Lake District Afternoon Tea at Storrs Hall

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If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know I love me a good afternoon tea. For two reasons. The first, even though I now live in Canada I am still incredibly British. And two, I just love food – especially in miniature, classy form such as high tea. I recently took my parents to afternoon tea at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel on our Canadian Rockies roadtrip. So when I went back to the UK for a visit, I of course had to book us in for this stereotypical British activity. And what better than a Lake District afternoon tea?

I was born and raised in Cumbria, the home of (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful areas of the UK, and maybe even the world. The Lake District is quintessentially British – rolling green hills, quaint villages and more sheep than you can shake a stick at. Side note: don’t shake sticks at sheep. It won’t hurt them, it’s just weird. But I digress. “What about this delicious afternoon tea you promised us Emma?” I hear you say. I’m getting there, don’t worry. It’s a fun uniquely British experience that you must do if you’re visiting the UK. Or even if you live in the UK and, you know, feel like being fancy on any random Tuesday.

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Tell me about the Lake District

If you insist! I will (again) big up my home county, and the phenomenal views that you can find in the Lake District. Just take a look at this:

OK now I have your attention, let me tell you a little bit about the national park itself. The Lake District is located in Cumbria, way up North. If you hit Scotland you’ve gone too far. My hometown, Carlisle, is the main city in the county and since it still feels a bit like a small town you can imagine just how small town the Lake District feels.

Find out more about my hometown Carlisle here.

Now the Lake District is (spoiler alert) filled with lakes. Gasp! I mean most of them are just puddles that grew outward because of all the rain we have, but still. But seriously, yes there are lots of lakes and they make the area an artist’s/photographer’s/any random Joe’s dream location. It really is beautiful. But my all time favorite place in the Lake District is Ambleside. It’s a cute little village that I would love to admit is a well kept secret, but unfortunately the word is out. It’s still worth checking out though.

For a Ten Lakes Tour of the Lake District from Windermere check out this tour on Viator

Where to have your Lake District afternoon tea

Given what I’ve said so far you can probably guess this isn’t my first time afternoon tea-ing in the Lakes. I have done it before at the Inn on the Lake, which is as pretty as it sounds, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the afternoon tea. It was nice, but not the best I’ve had. My ultimate favorite place to have afternoon tea is Storrs Hall. Yep, it’s as fancy as it sounds. A lovely (not so little) hotel which I would give my right arm to stay at. OK maybe my left arm. I’ll need the right arm for drinking tea. The setting is amazing, right on a lake and such a quiet area and a super fancy hall.

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We have been here before and it was so good I decided this was where I wanted to treat my parents again when I visited the UK. Afternoon tea is available every day between 12:30 and 4:30pm. I’ve been three times now and it’s never been so busy that I haven’t gotten my first choice. Although granted I’ve always gone in the off season and not in the height of summer, so best plan ahead and make a reservation. Advanced payment wasn’t necessary so I just paid when I got there and it was just under £20 per person. If you want a glass of Prosecco or Champagne then this is closer to £30 per person.

Experiencing our very own Lake District afternoon tea at Storrs Hall

When we arrived at Storrs Hall we parked outside in the small (but free) car park, and made our way into the hall. We were greeted at the front desk and shown into the dining room where we could choose where we wanted to sit. So many choices. You can sit by the fireplace (perfect for the cool winter day when we visited), or by the window looking out at the lake. We chose one of the roomier tables in the middle of the room with the comfy sofas. I had told them in advance about my vegetarian needs and they reconfirmed this when they came around for our tea order. It should be noted they also take gluten free requests, and do an amazing job at catering to special requests.

So you know where, and how much, let’s get on with the good stuff. What is there to eat?! Since we visited in December the selection was seasonally themed. Although there are changes to the menu throughout the year there are always a selection of sandwiches, savory items, scones and sweet treats. Ours was kind of Christmassy but generally there are not themes to the afternoon tea other than seasonally inspired items.

Tea choices

The first dilemma we had was selecting a type of tea. Do you go with a regular English breakfast? A green tea? More herbal choices such as chamomile or peppermint? Or a fruity tea. I went with the green tea (antioxidants and all that), and my parents went with the classic English tea with milk.

The tea is served in tall stainless steel teapots with delicate teacups. It’s loose leaf tea so we got a tea strainer to place over the cup. Overall a nice experience even before we get to the food.

Afternoon tea sandwich selection

For this afternoon tea there were given three different small sandwiches each. For my parents, on the regular afternoon tea, they got:

• egg salad sandwich with mayonnaise
• smoked salmon sandwich
• turkey with cranberry jam

For the vegetarian options I had:

• egg salad sandwich with mayonnaise
• cucumber sandwich with a light cream cheese
• brie with a homemade jam and greens

They were all delicious. Small enough so that they don’t make you full, but big enough that you get a nice taste.

Savory selection of food

Again there were variations for the veggie and the regular afternoon tea selections. For my parents, they had little pigs in blankets (small pork sausages wrapped in bacon). Meanwhile I had a few breaded halloumi cheese sticks. All were nicely presented and still warm which was really good.

There were also two scones per person served with clotted cream and fresh strawberry jam. Can you get more English than that? I love clotted cream so this was definitely a highlight for me. And there was a generous amount. Especially since there was no way I was getting through two scones myself so I kept one to eat later.

There were two scones: a plain buttermilk scone and a fruit scone with dried apple and a cinnamon flavor. Very winter tasting. It was absolutely delicious.

The desserts

Now for the sugar filled treats that just blew us away. First there was a cute little meringue snowman which had a cherry flavor jam on the base. Presumably mostly to stick it to the small board that supported it, but it was also a really nice flavor.

Then there’s the classic mince pie. Such a Christmas dessert. Yummy, buttery tart shell filled with a mincemeat (neither mince nor meat for those non-Brits reading this). Definitely not a Rachel from Friends trifle situation! It was topped with a powdered sugar dusted crust.

We also were given a Christmas pudding shaped dessert item which was just so intricately decorated it was unbelievable. It was pistachio flavored and really really good.

Then there was a Santa Claus decorated mango cream and chocolate ganache dessert. I say Santa decorated because it was bright red and decorated with a Santa belt, with a pastry base.

All the desserts were phenomenal, but were light enough that you didn’t get too full eating them all. I still managed to save the mince pie for later. Mostly because I didn’t think the snowman or Santa Claus dessert would travel well.

Should you do a Lake District afternoon tea?

Absolutely! What a magical Christmas experience. But fear not, afternoon tea at Storrs Hall is available all year round. And it’s delicious no matter the season. The staff were incredibly nice and friendly, they explained everything we were served which is always a good thing so you know what it is if you really like it. As I said, my dietary concerns were able to be taken into account. They did their best to fulfil them, although there may be certain things you would have to clarify if they can accommodate.

I have been to Storrs Hall a few times now for afternoon tea. After trying different places we settled on this being the best one we’d visited and have always been happy with the experience. I would like to go in the summer, as my parents did that once and were able to eat outside with even more up close views of lake Windermere. But even in winter the views outside were nice, and I got to enjoy it all from the coziness of the hall itself. Perfect!

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If you’ve enjoyed this post leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you been for a Lake District afternoon tea? Or to Storr’ Hall? What’s your favorite part about afternoon tea?