Afternoon Tea at Jesmond Dene House.

Well for my 30th birthday (don't panic I've decided to stay 29) my GG wanted to do something nice to celebrate and as I've said before with a husband, two sons and five brothers things get a bit well "testeroney" around here, so its no wonder I adore anything girly, particularly Afternoon Tea and mix that with a bit of child free time = BLISSS! My gorgeous GG had wanted to take me to the Ritz in London for the day but with all this moving to Texas stuff going on see Stars and Stripes it was going to be a bit of a stretch so where do you go locally that will match it? Everyone knows you go to Jesmond Dene House.
  

Now when I say everyone knows Jesmond Dene House, I mean everyone has heard about it, they may have even tried to get booked in (we were very lucky the lovely Nicky could squeeze us in, so book up early folks) but not everyone knows exactly where it is and that is part of its charm. I have been here before at one of my best friends wedding and I remember how amazed I was, after going along a windy road that this fabulous hotel is just nestled into Jesmond Dene like a secret and I have lived in Newcastle my whole life.

So six of us girls -Me, GG, Mam, Step mum Caroline, and two of my besties Carly and Mandy got dressed to impress at 4pm, apparently precisely when Afternoon Tea Should be served. I was so tempted to get some lace gloves but I refrained and went with a Pink linen shirt dress from Ralph Lauren with patent black accessory's, the mother did mention I looked like a Stepford wife but I was chuffed with that...just need the house to match now.

After we arrived and all the Oooos and Ahhhs were done with from the ones in our party that had never been we were then taken inside by a very smart man who already had us on his "list" and we were seated. I was delighted to be at a table as sometimes its hard work sitting on sofas with a coffee table set up, trying to keep your knees together and fitting everything on a too small surface, however my Mother decided she would like to sit on sofas and maybe a bit too loudly exclaimed it...can take her anywhere. It must have been noted though as our lovely waiter immediately offered to move us to the Terrace despite being very busy but the rest of the party were in agreement, where we were was perfect and by then the Mother had decided she didn't want to be bothered by wasps anyway....I'm telling you now we left a big tip at the end.

Please ignore the lick mark on the mirror #boys!

So now we were settled, probably a few members of staff were wishing we wernt there and we decided to kick things off by ordering a bottle of Bubbly and 6 "Jesmond Dene House Afternoon Teas". Now a "Champagne" version is available but two of us were driving and as you can now tell its best some of us don't drink anyway so I thought it would be better to buy a separate bottle but as it happened everyone had a little slurp to celebrate which was nice; I ended up having the leftovers as you will see, my face is turning into a tomato as the pictures go on. I had stupidly assumed that everyone else there would be having Afternoon Tea which a lot of people were but there was a lot of people going for other options. Being a big foodie I got to do my favourite thing and watch all these other amazing dishes come out from Gourmet Burgers to Sunday Lunch, so I will HAVE to come back to sample the Sunday dinner alone.

Then it was our turn and I literally had my mouth wide open when these gorgeous trays came to our table.  Weighed down with sandwich's crusts off (very important with GG), three types of scones, AND four types of cakes mmmmmm. Something else that really impressed me was, my Step mum has a Gluten Allergy shes not one to make a big fuss and is happy just to be catered for but when I booked it I mentioned this to Nicky in reservations and she said as long as you give them a 48hrs notice its not a problem. I had still kind of thought she might get a pile of grated cheese and some grapes but no, you literally couldn't tell the difference in her tray to ours. They had made a selection of sandwich's with gluten free bread, scones and a selection of cakes with only one being substituted for a gooey brownie...I would have taken a pic but we were all so amazed I forgot and to be honest it didn't last long as my Step mum doesn't get sweet treats much because of her allergy so she was over the moon. Everything is made fresh in house including the bread and you can tell, no pre-made rubbish here. 

Our waiter did rattle off exactly what was on our Afternoon Tea but I was too eager to get stuck in and I was just happy, being I think an Afternoon tea connoisseur that my favourites were there Salmon and Cucumber Sandwich's, Fruit scone with jam and CLOTTED cream and Chocolate éclair. The nice surprise and thing that actually entertained us for longer than it really should was the Blueberry Macaroon, apart from being divine it turned our teeth and tongues completely blue for a few minutes. As I was the first to sample this then go full tilt into a story about "Fifty Shades Casting"...too much fizzy stuff...they all burst out laughing and my Grandma pointed out "If it was her they would be calling an Ambulance thinking she had a heart attack". Everything was as delicious as it looked and despite only having a glass of OJ for lunch in prep I couldn't finish it all, GG was proud to have only left one thing but the best bit was they offered us cake boxes to take the rest home; I want to say the boys got some but I got a second wind later in the evening and dusted the rest.

Can you tell I'm from my Dads side?

I have eaten A LOT of Afternoon Teas including "The Plaza Central Park NYC" and this was definitely one of the best, we thoroughly enjoyed our selves. Everything was served so nicely, the staff were delightful, the surroundings were gorgeous and nothing was too much including trying to get us another table and accommodating my Step mum gluten allergy all with a smile. It is no wonder this is in the top 25 UK hotels on Trip advisor. 

I will return no doubt about it, the trouble is I want to do it every weekend.

Jesmond Dene House

www.jesmonddenehouse.co.uk

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Best Doggy bag ever!