Afternoon Tea at Parker's Tavern

Review summary

1. R

   Richard

   Essex

   1 review

   3.0

   1 review

   Dined 6 days ago

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 1

   Disappointed that, for what we hoped would be a refined special Afternoon Tea in the Library, we were put in the open very noisy restaurant. The venue was unable to provide either skimmed or semi-skimmed milk to put in the tea so we had to drink it black. The food was very good, plenty to take home afterwards as usual. Service pretty good although the server didn't seem to know we were there for Afternoon Tea and it took a while coming. Will probably go to Carriages next time.
   

   Is this helpful?

2. G

   Gill

   Cambridge

   8 reviews

   2.0

   8 reviews

   Dined on February 23, 2025

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 1

   2 years ago afternoon tea was served in the Library, a beautiful room, great ambiance. Now served in the main restaurant amongst lunchtime diners or the bar area. Both were very noisy with music playing. We chose the bar, but it was noisy, dreadful service, had to ask for cutlery, tea pot refilled, had to ask for cup & saucer! Not an afternoon tea as was! Will not return
   

   Is this helpful?

3. S

   Sam

   Cambridge

   1 review

   4.0

   1 review

   Dined on February 22, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 4

   Afternoon tea was lovely. Great selection and plenty of food presented very well. Nice atmosphere. My main issue was with service or lack of. No warm welcome by server, just hurriedly asked what tea we wanted. When the food came out we had a different server who did talk us through what was presented to us. Other than that we had no interaction with the staff and had to flag down the bill. Another different server brought this over and didn't speak only to ask how we wanted to split it. Considering a 12.5% service charge is applied to your bill very little service took place.
   

   Is this helpful?

4. M

   Margs

   Cambridge

   3 reviews

   2.0

   3 reviews

   Dined on February 9, 2025

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 4

   Firstly our waiter was very pleasant and helpful, however there were many issues which need addressing. We were seated surrounded by tables of dirty crockery and uneaten food. As our afternoon tea arrived I had to ask the waiter to clear them as it was very unpleasant. The food was fine but nothing special. The vegetarian afternoon tea consisted of just cucumber or egg sandwiches- very unimaginative. There was no decaffeinated English breakfast tea option either. We had to ask for water for the table and also for jam, butter and cream for our dry scones. This was all very disappointing as I had arranged the afternoon tea for my sister’s birthday treat. I didn’t want to complain too much at the time as it would have added to the disappointment for her. Such a shame as the surroundings were very nice. I certainly wouldn’t recommend I’m afraid and won’t hurry back.
   

   Is this helpful?

5. J

   Jenny

   London

   14 reviews

   2.0

   14 reviews

   Dined on February 8, 2025

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 3

   Went for an afternoon tea which looked amazing - beautiful petit fours and interesting mix of savoury bites. Semi stale when it came out, and my savoury dish was contaminated with a foreign body. Service was at a snails pace - expect 20 minutes for a coffee or tea even when you're booked for an afternoon tea! Also had to ask for jam and cream, again for an afternoon tea! Appalled.
   

   Is this helpful?

6. N

   Natalie

   Norfolk/Suffolk

   1 review

   3.0

   1 review

   Dined on January 26, 2025

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 3

   Sadly we were very disappointed. The food was good but the service was extremely poor. We had to ask and chase our tea, the sandwiches and cakes arrived well before the drinks did. We ordered the drinks in plenty of time. The tea arrived with no milk. When trying to ask a waiter for this, he directly looked and walked off which was disappointing. We felt some awkwardness in ordering more drinks. At no point did anyone ask if everything was okay. When it came to the paying of the bill, an automatic service charge was placed on the bill. We asked for this to be removed and explained the service had been very poor. All in all, not a very pleasant experience for the prices!
   

   Is this helpful?

7. P

   Peter

   Houston

   3 reviews

   4.0

   3 reviews

   Dined on January 12, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 4

   The food was extremely good. The cakes were excellent. As is typical in most places since the stupidity of Brexit service was less perfect. Long wait for food. Milk was not offered with tea.
   

   • 

   Is this helpful?

8. C

   Catherine

   London

   1 review

   1.0

   1 review

   Dined on January 12, 2025

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 2
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 1

   We were very excited to try the winter afternoon tea at Parker’s Tavern to celebrate my husband’s birthday, especially after the wonderful Sunday lunch we enjoyed there a few months ago. Unfortunately, the experience fell far below our expectations. The service was slow, and it was evident that the team running the service lacked experience. While the cakes looked delightful, I was surprised and disappointed to find that the tea was presented without clotted cream and jam for the scones—a staple of any proper afternoon tea. When I inquired, I was told they would check, and five minutes later, we were brought clotted cream and marmalade. Marmalade with scones is highly unusual, and I can confirm it doesn’t work as a pairing. I had to specifically request jam, which was then hurriedly brought to us. To add to the disappointment, the tea order was brought out incorrectly, despite us only ordering two teas. Considering the high cost of the experience (and this was without champagne), the quality of service and attention to detail left much to be desired. This was not the special celebration we had hoped for, and sadly, we left feeling bitterly disappointed.
   

   Is this helpful?

9. D

   Desiree

   London

   3 reviews

   5.0

   3 reviews

   Dined on January 10, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Beautiful ambience and atmosphere for an afternoon tea. Food overall good even though the sandwiches were nothing special.
   

   Is this helpful?

10. C

    Clare

    Cambridge

    1 review

    3.0

    1 review

    Dined on January 3, 2025

    1. Overall 3
    2. Food 3
    3. Service 2
    4. Ambience 3

    The experience was average and not good value for money. It feels like a quantity/appearance has been prioritised over taste. We had the festive afternoon tea. There was lots of food presented (5 sandwiches, 2 scones and 5 cakes per person) but the quality of this was not great. The afternoon tea is ordered in from elsewhere and had clearly been stored in a fridge as 3/5 sandwiches were dry. The other two items were a wrap/taco and a sausage roll which were very nice. The scones were lovely and served warm, the jam was liquid and went everywhere. Out of the 5 desserts, 2 were lovely and 2 looked pretty but were inedible. We were able to takeaway the items we couldn’t eat (and wanted to eat). None of the tables could finish the whole afternoon tea. The tea itself was not loose leaf tea but served in sachets. Service was slow and had to ask multiple times for cream/jam. It also felt like there was a script they needed to run through and was not really personal. The room we were sitting in was nice, but seats were uncomfortable. Sofa is so large, low down (and worn out) it was uncomfortable to sit up and eat at the table. I have had much better afternoon teas elsewhere in Cambridge and would not return.
    

    Is this helpful?