Sunday, 22 October 2017

Royal Afternoon Tea at The Midland Hotel, Manchester



Birthdays always call for afternoon tea, and what better way to celebrate than with a trip to the Midland's recently opened Tea Room in Manchester.

This is one that's been on mine and Laura's radar for some time, particularly because of their fresh approach to dietary requirements (not only do they have champagne and traditional afternoon tea, but they also offer vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and children's options as standard - a massive plus when one of your group is a veggie) so when my friend Caroline suggested that we visit for her birthday, the answer was a resounding yes.




Although relatively new to the afternoon tea scene, their reputation is already strong across Manchester, with bookings for our weekend filling up six weeks ahead of time - a clear sign business must be booming. It was so busy in fact, that we couldn't even manage to sneak in ten minutes earlier on the day and had to wait for our reservation time in the lounge.

Once we managed to sit down, the tea experience began. As I mentioned, the main USP of the Midland is its focus on catering for dietary requirements (I've heard that the Tea Room's manager has tried out every tea in the city, with the aim of creating the best that Manchester has to offer) and as a group who have often struggled to find restaurants and tea venues that are 100% clued up when it comes to vegan, vegetarian and pescetarian menus, I have to say that this makes for a most welcome change.




As standard, you are presented with a "Traditional" and "Royal" afternoon tea menu, with dietary requirements listed in a separate listing. As much as possible, the Midland have tried to make all of the teas as reflective as possible across the board, substituting ingredients well to create similar experiences for diners to enjoy together, regardless of their dietary needs.

For the traditional afternoon tea, the menu currently consists of the following: 

Sandwiches
Goosnargh chicken & BBQ sweet corn on a brioche bun, goats cheese with beetroot chutney on walnut bread, honey baked gammon with garden pea mousse on granary, smoked salmon on dark malt bread, duck egg & mustard cress on white bread

Scones
Plain and sultana scones served with devon clotted cream and Mrs Darlington's Jams - as an FYI whilst you get a dish of clotted cream for the table, the jams are silver served directly onto your plate by the waiting staff, which I found to be a little unusual, but I suppose cuts down on wastage.

Cakes
Dark chocolate delice, passion fruit & white chocolate tart with Italian meringue, pistachio & olive oil cake with orange curd and Scottish strawberry, champagne mousse and Victoria sponge.




My favourites on the day were the chicken on brioche and the chocolate delice. For the sandwiches, it was very pleasing to see such a good variety of bread types (including walnut bread!) as all too often you find that finger sandwiches are neglected when it comes tea planning. The cakes were similarly well balanced in flavour, if erring slightly more towards the mousse direction - which wasn't to the taste of my friends - but that's more of a preference thing. If I'm being critical, I think that there could've been another interest point in the desserts, perhaps a macaron or something of a crunchier nature, to balance out the mousse based treats a little more.



Overall, I was pretty impressed with the Tea Room at the Midland, but would say that they still have a little way to go before they can be crowned as the best afternoon tea in Manchester. This isn't for any particular reason, but I believe that there are a few elements that can be refined and polished even further to create the perfect experience.

It's early days, so I have no doubt that they'll get there, and whilst they do, they are still more than worth a visit - a booked out calendar of reservations can't be wrong!

For more information and booking, please visit:

- Caroline

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