As a belated mother’s day present, I took my mum and grandma out for Afternoon Tea to the Westminster Tea Rooms in Southport.

And smashing it was too! It was £13.95 for a Duchess Afternoon tea, and we got loose leaf tea, sandwiches, cakes, pastries and a large scone. The charm of the Westminster tea rooms is the appearance – deliberately kept traditional, with chandeliers and even an old style radio playing forties-style music. They also serve from very ornate teapots!

One point that was slightly annoying was that they brought out a seperate cake stand for each of us and there simply was not enough room on the table. Consequently, pouring a cup of tea was a bit of a military operation, with various people passing over sugar cubes and trying to reach teapots. They really need to invest for larger cake stands for people to share from. I almost couldn’t see my mother over the cake stands – although you can in this picture – hi mum!

The food itself though was lovely. Finger sandwiches of ham, egg mayo, tongue, tuna and cheese (I’d already eaten one before I remembered to photograph).

The cakes were a cream meringue, a lemon curd sponge (yum!), a strawberry shortcake and a profiterole. There was also some fruit including a PHYSALLIS. This was not the name my mother gave it when I asked her what it was!! Ha!

But the star of the show was the scone. Clearly homemade, buttery, crumbly and just delicious. One of the best scones I’ve had by far.

Served with clotted cream and jam. Perfect!

Overall, it was really good. There were a couple of minor details that they need to iron out such as the cake stand issue and the fact that they didn’t give you side plates to eat from.

But the important stuff, namely the food, was great. I clearly loved the scone, but the lemon sponge and the sandwiches were also excellent.