Wowwwwwwwwww!

Dateline: 28th July 2013. Location: Morpeth, Northumberland, England.

Actually located upstairs to the Curiously Wicked cake shop within the Sanderson Arcade, the Cuwick Manor Tea Rooms are an absolute delight! We called there the other week, and I tried their tea and toasted tea-cake with cheese (Freda had the fruit scone with jam and cream with her usual coffee) and were drawn to return there, when we had a visitor staying with us from Dumfries.

This time, we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so managed a bit more than the small snacks of our previous visit. From their extensive menu, we decided to have the Northumbrian High Tea, for two but shared between the three of us with an extra coffee. It was certainly well enough for our older appetites!

(See their menu at http://www.curiouslywicked.co.uk/CM_Menu-2.pdf )

Looking at their offering, I couldn't help but compare it with the High Teas at the Winter Palace in Luxor. As you know, Dear Reader, we do enjoy those when we manage to have them, but the Cuwick Manor puts the Winter Palace to shame! Obviously, even though the place is lovely, it doesn't visually compare in that respect to the W.P., but the content of the Tea far outweighs that of even our favourite 'Grand Hotel'!  What do you think of the following comparative pictures?

These two (above) are of the newly built Cuwick Manor Tea Rooms, and those below are of the world famous 1890's Winter Palace Hotel on the banks of the Nile, in Luxor.

Funnily enough, I cannot find many of the hundreds of pictures I've taken of the Old Winter Palace, so these few will have to suffice, sorry! (You'll see that they're of my usual quality, as well, lol!)

Anyway, the point is, that the actual 'High Tea' is much preferable at Morpeth than in Luxor, but while the place itself is very charming and perfectly adequate; even the little curtsies from the waitresses cannot compare with the 'olde worlde' grandeur of Thomas Cook's wonderful Egyptian hotel.

Never mind, though; the fare was more filling, considerably less expensive and, being only 15 miles up the Great North Road, was much easier to currently access than travelling the 2,500 miles to Luxor!

Here it is:

Ooooh, the sandwiches! They were in 'Stottie Cake' which is a Geordie delicacy, somewhat like an 'oven-bottom cake', in that while it is a bread, it's somehow more solid and filling. The two sandwich fillings we chose were cheese savoury, and ham. Two scones each (remember that we only ordered for two), one fruit scone with separately provided jam and cream and the other cheese, and then two slices of our choices of cake from their wide menu, I had one of the range of different chocolate cakes on offer (quelle surprise!) and Freda had a slice of their lemon and white chocolate concoction. (I did have a small taste, and it was also scrumptious.)

Of course, we had the poor curtsying ladies running back and forth with several extra pots of boiling water and more milk and yet more butter, but they took it all with good cheer, which made the afternoon even more of pleasure for us. We were there for over an hour, and by the time we left we desperately needed to walk-off some of our over-indulgence!

Oh that we could get the Old Winter Palace over here, just to see how it should really be done!!!

10 out of 10, I think!