Katie's Garden, Sunderland

I don't often venture out to Sunderland.  Perhaps after all those years commuting on the London Tube, the thought of trekking out to Zone C on the Metro is just too much for me.   Therefore I rely on my friend Kayleigh to share her secrets on the best places to visit when I am there and recently she introduced me and Lisa to Katie's Garden, the cutest little Vintage Craft and Tea Shop.

I know we've all been going a little crazy for the large tree above the Botanist in Newcastle, but Katie's Garden also have an amazing indoor tree but this one is made of papier mache and has a magical penny footpath winding round it.



Follow the footpath and you will find an absolute treasure trove of gorgeous gifts that just screamed "NEW HOUSE" at me!   

When you finally stop being distracted by the shopping opportunity you'll be even more excited once you've seen the food menu.  Sandwiches served on garden trowels and afternoon teas served in picnic baskets - this is lunchtime at its very best.

The menu was too good for my greedy eyes so I sat myself down on a pastel chair (complete with gorgeous flower print seat) and decided to set myself the challenge of eating as much as I could possibly manage!

First up, as it was lunchtime, I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich with salad and crisps.  Served on a trowel and sitting pretty on a bed of grass I must have taken about 10 photographs for Instagram before I could even think about tucking in.  I do love tea rooms with beautifully presented food and I loved having my own garden plate.

I've often thought I could do with a trowel to shovel food into my large mouth but just about managed to resist the urge to use it as a giant spoon.

Lisa is the Queen of Scones (well, she's the Queen of Plain Scones!) so she ordered a cream tea.  My sandwich trowel was almost forgotten about when her picnic bench showed up.    Absolutely adorable!  The butter was tied up in little parcels with brown string, the cream was served in a miniature tea cup and the jam was in a cute little jar.



We had a nice big pot of tea to keep us going (served in vintage china cups of course) and decided a biscuit would be a nice post sandwich snack to go with our cuppas.

 

The biscuits in Katie's Garden aren't really your average biscuits though.  Perfect for a hot Summer's day we indulged in giant Custard Cream biscuits, filled with ice-cream.

You're probably thinking that by this point we were full to bursting and that there's no way this blog post is going to end in cake.   I almost wish this were the case, but there's no way that I can sit somewhere knowing there's a cake menu next to me and not indulge.

So I ordered the largest slab of chocolate fudge cake you have ever seen.  I ate it super fast before I got too full and it was heaven.

There's lots going on at Katie's Garden and if eating cake isn't your thing (leave this blog immediately!)  then you can take part in workshops (it makes me so sad I'm rubbish at crafting because I really fancy a go at "chair funking"), craft parties and a very impressive list of events .. just take a look at the list for July!

You can even buy your wedding dress at Katie's Garden with a stunning selection of reworked Vintage bridal dresses in store and if you're planning a wedding with your own stamp on it, Katie's Garden can help you with crafting for your special day.

I was absolutely blown away by Katie's Garden and went home with a skip in my step wanting to share this beautiful discovery with you all.   If you love your tea rooms with plenty of colour and vintage, in a relaxing environment with great service and beautifully presented food you really must swing by!

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food, north east