Burley Manor, The Barn

Afternoon tea for 2. Expensive for what you get. My wife and I visited last week (8/24}. I know the building is 100s of years old but the interior is definitely in need of redecoration. It was like walking into the 70s. The conservatory was the best bit. Fairly modern and bright. Afternoon tea, only 3 tiny finger sandwiches each., The scones were really nice, with jam and clotted cream. An assortment of other small pastries which were also nice. Sadly only 1 pot of coffee between us and we were never asked if we wanted another. Service was OK but our waitress never seemed particularly bothered. Overall disappointing and the hidden service charge added to our bill at the end was the icing on the cake.

We went for afternoon tea here on 03/09/2024. The short version is, amazing location, nice atmosphere, poor service, bland food, over priced and I believe they gave me food poisoning. Whilst this is a one star review I believe in giving credit where it's due. The hotel grounds, bar, drawing room, are beautiful and relaxing. Further, the afternoon tea came with a chicken and celery brioche that had a pleasant smokey flavor, the scones were very nice and there was a coffee profiterole that was well balanced. However, the sandwiches that accompanied the platter were the culinary equivalent of counting roof tiles during school detention. One was salmon and dill, which either the chef forgot the dill or used so little it could not be tasted. Another was egg, just egg, no flavour, as in zero flavour at all, it is almost a fear in itself to make something so bland. The last was cucumber and cream cheese which had been riled up with a dash of mint but only qualified as inspired when compared to the other two options. Within the sweets section was passion fruit tart. On trying it there was no flavour of passion fruit and an after taste of egg. (Whilst there is no way of proving it, as the offending pastry is gone, I believe this had turned as I became I'll later that day. My partner did not and this was the only item I ate and she did not. Whilst my name isn't Sherlock hones I think I'm capable of drawing those dots together). Aside from that the other cakes were okay but nothing I would choose to eat again. The service was awful. We arrived early and went through to the bar, being told we would be collected for the afternoon tea near our booking time. We were forgotten about and had to return to reception. We were then shown to the wrong room. When we were seated we only saw a waitress to ask our initial drink order and to have the food and drink dropped off. There was no check for how the meal was, there was no visit to take further drink orders (my partner had to go to the bar to order another drink). I had to go to the bar to request the bill. Bearing in mind that we were there the best part of two hours, and this is meant to be a quality establishment, this is far below standard. I have no intention of eating at Burley manor again and will be advising others of the same. Or at least directing them toward this review so they can make up their own mind.