Afternoon tea for me always makes me think of Alice In Wonderland and the Mad Hatters party. Mounds of cakes, tea cups and smiles.
Today was all of the above. We spent a very enjoyable two hours at the Park Plaza Cardiff sampling their new Easter afternoon tea.
First up let me tell you what’s included:
We made a rather big and possibly silly decision to take a 3 year old for afternoon tea at a posh hotel BUT it was all good. Not only did Izzy think it was pretty amazing that she got a whole stand of food just for her..and that we weren’t limiting her intake of cakes or jam but she behaved impeccably.
Apart from sticking her fingers into the cream.. and the jam and to scoop the marshmallows out of her hot choc of course but hey she is only 3 after all. Her hot chocolate which they gave her in place of tea/coffee was amazing..full of marshmallows which she loved and it even looked like it and a smile on the side 🙂
In fact I heard two elderly ladies discussing that polite, pretty little girl and how good she was and I did that little smile when you know you shouldn’t be listening but you are so proud you can’t help it.
Izzy doesn’t often get one on one attention these days with a demanding little sis who hasn’t got very good health right now so it was nice to spend a day just enjoying her and her funny little personality. Nice to not hear me telling her to watch her crumbs because Chloe is allergic and to just listen to her random chatter.
Anyway back to the food. Ah the food. This was our second visit to Park Plaza – our first for afternoon tea and I was wowed. I’ve had a fair few afternoon teas and this is high up there amongst the best.
Each tea is prepared fresh to order so you can expect a short wait but you can start enjoying your tea/coffee or champagne in the meantime.
I love that the tea is served in a proper tea pot with a tea strainer and they instruct you on how long to leave it before removing depending on what strength you like. My tea was perfect. I had four cups!
We had four varieties of sandwiches – we opted out of the salmon and instead had an extra ham with a delicious mustard.
Each sandwich was fresh, without that slightly crisp texture bread can get when left out for more than 10 minutes. There we several different types of breads and they also cater for allergies and we were asked before being served if we had any special requirements – a major plus in my book.
The scones and hot cross buns were clearly freshly baked and the jam, clotted cream and butter were lovely additions. In fact the hot cross bun was one of my favourite parts.
A nothing thing I really enjoyed which I didn’t expect to was the lemon jelly topped with meringue. I imagine the meringue would be too sweet for my taste and the jelly too sharp but it was neither of those things. The meringue was caramelly ( I made that word up ) and the jelly had subtle lemon flavour but was not at all sharp. In fact it was incredible. Just the right size too. Delicious.
The cupcakes and macarons looked and tasted amazing.. I shared some of Izzys but there was no way we could finish all of ours too so they thoughtfully provided boxes for us to package it up to take home. Looking forward to enjoying them with a cuppa this afternoon.
The Easter afternoon tea is only available for the month of April so I would highly recommended making a booking soon. It was busy there yesterday so definitely check for availability in advance. Also the staff are incredibly friendly and seem to enjoy serving children so don’t be afraid to take your little ones with you.
*We were provided with our afternoon tea free of charge for the purpose of this review.