A couple of weeks ago I treated a friend who was visiting to a birthday treat of afternoon tea at Bunchrew House Hotel. I had seen some impressive looking photos of their teatime treats on their Facebook page, and for the cost, it looked like a good-value feast.
We drove the four short miles to Bunchrew which is just west of Inverness, along the south shore of the Beauly Firth. Hidden away down a winding wooded road was a dusky pink hotel complete with a turret fit for any Rapunzel.
Upon arriving we were seated in Bunchrew’s drawing room and our orders for tea and coffee were taken really promptly. Then this tower of goodies came to our table (as well as a slate which had scones, homemade jam and clotted cream which I forgot to take a photo of!)
On offer were homemade rolls; flavoured with beetroot, black pudding and cheese respectively, and filled with smoked salmon & cream cheese, egg mayonnaise, and ham & tomato. Not only that, we each had a warm pork sausage roll which had a lovely sage flavour.
We moved onto the plain scones which were so light and delicious, topped with Bunchrew housemade strawberry jam first (of course) then a generous dollop of clotted cream. If I was to make any comment, I would note that it would be good to have a choice between plain and fruit scones, as my personal opinion is that fruit scones always trump plain ones!
By this point we were approaching the limit of what we could manage.. and we still had 8 (each!) mini cakes and patisserie. Thankfully we saw other groups with takeaway boxes housing their leftovers, so we knew that we could have a second sitting in the comfort of our living room!
There was:
A mini chocolate éclair
An orange glazed fairy cake
chocolate brownie
mini fruit tartlet
a shot of lemon posset
a cube of raspberry cheesecake on a sponge base
shortbread heart….
…and the crowing glory was a choux pastry swan (or was it Nessie?) with crème patisserie and whipped cream.
We were left to enjoy our feast unhurried, and spent a good couple of hours catching up over our two pots of tea. A perfect way to spend an afternoon and I’m trying to think who I can take next time!
Afternoon tea at Bunchrew House Hotel currently costs £15 per person (rising to £18 p/p from 1st April 2017). I visited Bunchrew House Hotel at my own cost and was not asked to write this review.
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