, Gloucester cheddar, cucumber, and smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill. Nice but not great in my opinion. Scones were as well in the similar line. Delicious enough but not to die for. It was not as smooth as expected and the clotted cream was lighter than my liking. I am one of those who love thick kind of cream.

For selection of tea, there are about ten kinds to be chosen from. Ranging from classic black tea for consumption with milk to aromatic kind of range to Chinese tea. Delicious selection. To me, this is a beautiful place and it is good for a relaxing afternoon chitchatting with friends or even business talk. But on a nice Summer day only. Otherwise, it would not worth a detour. The afternoon tea set was good but the price tag was ways too high for what you get if without beautiful day and view.

Afternoon Tea Set (GBP25.00)

finger sandwiches

scones with clotted cream and jam

clotted cream and jam on scones is almost the best afternoon treat

small dessert bites

Lords of the Manor @ Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire
Upper Slaughter
Gloucestershire
GL54 2JD
United Kingdom

Open Hours: Mon - Sat from 12:00pm - 05:30pm and Sun from 03:30pm - 05:30pm
Tel: +44 (0) 1451 820 696
Webhttp://www.lordsofthemanor.com/
FBhttps://www.facebook.com/LordsOfTheManorHotel


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Sally Lunn's @ Bath

Charged Price: GBP9.00 per person without alcohol
Visited: 27 June 2015
Food: 6/10
Atmosphere: 4/10
Value for money: 4/10
Services: 5/10
Scale: [1=poor ---- 5=average/standard ---- 10=outstanding/exceptional]

Let me skip the history and legacy of Sally Lunn's and go straight to the point here. For those who have not heard about Sally Lunn's, this is a very very famous tea house that serves its own special bun with tea instead of scone. It is located right in the centre of Bath. You won't miss it. Ask anyone there and they should be able to guide to the direction.

Recalling our previous visit to Sally Lunn's almost a decade ago, I sort of remember that it was one fine Saturday and the place was busy with visitors. Yes, I mean busy and only busy. In contrast, Sally Lunn's now gets super famous amongst tourists and I have to say that it is crowded and packed. The queue was long when we arrived around early afternoon. No, I cannot waste my time with the queue. I decided to do some other things before returning towards late afternoon. By the time, we were seating within 10 minutes but the place was still packed.

The famouse Sally Lunn's at Bath

crowded dining hall

The bun was still as tasty as before. Its half-blood kind of texture was unique. In one sense it feels like brioche and on the other hand, it also contains some touch like scones. If you have not tried, perhaps you wanna give it a go when you are in Bath. I would say that forget about tea here. It was ok, standard quality in small pot. What I would recommend is that trying both savoury and sweet is a good experience. As in our case, we had Sally Lunn Cream Tea, which of course came with clotted cream and jam, and Sally Lunn's Bun with Salt Beef. They both were lovely. The portion can be small and you may expect one to have both savoury and sweet in a meal.

The service here was not so touchy as thought. When a place gets really busy, staffs usually cannot perform at their best capability. In overall, I believe Sally Lunn's has kept its delicacy rather well but it was just the place that was ways too crowded. If I have a chance to revisit Bath, I would not perhaps waste my time visiting Sally Lunn's but go searching some other experience. But this is an opinion of one who had visited the place though.

Sally Lunn Cream Tea (GBP6.98)

Sally Lunn's Bun with Salt Beef (GBP7.68)

Sally Lunn's @ Bath
4 North Parade Passage
Bath
BA1 1NX
United Kingdom

Open Hours: daily from 10:00am - 09:30pm (09:00pm for Sunday and 10:00pm for Friday and Saturday)

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