Holden Vale Tea Rooms 14th April 2013

Holden Vale, Haslingden for Afternoon Tea

I am on a mission to try as many afternoon teas as possible mainly locally but also when out and about. Last Sunday myself and hubby decided at short notice to pop over to Holden Vale Tea Rooms, and try their afternoon tea.

It was during the tea that I decided to create blog to record my experiences and this is the first post although not the first afternoon tea that has been tried and tested.

We have eaten a number of times in the tea rooms and the food is excellent and they have a great deal of choice when it comes to cakes.

Locally, this is one of the most expensive Afternoon Teas at £11.95 per person and as such we were expecting a very good one.

We manged to get seated straightway, and a very nice young lad came over quite quickly, we knew what we wanted so the order was very easy, afternoon tea for two one with tea and one with coffee.

A few minutes later he returned to ask us what sandwiches we wanted and what cake. We thought this was quite odd as the menu did say a selection of sandwiches and normally a selection as decided by the venue is given. I asked what our options where and he was a bit puzzled by the question. I got the impression that he was quite new and had never been asked for afternoon tea before. I suggested that they provide a selection. 

We were then asked to choose a cake, in fairness when we read the detail of afternoon tea on the menu it did say a piece of cake, but again traditional teas include a selection of mini cakes. So we both went to the counter and as it happens chose the same cake, the coffee and walnut cake.

It was not long before the afternoon tea was served with a side order of salad, different! The presentation with afternoon tea is part of the event, so when it arrived on a metal/tin tray type thing, it was a bit of a let down. 

The sandwiches were simple fingers and nice, we got 3 fingers each including egg mayo, ham and chicken. No cucumber sandwiches though?

The cake that we chose was there with a couple of grapes and coulis, along with a very large scone. The fruit scone was served with jam and cream but I did think we had gone into ration mode as there was only just enough to cover each half of the scone.

In the end neither of us finished our cake as it was a tad dry and had quite an overpowering after taste, a small version alongside other small cakes would have been much better.

As far as my mission goes, this is my least favourite afternoon tea to date.

Holden Wood