Fruit Scone
The Assembly House

The Assembly House

Theatre Street Norwich, Norfolk NR2 1RQ, NR2 1RG, United Kingdom

Pubs • Beer • Wine • Sushi


"Went for Beauty and The Beast afternoon tea yesterday. Utterly stunning building and the room we were sat in was decorated beautifully. The service from start to finish was lovely although we did have to flag someone down anytime we needed something as we were not approached at all for more drinks or if we wanted our scones. The sandwiches were lovely and cut perfectly if not a little bland. The chicken roll was lovely and the toastie was nice but would benefit from stronger cheese as it didn’t really taste of anything. The scones were perfect and some of the best I’ve ever eaten. The sausage rolls were amazing as were the little tart and salmon mousse. The cakes very much let it all down. The blueberry cake tasted of nothing and seemed greasy. The macaron again tasted of very little and the red food colouring stained everything it touched. The lemon cake was nice but the icing was awful and it seemed to be made from margarine rather than actual butter. The chocolate mousse was lovely if not a little strong for the children. Both the savoury and sweet biscuits were out of this world. Our biggest complaint is that 4 of us were squeezed into a small table. We really struggled for space. I couldn’t drink my tea and had to hand back my pot of tea as we simply didn’t have space for it. We felt incredibly cramped. It would of been nice to have some music in line with the themed afternoon tea playing too perhaps?"

Graffiti

Graffiti

Whitehouse Lane, Cambridge, United Kingdom, CB3 0GS

Steak • Cakes • British • European


"We live in Dorset but my In-Laws live in Cambridge and we have had several great family celebrations at the Felix Hotel, including a wedding last April. Therefore it seemed the perfect place to take my In-Laws to for Christmas lunch this year. I booked early and a few weeks before Christmas I got a phone call from Reception to say they were e-mailing the Christmas Lunch menu to me for us to make our choices. The menu did not arrive, so I telephoned the hotel and they apologised and said they would re-send it. Again, it did not arrive, so I telephoned again to be told that they had sent it, twice, to the wrong address. On Christmas Day we arrived at the restaurant where a young woman, who was walking around with a piece of paper in her hand, looked at me and said Yes? No greeting, no smile, no Happy Christmas, no welcome.We were shown to our table, where we were basically abandoned. After 20 minutes, having not been approached by a member of staff or been offered bread, water, or anything else I sought out the Barman and asked if we could have our 'Welcome Drink ' (as featured on the menu) which he brought to our table. We were then told that as we had not pre-chosen our menu there would be a delay in serving our lunch. I assured the young woman (the unsmiling one who had showed us to our table) that we had indeed e-mailed our menu choices and she then disappeared to look for the e-mail. When the food finally arrived it was delicious but we were left for long periods between courses and served by a variety of waiting staff who, without exception, were curt and clearly would rather have been elsewhere. Finally, when I went to pay the bill, I was given the wrong bill and the same miserable young woman as before was clearly irritated when I questioned it. I wrote to the Manager to express my disappointment with our Christmas experience but have had no acknowledgement from the hotel. Sadly, we will not be returning and would not reccommend it to anyone."

The Orangery

The Orangery

St Elphin's House, St Elphin's Park, DE4 2RX, Derbyshire Dales, United Kingdom

Full • British • European • Breakfast


"Where do I start! My husband and I were looking forward to afternoon tea at the Orangery restaurant, after perusing the menu online beforehand it sounded quite nice. When we arrived we were greeted and shown to our table, the place was almost empty, with only one more couple there. We were asked if we’d like tea or coffee, this came out after 5 minutes. The wobbly cake stand with the very sparse amount of sandwiches and selection of cakes came out much later and our teapot was nice and empty by this time! We weren’t offered a refill and tried in vain to get the attention of the waitress who was extremely busy chatting to the other couple about house prices for about 10 minutes. She noticed my husband waving his arms in desperation to get her attention and completely ignored him 4 times! Eventually she managed to fetch us another pot then took the rest of our milk away whilst she refilled it in the kitchen. I thought we were going to die of thirst! The sandwiches we received were not the ones advertised online. We were given plain ham, cheese and pickle, egg mayonnaise and salmon. Where were the watercress, horseradish, cress etc and the coronation chicken? 4 small fingers of basic sandwiches each…. Not enough and I could have made these at home! The scones weren’t warmed and the cakes bore no resemblance to the menu whatsoever! Where were the mango tarts, Victoria sandwiches, pistachio macarons? We received, very dry coffee and lemon cake, chocolate cake and chocolate macaron. Not very inspiring at all for the hefty £21.95 per head price tag! We couldn’t eat a lot of it as it was that rubbish! We did think we might get chance to take the rest home for the kids, but after waiting another 15 minutes to get any attention we gave up and left. As we stepped out of the door the waitress shouted across the room to us to see if we wanted to take the rest home. We said we would have if she had bothered to ask us 15 minutes earlier. Overall a dreadful experience, zero customer service, very inattentive staff, please don’t waste your hard earned cash on this place. Whilst we were there we looked at reviews on trip advisor and see that many people have complained. Short replies have been added by the Orangery saying that they have taken note of the comments, yet absolutely nothing has been done about any of it! We won’t be returning!"