We love a high tea at OXINABOX HQ, so news that the wonderful Oxford Brunch Bar on George Street has introduced an afternoon offering, had us licking our lips in anticipation.
Packed out in the mornings and at lunchtimes, queues often stretching down the street for their extensive brunch offering, understandably the afternoons at Oxford Brunch Bar are somewhat quieter.
Cue its new extensive afternoon tea menu – choose from coffee and cake (£7.50), cream tea (£8.50), OBB high tea (£24) and the celebration tea with Prosecco (£30).
But with so many smart venues and hotels in Oxford offering similar options, could it hold its own?
Let’s start with the tea itself, the Strong Earl Grey from Tea Pigs is served in gorgeous vintage Chinoiserie china cups, and is beautifully flavoured. The accompanying naughty Biscoff iced latte was more like a sundae than a coffee, and caused squeals of excitement when it arrived at the table.
Then the sandwiches; crusts cut off and huge, while not particularly dainty, they were packed full of goodies and flavour. They bread, cakes and scones all hail from Gatineau in Summertown so their providence is already vouched for, but the bread was bouncy and soft, and stuffed with a variety of egg mayonnaise, prawn, ham (the meat is from Vicars Game) and salmon. We ordered extra because they were so good.
Then the scones. Oh the scones. We’ve taste a few in our time but these were the best. Light, bursting with sultans, soft inside but firm on top with a real flavour, lashings of cream and a delicious jam, we engulfed the whole lot. The cheese scone took us rather by surprise, and while very tasty, a word of warning would have helped before we layered on the confiture.
And then some very refined cakes. The Duchess of Bedford, who invented high tea as a bridge between a light lunch and a late dinner, would have been terribly impressed!
A magnificent red raspberry profiterole which tasted a bit like a delicious Swiss roll, a passion fruit tart – the pastry crumbly, the filling piquant, a moist chocolate and orange torte bursting with citrus and chocolate and a coconut and white chocolate macaroon. quite the line-up!
And yes you can eat high tea in fancier hotels and restaurants, but that’s The Oxford Brunch Bar‘s charm, because you if you fancy a really good high tea without the pomp and ceremony, you can sit in the homely, comfortable, rustic and welcoming interior watching the world go by. In fact, perched in the window seat, out tiered cake stand drew many envious glances from passers-by, which made us feel rather smug.
As Miranda would say ‘such a treat’.
THE OXFORD BRUNCH BAR is at 19 George Street. Go to https://www.oxfordbrunchbar.co.uk/menu/afternoon-high-tea
