Set in the beautiful grounds of Ketteringham Hall, just off the A11 in Norwich, The Orangery Tea Room's outdoor tables are set among trees and lawns, overlooking a lake and fields beyond. A picturesque setting, indeed, for an afternoon tea.
On arrival, and this was during the tail end of the Coronavirus lockdown (hopefully, the only one but this remains to be seen), we received a warm welcome at the 'entrance door'. We felt secure in that adherence to 2-metre distancing, hand sanitising and a one-way walkway system were in place.
Booking was necessary, and we had booked a table from 1.30 until 3.00pm, being lucky enough to have picked a beautiful mid-heatwave afternoon. We sat at our table, shaded by a huge parasol and were afforded a fabulous view indeed. The perfect setting for a delicious treat.
A waitress came to take our drinks order, but unfortunately this was before we had been given a menu; this was quickly rectified and she was very apologetic. Our drinks arrived after a short wait (three of us had ordered two drinks and the other just a beer), but we had almost finished our drinks before our waitress returned to apologise for the delay with our afternoon tea. Apparently, it had been boxed up as a picnic (another of the lakeside offerings from the tearoom) and they had to rearrange it onto the plates before bringing it out. I feel we should have, at this point, been offered more tea. We didn't get our food until another twenty minutes had passed and, knowing we only had the table until 3.00, we did feel a little more pressured than we should have done. As the tearoom had only recently reopened following lockdown closure, and because social distancing and sanitising measures were strict and new, the staff could be forgiven for some delay.
The tea itself, when it arrived, was well-presented and fresh. The bottom tier consisted of finger sandwiches with two fillings; soft cheese with cucumber, or ham with piccalilli. There was also an open slice of sourdough bread topped with salmon and cream cheese. As no choice of filling was offered, two of our party were a little disappointed as they didn't like cucumber or piccalilli. I did feel piccalilli was a little strange as a choice as it is a specific taste, a little like Marmite (other sandwich fillings are available).
The second layer displayed sweet treats of mini Victoria sponges, lemon curd tarts, chocolate brownies and a chocolate-dipped strawberry each. The top layer offered the diner both a mini cheese and a mini fruit scone - separate individual dishes of butter, jam and cream were brought to accompany this layer.
As with some other venues we have visited for afternoon tea, this venue did not offer alternative fillings or choices or any added extras (we have been offered extra sandwiches in one venue but this is probably not the norm); the menu appearing set. The booking form did ask for dietary requirements so it may have been possible to request flavours (although these were not detailed beforehand so it might have proven difficult). There was no offer of drinks refills which I would expect from the 'tea' side of an afternoon tea.
The food was enjoyable, tasted home-baked and was freshly prepared. It was just a little slow to be delivered.
Overall, the four of us rated the whole experience (as an average) as follows:
Environment (both inside and out) 4.5 / 5
Quality: 3.5 / 5
Service: 2.75 / 5
Value: 3 / 5
Overall rating: 13.75 /20
Would we visit again? Possibly.
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