Afternoon Tea at The Vermont Hotel, Newcastle

As you may have read from my previous post, last weekend I spent celebrating my 30th birthday. On Sunday we drove up to Newcastle and spent a few nights there (mainly to see Take That). My boyfriend, knowing my love for afternoon tea, booked us in at The Vermont Hotel.

When we arrived, as soon as I saw all the flags at the entrance of the hotel I knew that I was in for something good (why is it that only the grand hotels have the flags outside?!). Walking up the steps and through the doors we were immediately greeted and shown through to the lounge. I was hoping to be situated in the area that consisted of pretty swish looking grey studded chairs, however we walked straight through this room into another room that had a collection of low sofas as well as tables with old vintage looking leather chairs. We were seated right beside a roaring fire (which at first was a little concerning for me because I automatically thought with it being May I was going to get too hot, however it was fine).

We were given a choice of what type of afternoon tea we wanted to go for (i.e. traditional, cocktail, champagne etc) however because I'm not a huge drinker, we just went for traditional.

We were presented with the tea first, and although I was a little disappointed that the teapots were basic plain white (I like a bit of vintage in my afternoon tea!) it was nice tea nonetheless.

Shortly afterwards we were presented with our stand of afternoon tea which consisted of the standard sandwiches (i.e. egg mayo, beef & mustard, salmon etc). The fillings tasted really good quality and they didn't scrimp on the quantity of them either.

We had 2 scones each and was provided with ample amount of clotted cream as well as cute miniature jam jars of a variety of flavours.

All the cakes were gorgeous and the selection was perfect. Eclairs, macaroons, chocolate sponge, a mini (what I believed to be) shortbread cake as well as some form of cream passion fruit desert, which came with an edible chocolate spoon! (I was mightily impressed by this!).

The atmosphere in the lounge was perfect - a grand piano was fairly near to our table and within 20 minutes of us arriving a guy sat behind it and began playing. Most of the songs were remixes of 'modern day' songs from Coldplay etc (he even played 'You've got a friend in me' from Toy Story which I was happy with!). Wit the piano playing softly in the background, the fire roaring and our tummies slowly being filled with good food, I was certainly one happy birthday girl!

I have since looked on their website and the different areas of the hotel look amazing. I'm particularly drawn to the Sky lounge (rooftop bar) as well as Bar Livello (please see photos below - credit - google images), not to mention their swanky hotel rooms.. next time, maybe.. next time! I certainly wouldn't hesitate in returning here again. I've had a fair few afternoon teas in the past 2 years and I can safely say this experience is up there with some of my favourites.



image - google

 

Have you ever visited The Vermont?