Camellia's Tea House

This month’s scone extravaganza started with a return visit to Camellia's Tea House with twitter friend, who first introduced me to this delightful, quirky tea room hidden away just off Carnaby Street.

My cream tea consisted of two delicious, warm scones nicely presented and accompanied with generous portions of clotted cream and jam. Feeling a little adventurist that day I decided to have a change to my usual preferred Assam tea and paid a little extra to upgrade to cherry blossom tea, which I was totally delighted with as it had just the most exquisite flavour. Their amazing selections of tea is not really surprising as Camellia’s is also a tea emporium selling over one hundred types of tea all beautifully displayed in attractive tea caddies. They also have an amazing selection of homemade cakes and crumpets (which my friend had), along with its friendly and relaxed ambience, it’s no wonder the place is so popular.

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

The Orangery at Kew Gardens

At the beginning of March I joined a few of my twitter friends on a visit to Kew Gardens to see their beautiful Orchid Festival. The Orangery offers a self service restaurant serving Peyton and Byrne's food in a magnificent setting. When I entered the restaurant Travelling Dave informed me disaster had struck as that there were no scones available and the new batch would not be ready for another twenty minutes. Horror of horrors what were we going to do? However the dilemma was quickly resolved as if by magic the scones appeared almost instantaneously. The scone itself had slightly unexpected bread like texture, which was fine, but not what I’d expect in a scone hence I gave it a rating of just one. It was accompanied with a portion of jam and cream and I found a rather attractive Kew Gardens tray to put it on.  The setting was delightful and our visit unbelievably coincided with that short spell of really warm weather in March which meant I was able to eat my scones al fresco.

Ratings:  Scones: 1   Accompaniments: 2  Service: 2 Ambience: 2  Overall:  7/11

 Ampersand Hotel

On another tweet up this time at the Ampersand Hotel I opted for a cream tea rather than the afternoon tea this occasion.  I’ve included them here as this is my first visit since starting the Scones of the Month blog.  The cream tea consisted of two scones, one plain and one raisin and with a pot of tea of your choice from the tea menu.  It was very attractively presented and accompanied with generous portions of both clotted cream and jam.  The scones were most delicious. I personally found the service to be very good as the waitress serving me was helpful. This is my third visit to the Ampersand Hotel and it continues to be one of my favourite places for afternoon tea as I love the decor and their scones, although I didn’t have them on this visit I would highly recommend their white chocolate scones which are served with their afternoon tea. I've also written a blog about the Ampersand's Classic Afternoon Tea and their special Halloween Tea.

Ratings:  Scones: 2   Accompaniments: 2  Service: 2 Ambience: 2  Overall:  8/12

Teapod

Teapod was a delightful unexpected discovery I made when I was looking for a nice cafe to have a break after walking along the River Thames from Rotherhithe. Tepod is a tea house just a few minutes’ walk from Tower Bridge in Shad Thames. This small cafe was very busy when I visited and not surprising that it’s so popular as it offers a great selection of teas to consume on the premises or to purchase to take home. The staff are friendly and knowledgably and there is a great selection of homemade cakes. I ordered their classic Devonshire Cream Tea and the scone was extremely large and very tasty. It was accompanied with very generous portions of strawberry jam and cream. Although the cream tea is served with a classic tea of one’s choice, I ordered a Matcha Green Tea Latte, one of the few places in London that offers this, and had to pay a small supplement.  However it was delicious and served with a little pot of honey. The decor is very colourful and my favourite feature was Teapod Timer on the wall so you can brew your tea to perfection. It’s a the perfect place to go if you are in the Tower Bridge area and looking for some delicious home baking at a very reasonable price. I certainly plan to return and also blog about it.

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

 The Wolseley

For my final review for this month I should start with a warning, I first visited The Wolseley about two months ago and fell in love with the place and couldn’t wait to return so my review could appear a tad bias. This time I was accompanied by my favourite afternoon tea-er friend Julie Chandler. Well my return visit was just as exceptional as the first. We ordered the afternoon tea and it was beautifully served with two scones each. The scones were wrapped in a napkin and served warm.  They were accompanied with generous portions of strawberry jam and clotted cream. What I particularly like about the presentation is the accompaniments were served in separate dishes with strawberry and clotted cream written on their spoon handles.The two things that make The Wolseley stand out for me are first its extremely attentive staff who are amazing and the building itself.  With its opulent interior it’s almost unbelievable to think that the building was originally a car showroom.  This is a place I’m planning to blog about soon as it’s one of my very favourite places to go for afternoon tea as well as having a delicious tea, which incidentally is more reasonably priced than a many of the nearby luxury hotels, it has a fabulous wow factor and a quirky history which makes it the perfect place for me.

Ratings:  Scones: 2   Accompaniments: 2  Service: 3 Ambience: 3  Overall:  10/12  

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

Tweet