Luxury dining in a Laura Ashley designed Tea room.

Luxury dining in a Laura Ashley designed Tearoom.

Road tests was offered the opportunity to dine in Burnham Beeches’ Laura Ashley decorated Tearoom. Jeremy Webb jumped at the chance.

When an invitation to attend afternoon tea arrives at the offices, I always try to bag it. I was fortunate to secure attendance at the Laura Ashley decorated Tea room, located in the Burnham Beeches hotel. 

I traveled up to the Hotel with my mother as a treat for her and because I know she is an expert on afternoon teas. Basically, she likes cakes. Burnham Beeches is near Slough and Windsor, just of the M4 so very easy to reach from London, or the South and West of England. Located in large country grounds, the Hotel is beautifully surrounded by trees, bushes, and flowers.  It is part of a group which is having a number of their Hotels decorated throughout by Laura Ashley's designers. Burnham Beeches is next on the list and will become the third hotel in the group to have this redecoration.

Back to the afternoon tea, and eating. We were greeted by the Restaurant Manager Fernando who was so helpful and professional. He sat us at our table and made sure we liked the position, and then took care of any of our requirements. 

The whole room is beautifully decorated and furnished, and the tables are dressed immaculately with Laura Ashley plates, glasses and cutlery. Very elegant and luxurious.

Fernando explained the menu along with a choice of wines which can be added to the standard afternoon tea, for an extra cost. The Hotel changes the menu and wines seasonally and also monthly to keep it fresh and to allow frequent visitors to experience new options each time they attend. 

He took our drinks order from the large options list of hot drinks, especially varieties of teas. We then scanned the menu and started to get hungry.

The standard tea is £24 per person and includes sweet and savoury treats. Fernando suddenly appeared at the table with an English sparkling wine for my mother and I. He said we deserved a little extra treat. Very nice.

For our menu selection, we had a selection of sandwiches, on a variety of bread, which include Loch Duart smoked salmon on rye, Wiltshire ham on onion, and Montgomery cheddar on tomato.

The Hattingley valley sparkling wine was going down well when our hot drinks arrived. Large clear teapots with piping hot tea inside. Just what we wanted.

We got through the sandwiches and contemplated what we tucked into next. Would it be the scones or the fancy cakes? Fancy cakes it was. They were delicious and you will see from the pictures, beautifully created. You get four each, which is a good number and proved too many to eat in one sitting. A takeaway box was ordered to allow us to enjoy the cakes later that day. 

The two scones each also proved a match for us, so we saved one each also. The Hotel has their own Laura Ashley takeaway boxes so I would assume many others are defeated by the generous amount of food served.

Drinking our tea at leisure and taking in the lovely room, our hot drinks were refreshed regularly and we were encouraged to relax.

After about an hour and a half, we had to leave or I think we would have stayed a lot longer. We departed with our takeaway box and full stomachs.

I totally recommend the Tearoom and a visit to the Hotel. It offers great value for money and the staff are superb. You will have a lovely day out.

For more information about the Tearoom and Hotel please follow this link. https://www.corushotels.com/burnham/