High Tea at Bygone Beautys, Leura, Blue Mountains

 

How lovely is it in Sydney now? I'm so glad that all the cold weather is blowing over (see what I did there?). It certainly was present on the very day I headed up to the Blue Mountains with the wonderful Mr Prince, who was absolutely lovely, and understanding about my high tea addiction, and booked high tea up at Bygone Beautys in Leura.

 

 

For those not familiar with Bygone Beautys, it's a lovely place for a quiet spot of tea, which also sells antique trinkets and teapots and interesting little bits and bobs. Anyone who is in the area should drop by and have a look at what they have to offer, and indulge in some scones.

 

Here's the setting that greeted us at the table.

 

They very nicely seated us next to the fireplace, which was on. A bit odd, one would say, at the start of Summer, but seeing as it was 18 degrees Celsius there that day, AND it rained heavily, as well as hailed (yes, you read it right!), it was a welcome sight! It also added to the overall cosy feel of the place.

 

 

Here's how the high tea was served - on a gorgeous, somewhat rickety, little cart! Just look at all those gorgeous offerings! They even played the UK anthem, while the server wore a top hat, as it came out!

 

We were given an odd number of scones, strange, as there were 2 of us, and these were quite fluffy, and more bready than dense. They were reasonably tasty, but it was almost like eating bread with butter and jam.

 

We finished with these lovely sweets, including chocolate cake, caramel slice, poppy seed cake, coconut slice and yogurt coated cranberry slice, as well as gingerbread men! I also had a couple of those pink jellybeans, which, while cute, weren't really to my taste.

 

There were only two types of sandwiches there, and they were cucumber and cream cheese, as well as ham, mustard and butter. Nothing amazing, but reasonably yummy. 

 

We also got a LARGE amount of strawberry jam!

 

Check out the intricate designs on that spoon for my honey. I, of course, got the usual Chamomile and honey, which was a treat on that freezing day! The tea was excellent, and while I thought of purchasing some, which you can do, my tea collection's a lot like my makeup collection - it's overflowing!

 

We also got a lot of cream to go with our jam. Definitely top marks for the sheer amount of condiments!

 

The service there was excellent - they even had a teapot hot water waiting at the table, just in case we needed it, not that we did, as the teapots we had were huge! We were asked if there was anything we needed, if we needed more jam or cream - I wasn't sure if she was just yanking my chain! There was no music, but it wasn't necessary out there. The ambience itself was excellent - very old school and civilized.

 

The food, while adequate, wasn't exciting or overwhelming, but it was just interesting enough, and the whole setup was a bit of quirky fun.

Overall, I would give this:

7/10 - fun, and worth going to, but don't expect much from the food.