Afternoon tea at St Mary's Inn, Northumberland

When it comes to choosing a pay day treat I have a list as long as my arm. We have been wanting to return to St Mary's Inn since our visit last year and after seeing countless photographs of their beautiful afternoon tea popping up on my instagram feed, I knew I could not put off our return visit any longer and booked us a table on a Friday afternoon.

Afternoon tea is served between 12-5pm Monday-Friday and is priced at £14.95 per person. I'm sure there was probably enough food on our stand for Jack to share with us as he did at Jesmond Dene House however he loves Fish and chips so we ordered him a portion from the children's menu and he was happy.

You really are spoilt at St Mary's Inn and your tea stand is filled with three (all be it mini) scones each. These are the best scones I have ever tasted (and Hannah from Mumsdays agrees). I will whisper when I say this but I even think they are better than the ones we had at JDH. Scones are accompanied by traditional clotted cream, homemade jam and soft butter. Perfect!

There is a good selection of sandwiches available including salt beef and mustard and cheese and pickle. All served with their crusts removed and generously filled.

Tea and coffee is unlimited and we were asked if we would like a fresh cup/pot three times during our meal. They even asked the table opposite us if they would like a fresh drink when they had finished their meal which shows just how welcoming St Mary's is - there is never any hurry to 'turn tables' and it's the sort of place you can sit and relax for as long as you'd like.

After polishing off three scones and a handful of sandwiches I wasn't sure I could face the cake course. Luckily, Jack had just about finished his fish and chips and was keen to help us.

The cake stand is very similar to that served at Jesmond Dene House and featured lovely apple crumbles tarts, a miniature rhubarb fool, chocolate brownies and macaroons. All perfect bite sizes that ended our meal perfectly.

The above is taken from the St Mary's Inn website - note that it states they are unstuffy and informal and don't mind lots of crumbs. I can 100% verify this is the case as we handed Jack a macaroon and he decided it would be fun to crush it all over the table. Nice! The staff did not mind at all though and completely put me at ease telling me that they'd seen much worse. Phew!

Afternoon tea at St Mary's Inn receives the thumbs up from us! As we left we again could not help sighing and wishing that we could buy a house there just so it could be our local!

For now though, St Mary's will remain as a little escape for us. You can also stay overnight and rooms start at only £90 for two people including breakfast. We have been reliably informed that the bedrooms have been furnished using a similar luxury standard to those at Jesmond Dene House - it is hubby's birthday in July so hopefully we won't have to wait too long before we get to escape again.

http://stmarysinn.co.uk/

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