Afternoon Tea & Shopping Day

Regular visitors to our blog will know that in December we have a very special event to look forward to, Mimi's wedding! We are all very excited as we have people travelling from as far afield as California to attend the wedding celebrations and spend time with us. 

 

As December draws closer we are crossing things off our 'to do' list on a weekly basis. This past weekend the two of us headed into Newcastle, our closest 'big city', to partake in some wedding retail therapy. As we were having a special outing we decided to make a girly day of it and booked afternoon tea so that we had an excuse to eat lots of cake while we shopped! We thought it would be fun to share some of our photographs of the delicious food we consumed over the course of the day!

 

Coincidently, a couple of weeks ago we received an email from Travel Zoo offering a deal for Afternoon Tea at the Marco Pierre White Restaurant, Hotel Indigo, Newcastle. The offer was £18 for afternoon tea for two. Having enjoyed the same offer a couple of years ago we jumped at the chance to do it again and we felt that £18 for two was a really great deal.

We started the day pretty early as the NCP car park in the city centre have an offer on parking - all day for £5.95 when you arrive before 9.30am - which gives a good saving if you are there all day as we usually are! We skipped breakfast at home and headed for Café Nero when we arrived to set ourselves up for a morning of shopping with caffeine and pastries until our 2pm reservation at Marco Pierre Whites!
 

Our main objective for the day was to look at bridesmaid accessories and check out the make up for some wedding day options. We had heard that Charlotte Tilbury Cosmetics were opening in Newcastle and were very excited to see if the rumour was true! We discovered that they are indeed opening a counter within Fenwicks but it was not due to open until 2 days after we visited, however, we did speak to one of the Tilbury Team and will we back in a couple of weeks for an in depth swatchfest!

 

At almost 2pm we headed down to Marco Pierre White Restaurant, handed in our pre paid voucher and were shown to our seats. The last time we attended we were presented with a lovely tea book offering in depth explanations of the various exotic tea choices however this time there was no such book and we were simply asked what we wanted by the server. We both settled for English Breakfast Tea and after giving our dietary requirements we were soon served a tower of delicious looking treats. 

 

We quickly got stuck in! The sandwiches were tasty with a substantial amount of filling - cheese and tangy pickle and ham with delicious French mustard (for the salmon-phobe) with the addition of salmon and cream cheese and tuna with cucumber for those less fussy eaters! The other savoury options were tiny warm quiches which were sooo delicious with crumbly short crust pastry.
 

In addition the sweet options were plentiful! We managed to munch our way through a fruit scone with jam and clotted cream, the lightest vanilla macaroons ever, chocolate mouse cake, a mango panna cotta served in a cute miniature teacup and a second scone that we took away as we were unable to manage it! The tea was plentiful and flowed freely with as much as we could drink being offered and unlimited coffee as an alternative.

 

By the end of the feast we were unable to move!

 

If you are an afternoon tea lover then Travel Zoo and similar sites are a great resource to pick up some affordable deals. We would never have normally booked this treat for the full price but it made the day extra special for us and for only £9 per person it is no more expensive than a sandwich and coffee in one of the well known coffee shops!

We will certainly be back soon for more sweet, delicious treats to fuel our Saturday shopping trips!

 

Have you enjoyed any affordable tasty treats lately? We would love to hear any tips you may have on bagging a bargain!