Vintage Emporium

April started off with eating scones by candlelight in Vintage Emporium, which was a first time for me and took my scone eating pleasures to new heights. 

The Victorian style tea rooms, on the ground floor, are utterly delightful with its quirky, eclectic decor and the candlelight creating a wonderful atmosphere. The menu includes homemade cakes and a good selection of teas and coffees. The scone arrived with a generous portion of strawberry jam but disappointed to have to say, and I know it’s a personal preference, there was no clotted cream. The scone and hot chocolate were very reasonably priced. Vintage Emporium is in a side street just off Brick Lane and a short walk from Shoreditch High Street Overground Station. In the basement there’s a fabulous vintage shop which is well worth browsing. Slightly unusually from some vintage cafe this one is its open seven days a week and not just at weekends. I’m totally charmed by the place and hope to visit again soon.

Ratings:  Scones: 2   Accompaniments: 1  Service: 2 Ambience: 3  Overall:  8/11

Langham Hotel

A couple of weeks ago twitter friend, his parents and I visited the Langham Hotel after attending a fascinating guided tour of the BBC Studios. I had previously been with friends for afternoon tea here in my pre-blogging days and it was lovely to return.  As we hadn’t booked we weren’t surprised to see that the Palm Court was full but we were delighted when staff suggested we could order a cream tea in the Artesian bar. This turned out to be a great choice as we had fun watching the bar staff prepare all the different types of cocktails and its provided us with a great reason to return there soon. The service was fabulous throughout our visit. Our scones arrived warm, wrapped in a napkin and accompanied with generous portions of strawberry jam and clotted cream. A nice touch was that the teas and coffees were accompanied with a plate of shortbread biscuits and served on pretty contemporary styled china.  This is another fabulous venue which I plan to blog about soon.

Ratings:  Scones: 2   Accompaniments: 3  Service: 3 Ambience: 3  Overall:  11/12

 Scones at my friend's home

My next choice for scones of the month is extra special as my friend Julie invited me to her home for afternoon tea.  It was just one of the loveliest afternoons ever (which continued on into the evening).  She had thought of everything from the fillings in my vegetarian sandwiches to the wonderful Easter table decorations including a chocolate bunny on my plate to take home later. The scones were fabulous and I dedicate April’s Scones of the Month to Julie as a small thank you for such a wonderful day. #Julieisthebest

Tea House Theatre

I was delighted this month to finally visit the Tea House Theatre which has been on my must do list for a while now.  The tearooms are located an easy five minute walk from Vauxhall Tube Station and very close by is the charming Vauxhall City Farm, so well worth combining a visit to see both. The tea rooms, which are larger than I had expected, are housed in an old Victorian pub on the site of the former Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. They serve all day breakfasts and afternoon teas. They offer a dazzling selection of loose leaf teas which you can choose from their tea menu which comes complete with amazing glossary, tea grading terminology and vocabulary sections to help you select your choice of tea. The cream tea is wonderful value at just £6, at time of visiting, and consists of two delicious raisin scones, homemade jam and clotted cream. It was accompanied by a pot of house tea with a delightful knitted tea cosy. The service was great and the decor is fun with lots of eye catching objects. I can’t wait to return to try their afternoon tea, which is served with ice cream and I will write a blog soon.

Ratings:  Scones: 2   Accompaniments: 2  Service: 2 Ambience: 2  Overall:  8/11

Until next time...

Ratings

Scones - 1:  Fine, 2:  Tasty, 3: OMG, highly recommend

Accompaniments - 1:  Alright, 2:  Well presented, 3:  Great selection/ utterly amazing flavour

Service - 1:  Alright, 2: Consistently good, 3:  Exceptional - only given for luxury hotel/ afternoon tea

Ambience - 1: Ok, 2:  Cool, 3:  Utterly amazing

Total Score - 1 – 5:  Average, 6 – 7:  Good choice, 8 – 10:  Wonderful, would return soon, 11 – 12:  OMG, want to return NOW!

Disclaimer:  All views expressed in Scones of the Month (Year) are always my own honest opinion. Unless otherwise stated I have received no "treats" from any of the venues.

If you enjoyed this blog you might like to read about Scones of the Year 2013 or other editions of Scones of the Month.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of London and City of Westminster Tour Guide who leads guided walks combining world famous landmarks with hidden treasures often missed by the crowds

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