Guest Reviewer: Ann

My reason for being in Cheddar was to attend the Big Green Gathering, a hippie festival, and a very good one too. But after three days of vegan fritters and scrumpy cider, I had extreme cream tea deficiency, so we caught the rattly old hippie bus into Cheddar to search one out.

60% of the establishments in Cheddar are tea shops, the other 40% are cheese and/or cider shops, or caves. The choice was wide, but we plumped for the modest Holly House. At first the decor - plain white with many pictures of tea or coffee - put me off. But the prices were right - £2.50 for single cream tea, comprising scone, cream, jam and pot of tea (enough for two and a half cups, so three with the hot water.)

The scone - plain - was excellent. Warm, moist, fresh baked, it could not have been better. Cream - very good, served in a little pot. Only the jam let things down, being a single portion serving, of strawberry, yes, but wrapped in plastic. My partner had not planned to have a cream tea, but on seeing mine insisted on having a bite. Oooh, that’s nice, he said, then ordered his own, mostly on the strength of the scone.

£2.50 Full cream tea
£1.50 Scone, cream and jam without tea.

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?)

Guest Reviewer: Richy

After waiting for some considerable time to be served (sitting outside on a grey but warm day) a charming tall, lean, toned and very pretty dark haired, olive skinned chap finally came to take out order. We had one cream tea and tea for two shared between 3 of us so ended up with a scone and a third each which turned out to be more than adequate.

The scones were white fruit and very slightly dry/over cooked. The cream was very thick and divine. The jam was a slight let down, rather solid and lacking in the feel that it had seen real fruit. The tea supply was very generous although we were not given a choice - I rather like an Assam with a scone, but each to their own.

That makes it all sound much worse than it was, nice setting, large scones, goodly supply
of both cream and jam, very hot tea, sparkling cutlery and crockery and a dishy waiter - all told about 7 out of 10.

£5.90 - for cream tea, plus additional tea for two

As I entered the Redwoods Restaurant - a brand new building, all glass, chrome and eco-wood effects - I passed a staff member reading comment cards. Peering over his shoulder I read “RESTAURANT DISAPPOINTING!!” in big capital letters. I turned to watch a pair of very brown scones being walked to a garden table and braced myself for disaster.

All the scones were in the fridge with the cream and jam (first rule of bakery products - DON’T store in fridge) and all looking dark brown - but a nice size and fruited. Two kinds of jam on offer in unlabelled dishes, but my experienced eyes detected strawberry and raspberry - both red. Good. Cream, whipped and piped in a decorative manner, which charmed my stony heart. Both portions were generous, allowing me to really load my scone up. But as I feared the scone was verging on the rock bun, and the outer raisins a bit burnt tasting. The inside was good though, you could tell it would have been a jolly good scone if they’d just turned the gas down a bit.

Tea, served in quite pretty metal pot, with real milk in a teeny little job. Yield - 3 cups - lovely.

All in all an excellent cream tea, let down by the over-cooked scone. Was it a one-off, or do they always set their oven too high? Do I have to go back to try again? I just don’t know.

£3.60