It’s a tough one this. Hard to judge by simple cream tea standards, since we plunged in and had the full afternoon. This included a range of sandwiches and quite insane numbers of cakes as you can see in the picture.

But let’s stick to what we know and discuss the scones and tea. Tea - perfectly nice, but the pots were small and we had to ask for extra. The first jug of milk had unidentified floating black bits in it - but was changed without argument.

Scones - both fruit and plain were provided. With lashings of clotted cream and gallons of jam - but the jam was blackcurrant - and a tart blackcurrant at that. Pleurgh! Scones themselves, could have been plumper, moister and more generous with the fruit - especially considering this was a high-class establishment. But you can’t fault the presentation. Look at that sprinkling of icing sugar, embrace the scattering of genuine strawberries!

The rest of the tea - sandwiches and cakes were excellent - the lemon drizzle and shortbreads proved particularly popular with our party - so I don’t like to be too mean. But I’d be pretty narked if I’d paid £6 for the simple cream tea and got those scones.

£12 for full afternoon tea - if you wanted the regular cream tea - £6 –>

While dawdling at the tills I noticed the brand new cafe was offering a plastic box, prefilled with all the cream tea acoutrements. Could I resist? Could I buffalo!

The plastic boxes were in the fridge and contained a scone, wrapped in cling-film. A pat of butter, and pre-packaged pots of cream and jam. Jam varied from box to box - I chose a strawberry one.

Scone, plain and on the small side - and very over-chilled from the fridge, but basically sound. Cream was a pre-packaged pot and HUGE - more than enough for the scone, so I didn’t use the butter, tucked it in my bag for use at home. Jam - Frank Coopers - a good brand, but my plastic pot contained no actual fruit, and was a tad solid.

Tea in a pot. Milk in plastic prepacks (grrr). Yield, two cups of slightly over-strong tea.

Overall I was pretty impressed - and if the price is correct, pretty unbeatable value.

£1.29 !!!!

Note: This price may well be a mistake. The cream tea in a box should have been £1.79 plus 79p for the tea, but somehow the till turned it into £1.29 for the lot. I expressed surprise, but didn’t argue! (The girl rang everything up correctly, I watched it register - perhaps a till programming error - or maybe a special opening offer for the new cafe?) –>