rev:text
| - I really, really want to give this place more than three stars because the staff is wonderful and friendly and the service is great, but the food just.... isn't.
I brought my nana here once for afternoon high tea. We ordered the "cream tea" platter which comes with 6 tiny triangle sandwiches (two egg salad, two cucumber, two salmon), two scones with jam and cream, a few little pastries and your choice of tea (we ordered English breakfast).
The English tea tastes just like home (for me, home is Ireland) and is made fresh with tea leaves and brought to your table in a cute little teapot. The food is served on one of those tiered platters - very cute. In my opinion, the finger sandwiches would be MUCH better if they were better prepared - perhaps with more fresh ingredients and flavor. The bread was a little hard and stale and the salmon was dark in color with a less than pleasant odor. Now, the SCONES are what made my day and might be the only thing that keeps me coming back. They are served warm, dusted with powdered sugar and with fresh jam and cream, which make for great toppings! I could probably eat about 6 of them if I was feeling really naughty. ;)
I brought my nana back here for afternoon tea a second time, and we had pretty much exactly the same experience: the sandwiches were average/stale, the tea was great, the scones were great, but everything just had that "this could be a lot better" feel to it.
On our second visit, we also shared the fish & chips, which were average at best. The chips were definitely freshly cut and actually tasted very similar to what you would get in England or Ireland. However, the fish (cod) was really soggy and lacked flavor. I don't know how fried fish can come from the kitchen soggy, but it did, and I couldn't even eat it.
They have a decent happy hour every day and their selection of beer and cider is quite good. Plus, the atmosphere and decor is inviting and very pleasant. I could see myself popping in for a few drinks during happy hour, but I wouldn't order food.
This restaurant has a lot of potential, it just needs to make things taste better.
|