Afternoon tea at the Celtic Manor Resort

A few weeks ago it was afternoon tea again for me, this time at the Cetlic Manor, a 5* Resort in Newport, Wales. A lovely friend said that the afternoon tea here at the resort is great, so I thought i'll take my cousin along for a belated birthday treat. 

The resort afternoon tea is served at The Olive Tree & Garden Room. As we entered, we were welcomed by friendly polite staff who sat us down to our table to a window seat. The room was beautiful and bright and it put a extra big smile on my face that day as the sun decided to make an appearance so we manage to enjoyed the beautiful sunny view outside towards the golf course. 

With our drinks, we got to choose from a few selection of fresh teas or freshly brewed coffee. Food came on a three tier stand, everything looked very appetising and it is quite a lot of food for afternoon tea but I always skip lunch if i'm having afternoon tea and because our table was booked for 2.30pm I was particularly hungry by this time and I knew I wouldn't have a problem demolishing the whole lot, especially when it comes to bread and cake!

So we started off with the bottom tier with the sandwiches. There was a wide range of sandwiches, i've not had afternoon tea with so many varieties before. We had seven pieces each, which includes, egg mayonnaise, chicken coriander and lime, cucumber and mint creme fraiche, honey roast ham with cherry tomatoe and apple chutney, mini bagel with smoked salmon and lemon and chive cream cheese. Sandwiches were all fresh, fillings were just right, not too much or too less. My favourites was the honey roast ham with apple chutney and the mini bagel, the salmon was lovely and fresh and tasted beautiful with the cream cheese.

Moving onto the second tier, mango and passion fruit chocolate pot and lemon meringue 

 

The chocolate pot was a little too sweet with the syrup on top but I always love the flavour combination of mango and passion fruit together, a little different as i've not had a dessert like this before. I don't eat lemon meringues that often as I do find the lemon filling too sweet with a meringue, although the tart was very sweet but it was also very light and fluffy too.

Third tier, cakes, my favourite!

All cakes were all lovely and soft, the buttercream with the velvet chocolate cupcake was so smooth and silky. The raspberry joconde, a cute little cake with a raspberry mousse filling and a praline buttercream pyramid which was a little sweet but the sponge was lovely and light. When we were close to finishing all our cakes the waitress came over and asked if we were ready for ours scones but we said if we could wait for a moment, as we needed time to rest before eating anymore food.

For me, afternoon tea is all about the scones, I am quite fussy when it come to scones, and I would have prefer if they were served at the start rather than at the end. The scones were warm when they arrived, I thought the outside was slightly over baked but the inside was lovely and light served with Roddas clotted cream and strawberry preserve.

Overall another lovely afternoon experience. Food was delicious, service was good and the atmosphere was relaxing with the beautiful surroundings.

I highly recommend the resort afternoon tea, with a unbeatable price of just £32 for two persons its worth a visit for a elegant and luxury treat! I'm looking forward to going back to try the Newbridge Cream Tea and the Christmas Afternoon Tea.

For more info on the Celtic Manor Afternoon Teas, click HERE