The Apple Tree Gift Shop And Teahouse

Tried the Apple tree for coffee on Sunday afternoon 1.30ish , busy with long wait to order , food coming out looked amazing , wished I’d come for food .😋 We just had coffee & shared a Brie, fig & walnut scone which unfortunately was rock hard but coffee was nice , learned later they shut Tuesday & Wednesday to bake as everything is made fresh on site , hope our scone wasn’t made on Tue/wed as that would account for it being hard Apart from that lovely little place and would definitely recommend

Lovely place. Our first visit, but we will return. Very friendly and focused staff. Great quality food that was nicely presented. We sat in the barn which had a charm of its own. We later saw inside the tearoom and that looked really nice. The place had a buzz to it. Some people getting takeaways, some people with well behaved dogs. On reflection I would have preferred to delay my coffee until the food was served. A good selection of greeting cards in the shop, and cheeses in the Deli.

Hmm... Mixed feelings. I had a lovely time with my friends for afternoon tea which we pre-booked. We were very full and took food home. However I feel as if a few things need to be mentioned as constructive feedback. This is only my personal opinion not to put people off but for the cafe to continue to do well and maybe make a few tweaks to improve. First I must say that this is a lovely little cafe and gift shop. The staff were very friendly and welcoming. The food was nice but there felt a little disparity in the presentation. This was an Afternoon tea at £20 per head. I expect Afternoon tea to be dainty, canapes, posh sandwiches and china which we got to a certain extent but there was room for improvement. The tea was served in lovely tea pots and was replenished when it ran out, lovely matching proper dainty china tea cups and saucers and lovely china plates, very Jane Austen style afternoon tea party. However the food was served on an industrial looking two tier stand which had a guard around each tier. It was very cumbersome and hard to get food out of, not in keeping with the china afternoon tea and it didn't make sense to me. This didn't obviously distract from a lovely afternoon but was a bit odd. The sandwiches or rolls/cobs were on the top tier and were nice but could have been better. There was also Quiche. The sandwich fillings were nice if you like cheese and pickle, salmon and cream cheese and ham but when paying £20 per head I expected a bit more. I'm not sure what but it was a bit underwhelming. I don't know maybe I just expect more than what I would normally have at home when going out and paying someone to prepare my lunch! The cakes also looked nice, tasted nice and were plentiful but could have been better. For instance there was a giant fruit scone which was slightly over baked and a little too dense for me and there was a huge slab of millionaire shortcake which would have been nicer cut smaller also a tiny lemon meringue tart (which was amazing!) and a sponge cake with strawberry cream which was so sweet it hurt my teeth and I couldn't finish it. The sponge was also a little dense but I'm being picky as I bake a lot!. I think that's the issue for me, on one hand we had a dainty little tea party then on the other we had the opposite. It didn't quite go together but this really is an easy fix by using a china 3 tiered cake plate in keeping with the rest of the presentation/experience of afternoon tea. Also having the cakes cut into smaller pieces especially when sharing. I must say that I loved the lemon meringue; the pastry was just right, the lemon curd was tangy and sweet and the meringue melted in your mouth it was delicious! It was just the right size too.