No. 1 Folly Bridge, Oxford

I'd not heard of No. 1 Folly Bridge before, but had been looking forward to going ever since my friends and I booked an afternoon tea offer on Groupon. This was my first foray into the world of Groupon, and at £9 for an afternoon tea with bubbly, sandwiches and scones it sounded too good to be true.

No. 1 Folly Bridge is located on Abingdon Road in Oxford, on the bank of the river Thames. We bagged a place outside on the 'patio', with the river lapping up all around us. (I'd have been equally pleased to sit inside as it's decorated like a museum with big windows looking out onto the river.)

 

We were given a choice of teas when we arrived. It look some time for them to be served, but the restaurant seemed very busy. The waitress told me that they were rushed off their feet, with a mixture of Groupon and walk-in customers. She was nice and friendly, and apologised for the delay when the teas arrived.

The tea bag was supplied in a cup of hot water (not of the fine bone China type). For obvious reasons, we were all rather disappointed that tea pots weren't provided as we found ourselves strategically sipping our way through the tea until it was lukewarm, to ensure it lasted throughout the meal.

Served in quick succession was the bubbly: prosecco. You can never go wrong with prosecco, particularly when you're sitting next to the river in the sunshine. I say no more!

The food was then served. Disappointingly it wasn't on a nice cake stand as you'd expect for an afternoon tea. But to make up for that the side plates were rather fetching; patterned in purple with a gold trim. We were each to munch our way through three finger sandwiches, a scone and a brownie.

The finger sandwiches were salmon, egg with cress, and cheese with chives. The sandwich on top of the pile was a little dry, but the others underneath were very tasty. I particularly enjoyed the brown bread of the salmon sandwich.

Next on the list were the scones, all of which were plain (so no need to comment on the dissipation of the fruit). They were a good size and had a nice bounce to them, so were clearly fresh. My friend Lizzie's scone was burnt on the underside, but my other friend Anne said that she relished eating scones like that. I'm not sure about that myself, but each to their own!

The scone was very tasty in fact. It's a huge shame that the cream that was supplied with it was not. It was supplied in a small dish and didn't look very inviting. Judge for yourselves why when you see the photo below! It was also rather airy. To make spreading easier, Lizzie, a cream then jam girl, took the executive decision of spreading the cream on top of the jam. The cream was quite sweet with vanilla undertones. Anne concluded that it was Elmlea, a 'cream' that cats love (or so I've been told). I've since found that Elmlea is sold in a squirty variety, which could explain the unfortunate presentation. Needless to say, on the second half of my scone I forwent the cream! With all the cream talk, critiquing the jam somewhat passed me by.

After that were the brownies. I rather enjoyed mine, but Lizzie wasn't so taken with it. She's quite particular when it comes to brownies.

As I mentioned, we paid £9 each for the afternoon tea. I'm not sure how much the restaurant normally charges as afternoon teas weren't listed on the menu and when I asked the waiter he quipped that it was "a million pounds". We made a speedy exit as black storm clouds rolled in and, feeling somewhat letdown by the lack of tea, decided to go for another tea in G&Ds cafe down the road. After a quick bit of maths en route (thank goodness that our other friend - will.i.sam - has a maths degree) we came to the conclusion that, without the Groupon offer, this would otherwise have cost us around £20 each. We were pretty shocked by this, especially Anne and Lizzie who could contrast it to their afternoon tea in the Grand Cafe earlier on this month. (I have since referred back to the Groupon offer and found out that the actual value should have been £21.70.)

Because this wasn't a cream tea I'm finding it hard to rate it out of 10 as I'd normally do. I feel that we got a fair price at £9, but I'd have been gutted to pay the asking rate of £21.70. Corners were clearly cut on the tea and cream which soured our opinion of the experience. Based on that alone it'd give it a 4/10. Would I go back? Maybe, but just for a drink. Would I do a Groupon deal again? I doubt it (unless it was somewhere I had been wanting to go to for a while and knew that the deal was worth it).

I'm including some pics below from Abingdon Road, an eclectic mix of beautiful old buildings and 1960s architecture.

Happy scone eating,

The Cream Tea Queen

Cafe Loco, Oxford

Union flag outside Christ Church

I'm thoroughly enjoying the 4-day Jubilee weekend. It's provided me with yet another excuse to go out for my second afternoon tea in as many days!

My friend Steve visited me today. He's from the USA so was keen to enjoy this English tradition. Having walked past a sign saying 'scones' earlier on in the day and hearing Steve utter this word with excitement, I was pleased to realise that no persuasion would be needed on my part. This is a dream situation for a Cream Tea Queen to find herself in.

I've learnt a lot from my afternoon tea excesses of yesterday (which - I think I forgot to mention at the time - were preceded by a rather large family lunch), so planned today's build-up accordingly. It's all about strategy! We therefore had a light lunch, followed by a stroll around Christ Church meadows. After an insightful trip to Christ Church college (a good tip for all Oxford residents: you can get in at a discounted rate if you provide proof of your address), we had worked up an appetite for scones.

Alice in Wonderland on the cafe wall

I decided to take Steve to Cafe Loco on St Aldates. Having been there a few times already, I knew this cafe and liked the handy location - in amongst the sights of Oxford, looking out at Christ Church college - as well as the drinks and food, which are reasonably priced. After the trip to the college I also understood the significance of the Alice in Wonderland paintings on the walls of the cafe.

Luckily for me, Matt arrived at the cafe a few minutes ahead of Steve and I and secured us a table. (Thinking about my blog from yesterday, I feel that I'm quite good at turning up fashionably late and not needing to queue. Other Cream Tea Queens should take note!) That said, the cafe wasn't too busy and there were a few other free tables.

Small scones

We all ordered the scones with tea (£5.50). They didn't take long to arrive, although we felt slightly letdown when they did; the icing sugar dusting on the top did nothing to cover up the fact that they were small. Not as small as you'd expect scones to be when you order a high tea at an upper class establishment, but not nearly as big as my scone-loving nature would hope for. To make up for this fact they were warm. A delightful, non-soggy warmth that implies they have just come out of the oven. Things were looking up.

Upon cutting them we realised that they were slightly dry on the inside. As experts in the field, we came to the conclusion that they'd been overheated by approximately 30 seconds. I'm not sure if they were fruit scones or plain scones. They both had a few pieces of fruit in them, although I suspect they were plain scones masquerading as fruit scones.

The scones came with a pot of clotted cream and a pot of jam, just enough for the two scones. A good situation to find yourself in as I hate wasting food, but equally so it can be embarrassing when you have to ask for more. As with other cream teas I've had, the jam was slightly disappointing; not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly not homemade either.

Scones and tea

(Watching Matt having difficulty spread his cream on top of the jam, I realised that there is scope for further investigation into how people eat their scones. Watch this space blog readers.)

The only other thing that's left to comment on is the tea. Bags, not loose leaf, so no need for the rather fancy tea strainer that I enjoyed using so much yesterday. We didn't want for further cups of tea, but my Welsh friends should note that no extra hot water was provided.

I've been mulling over what score to give this afternoon tea. It's a tricky one. The scones weren't that great, but their freshness and relatively good price does also count for a lot. The cafe itself is nice too. After much deliberation I'm going to give it a 6/10. I would definitely go back, but perhaps I'd stick to my usual choice of lunch or a slice of cake as they have never disappointed.

Happy scone eating,

The Cream Tea Queen