As the popularity of afternoon tea continues
to rise, more and more places are offering slates, plates and tiers of sarnies,
scones and cakes somewhere in between lunch and dinner time. But with so many
people jumping on the bandwagon and making the most of this extra meal in the day,
how do you stand out from the crowd? Malmaison Cheltenham might just have the answer.
With mini burgers and milkshakes on the menu (well
strictly speaking it’s a smoothie but let’s not get our knickers in a twist),
along with the more traditional offerings of fruit scones and a whole host of
sweet treats, Malmaison Cheltenham certainly managed to get my attention.
So one hump day, after work, I met up with the
lovely Sara who blogs about her travel adventures over at All Aboard the Skylark for an almighty feast of food and nattering. I’ve noticed that those who
partake in afternoon tea are always good at talking – for hours. Hours and
hours. We managed four! And that was without any alcohol!
Malmaison Cheltenham serve afternoon tea every day between 3pm and 5.30pm and the one we had comes
at a cost of £17.50 per person. I’d highly recommend booking in advance and
asking for a table in their gorgeous conservatory if possible. That’s where we
sat and it really is lovely.
Rather than finger sandwiches, here you get
wraps and a mini burger each. The chipotle chicken and avocado wrap didn’t have
the kick I was hoping for but the burger was spot on, as was the hot smoked salmon
wrap. It was good to have something a bit more substantial as I always find afternoon
tea somewhat lacking in the savoury department, so this got the thumbs up from
me as I’m not a sweet or a savoury toothed person – I’m both!
Next up we moved onto the sweets, starting
with the fruit scone laden with clotted cream and strawberry jam (and butter for
me too). Oh and we both agreed, it’s jam first, cream second.
We had a little break at this point, topped up
our tea pots (we were on Darjeeling) and nattered some more to make some room for
the second tier consisting of a strawberry & vanilla pavlova, salted
chocolate brownie, lemon & polenta cake, rhubarb & custard pot (in
place of the peach & Amaretto cream) and a frozen summer berry smoothie.
I worked my way through the whole lot, with my
favourites being the brownie and the milkshake (aka smoothie). The lemon &
polenta cake didn’t do a lot for me, but there was so much to choose from, it
really didn’t matter at all.
By the way, if you wanted something a little
stronger than tea, you can pay a bit extra and either have a glass of champagne
or a fabulous cocktail to accompany your feast, but being a school night we
wimped out and stuck with a cuppa.
What a fabulous afternoon tea with a twist,
great company, gorgeous surroundings and a very handy location – just a stone’s
throw away from the town centre.
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