Afternoon Tea at The Pump Room in Bath

Happy New Year guys!

Been a while since my last post, so I thought I would kick off the New Year with an afternoon tea review. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, during my visit to the Bath Christmas Market last month I felt it was obligatory *wink* to have a spot of afternoon tea in one of Baths oldest and most elegant dining establishments. So as promised this week I will finally be reviewing my afternoon tea experience at the Pump Room in Bath!

The Pump Room was built above the roman baths in 1795 by Thomas Baldwin and John Palmer. Back in the day the Pump Room was a focal point of Georgian society – it was where the upper classes wined and dined after visiting the Roman Bath’s next door. The Pump Room is a Grade I listed building, which means the building is of exceptional historic importance.

The Pump Room really does live up to its reputation of elegance and class. As you can see from the pictures - it is an absolutely stunning building inside and out.

It has a definite old school charm and as soon you as enter the building it really does feel like you’ve been transported to a scene from a Jane Austen novel!

The Afternoon Tea is served between 2:30pm and 4:30pm and is priced at £21 for the traditional afternoon tea and £27.50 if you want to include a glass of champagne. During the weekend the Pump Room operates a queuing system so it is not possible to book in advance. We arrived at around 3pm and the waiter informed us that there was a 30 minute wait, which on an empty stomach felt like an eternity!

However, the wait did serve to increase the excitement and anticipation, as you edge closer and can see the relaxed diners in the restaurant and the queue getting longer behind you, you get the sense that you’re in for a truly special treat!

So what was the food like?

Sandwiches

Plenty of vegetarian sandwiches to go round, which were nice but nothing to write home about! If you don’t like cheese you wouldn’t be happy with the vegetarian sandwich line up as they were all traditional cheese fillings.

Scones

Cakes and Pastries 

There were four of us and two people shared a cake stand. As I have a quite an extravagant sweet tooth it was a little disappointing for me that there was only one of each choice so I couldn't try each of the sweet treats. I had to exercise a great deal of self-control!  I did however manage to sample each of the following yummy treats:

• Christmas Macaroon:  I have never tasted macaroons before so I was intrigued to see what all the fuss is about. This was one was certainly delicious, it had a rich chocolate ganache filling which was a pleasant surprise for me.
• Chocolate Éclair: Éclairs are my weakness so you can imagine the fight I put up to have this! And guess what…this one was shaped like a swan - very creative! I almost couldn’t bring myself to eat it but don’t worry I quickly overcame my hesitation :-)
• Fruit Tart: This was really refreshing and crumbly
• Cake: There was a lovely slice of chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache which was very creamy and moist – a  perfect end to a lovely afternoon tea :) 

So did the Pump Room live up to the anticipation?

It absolutely did! The restaurant itself is incredibly posh and very quintessentially British. We were seated close to the pianist and really enjoyed the live classical music playing live. The service was brilliant and the food absolutely delicious.

It’s a great afternoon tea experience but a bit overpriced considering the amount and size of portions – but I guess you pay for the great service and ambience of the place. So overall I would definitely recommend a trip to the pump room if any of you ever take trip to Bath!

Hope you liked today's post :)

You can tweet me on twitter (@nishah_97) with any recommendations of afternoon tea’s you think I should try!

See you next time for more of my ramblings!

xx

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Labels: Afternoon Tea