Afternoon Tea at The Townhouse Hotel, Chester

A stroll along Lower Bridge Street towards the River Dee is one of my favourite things to do on a lazy Sunday. Throw in a pit stop for pastries and prosecco on the way and you've pretty much described my ideal afternoon, which is exactly why we stopped by The Townhouse Hotel in Chester last month for a spot of afternoon tea.

Set in a Georgian style townhouse building, the hotel has a luxe feel right from the start with a teal colour scheme signposting your way in, which continues inside with a more contemporary feel accompanying its Victorian features. Afternoon tea is served in the bar area which bridges the lounge with the dining room. The latter may have been a slightly better location for tea but as it was a particularly quiet afternoon perhaps the bar area was preferable for service. Nonetheless, it's a pleasant setting, kitted out with velvety grey dining chairs and dark wood furnishings.

There are three options for tea; traditional, sparking and bottomless prosecco. We opted for sparkling which comes with a glass of prosecco each (as not to overindulge) but given the price of bottomless (£29.95pp), it's well worth upgrading if bubbles are your thing.

Tea is served on a two-tier slate stand and is chock full of different flavours, shapes and sizes. To start, the range of sandwiches include both finger sandwiches and brioche buns with fillings such as; roast Ham with fruit Chutney, roasted red pepper and hummus, egg and cress, cucumber and cream cheese, and smoked salmon and crème fraiche. The red pepper and hummus brioche was amazing and the overall selection was equally impressive and catered to just about every kind of palette. We're not particularly fussy so successfully scoffed the lot in no time at all and would have happily made room for more hummus.

Next up, the scones aren't exactly presented as the main event here, nestled in amongst the rest of the patisserie selection, however they deserve their own little place to shine due to being deliciously soft served with a handsome dollop of jam and cream.

The sweet selection was probably our favourite part (let's be honest, when is cake ever not our favourite part of anything?). Balanced out with exactly the right amount of chocolate, traditional flavours and fruit, the selection earns itself a big thumbs up. On offer was a chocolate and pistachio layer cake, white chocolate and coconut sponge (sooo good and unusual), ginger cake, and macaroons. It's been said a million times before, but we love a macaroon with afternoon tea, not least because they Instagram so well, and the blend of traditional with some unusual flavours made for a memorable top tier.

Overall we had a lovely afternoon at The Townouse Hotel. There wasn't a great deal of atmosphere as we were one of only two groups dining at the time but that's a real shame, and hopefully not usually the case, as this is definitely a tea worth putting on your list. At £23.95 per person for sparkling, it's reasonably priced for a city centre tea, and if you're a prosecco lover, for £6 extra, two hours worth of free-flowing fizz makes its a no brainer.