Afternoon tea at Tyneside Bar Cafe - a review

One of THE best things about blogging is the people that you meet. Nobody 'gets' blogging like your blogging friends and some of my best friends now are people who I have met through blogging. One of these lovely ladies is Karen who I run the North East Network of Brilliant bloggers with. I have only known Karen for just over a year and we have only met a handful (if that) of times but because we chat every day online we feel like we have known each other FOREVER. It's a bit of a running joke that whenever we try and meet up some sort of disaster happens that prevents us, in fact this afternoon tea had to be postponed due to my children's school being closed at the last minute. I am glad that we finally made it though and thank you so much to Tyneside Bar Cafe for inviting two stressed out mums in need of a catch up and a treat to sample your afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea at Tyneside Bar Cafe isn't on the regular menu and needs to be pre-booked by calling 0191 227 5522. As we took our seats at our reserved table and our freshly prepared Afternoon tea (created by chef Tom Adlam) was brought over to us I swear everyone's eyes were on us admiring our feast. 

First up was the sandwiches - no holding back on the fillings they were huge and filled to the brim. The smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese and rocket was my favourite! 

The clotted cream scones were freshly baked and still warm - such a treat! Served with mini pots of jam, clotted cream and butter they were a definite highlight for me. Definitely up there and en-par with the best scones I've ever tasted (which were from Jesmond Dene House by the way).

I started to struggle a little at this point. After three mammoth sandwiches and a rich scone I wasn't sure I could squeeze in any cakes! Luckily, we were topped up with coffee and Ringtons tea and after a short respite and natter we were good to go again. 

Karen had her adorable little girl with her and I have to say, I love how child-friendly the Tyneside Bar Cafe is, they even have a toy shelf which children can help themselves to etcha-sketches (sp??) and board games. I've often visited Tyneside Bar with my own children and they sometimes have cartoons on the big screen (check out their Facebook page for details - I think this happens during weekend mornings and half term). 

Onto the cakes.........

The cakes were delicious. We decided that one was like a giant homemade Ferraro Roche on a stick - I think that was Karen's favourite. She kind of forgot she had given up chocolate for lent at this point! Ooops! The chocolate-nut combo was just too much to resist.  I preferred the carrot cake and it had that home-baked taste that I love. There were coffee cakes too but we admitted defeat and had to leave these. Boooo! The cakes didn't go to waste though; as soon as we put our forks down the two ladies on the table next to us pounced on us and asked if they could have them with their coffee! Haha this has never happened to me before but we were happy to oblige and I guess it shows how tempting the cakes really are!  

Starting from Sunday 6th March, the Tyneside Bar Cafe are offering Afternoon Tea at 3pm with unlimited Ringtons tea and coffee refills with a screening of a Hollywood musical. Keep an eye on the Tyneside Bar Cafe's Facebook page for exact listings. This season starts off with Mother's Day Afternoon Tea with a screening of Mamma Mia on 6th March at 3pm or 5:30pm. This special Mother's Day tea costs just £18 or £22 if you'd also like a glass of Prosecco. Call 0191 227 5522 to book. 

Afternoon tea at Tyneside bar cafe is the type that you can easily stretch out over a few hours - pausing to chat and drink endless cups of tea. What a wonderful way to treat your mum.