The Ivy, St Albans

Our publisher, Alison, went along to try out the new afternoon tea at The Ivy in St Albans. Well, someone’s got to!

I took my mum along for the afternoon tea – I knew she’d enjoy it! It was a Monday afternoon when we went and, as you would expect, the restaurant was fairly quiet when we arrived.

As we settled at our table, light jazz music played in the background and it was lovely and relaxing.

There’s a choice of afternoon teas: a simple cream tea for £7.95; afternoon tea for £18.95; or you can upgrade to a Champagne tea for £26.50. As it was early, we decided against the Champagne this time, but there’s a good selection of teas so I opted for Earl Grey while my mum chose fresh mint tea.

We were brought a selection of savouries, which included smoked salmon sandwiches and avocado on cream cheese as the vegetarian option, as well as a warm brioche roll filled with either chicken (for mum) or tangy tomato (for me). They were all lovely and fresh, totally delicious and perfectly presented. The fruit scones were tasty and light. Mum couldn’t eat her last scone and I only made it halfway through my chocolate pot, although it was very tasty!

In all we spent about an hour and a half enjoying our afternoon tea, and if the weather is warm there’s plenty of space to sit outside. We had a lovely time and would definitely go back.