Afternoon Tea at Jesmond Dene House

If you've been reading New Girl in Toon from the beginning you'll know that Simon and I are huge fans of Jesmond  Dene House, a boutique hotel on the outskirts of Newcastle.  It doesn't matter how many afternoon teas we try, JDH will always be our favourite.  Simon is such a huge fan that every time we approach the hotel his face lights up in the biggest grin.  He'd happily move in today if he could.   

It was about 11 months ago that we were lucky enough to check in to a suite for the night to celebrate our first anniversary, it was back in the days before my blog had any readers so I'd love you to go check out the post here as we had such a lovely time.

We decided a while back that we'd treat ourselves to afternoon tea over Easter weekend and pretty quickly realised that a visit to JDH was long overdue.  

We were absolutely delighted to wake up this morning to sunshine and blue skies so I immediately raided my wardrobe to see if I could finally wear something new.

I picked out this beautiful paisley print dress that I got for Christmas and wore it with my blue peep toe heels.  It also seemed the appropriate time to debut my lovely bag from H&M, although Simon was a bit bemused at me taking such a large bag out to afternoon tea.

Sorry, few too many outfit photos there but I love the dress so much I couldn't pick between the photos!

We managed to get to JDH 30 minutes early, which was pretty clever really as it meant we got to enjoy some drinks on the terrace.  With the sun beating down on us making us feel really warm I decided to order my first Pimms of the year.  Apparently JDH have only just added it back onto the menu so I think my drink was actually the first Pimms made by JDH in 2014. 

 

We sat chatting in the sunshine, taking in the beautiful view and perusing the afternoon tea menu.  I really loved that I had my own "nut free" menu as being allergic to nuts can be a bit of a pain when you're an afternoon tea addict so it was nice to get some special attention. 

We usually take our afternoon tea in the Cocktail Bar but this time we decided for a change and booked to eat in the Garden Room, the lovely light conservatory looking out onto the garden.  I'm so glad that we did because it was the perfect room for afternoon tea. 

Afternoon tea at JDH  is £19.50 but it's worth every single penny.   The service is impeccable, the atmosphere is so relaxing and the food is gorgeous.

We started off with our sandwiches Roast Beef, Rocket & Horseradish; Mature Cheddar & Apple Pickle; Potted Salmon and Egg Mayonnaise.  They were lovely but in all honesty we raced through them to get to the sweet (we just can't help ourselves!)

As it's Easter weekend as well as getting a cheese scone and fruit scone with jam and cream we also got a little hot cross bun each.   It was such a lovely added touch.  Simon slathered his in jam and cream, which I think is perhaps a little strange?

The final tier was, of course, the cakes and I think it was probably the best cake tier we've ever had at JDH.   The selection was Rose & White Chocolate Shortbread (which I loved because it tasted of Turkish Delight), Sticky Toffee Cheesecake (Simon's favourite), Chocolate Marshmallow Truffle and Lemon Sponge & Vanilla Frosting.

We were pretty sensible for a change and attempted to eat everything at a steady pace (we have been known to wolf down an entire afternoon tea in less than an hour) whilst drinking copious amounts of tea (if you talk to Simon he will tell you that I more or less drained both teapots that we had and he didn't get much of a look in). 

I was feeling pretty giddy as the sun was out and so thought that it'd be the perfect day to give Simon an "Afternoon Tea Name" which I decided would be Cecil.   Personally I thought it was pretty funny but after a couple times of me asking him to "pass the tea Cecil" he started to refuse to answer to his new name.  Spoilsport!

As usual we were completely full to bursting by the end, I tried to convince Cecil (sorry I mean Simon!) to wheel me back up the hill to the Metro in one of the Garden Lounge chairs but he made me get up and walk.  

We've had such a wonderful start to our Easter Weekend so thanks to everyone at Jesmond Dene House for giving us yet another perfect experience.