Watermill Hotel , Luxury Afternoon Tea

BEST WESTERN The Watermill Hotel, London Road, Bourne End,
Hemel Hempstead,Herts,HP1 2RJ

January 2015 

So it was Monday – I finished work locally (for once) at 3pm , and my lovely neighbour who has been working her socks off since the opening of her new Berkhamsted shop (amazing - check it out https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Emporium/725738040844401?fref=ts) earlier this month had a day off so we thought we should catch up. 

So what better way than 1.4 miles down the road with an afternoon tea!

Couldn’t fault it ! Right from when I called yesterday to book last minute and was asked about which tea we would like : Cream tea , Traditional Afternoon tea, Luxury afternoon Tea or Champagne Tea (we chose luxury),  did we have any dietary requirements, what time would we like and the very nice gentleman said how much they were looking forward to seeing us.  

We arrived to a very quiet hotel , but the receptionist was aware we were coming and greeted us warmly,  seated us in the Riverside restaurant (must be lovely in the summer on the deck) with our table all nicely set with white crockery.

We were given a jug of water,offered a section of teas and then presented with our feast – sandwiches were great - tuna, cheese etc moist and fresh, scones warm and fluffy, really generous pots of jam and clotted cream, and the luxury tea also included mini desserts which I though was a great touch and made a change from more traditional fruit cake and macaroons.   

Tea was a really nice English breakfast tea (there were other choices ) but they did use teabags – the only thing that let it down slightly.  But it was a great cuppa,  hot and strong.

We were the only ones in the restaurant, but it was fine-  all the staff walked past and without exception smiled at us – our waiter stayed behind the bar sorting and looking busy and when we wanted more tea he caught our eye immediately. It’s not a fancy place but for sheer value and taste and service it’s hard to beat.

Having eaten in a famous coffee bar chain at the weekend and had a Panini, coffee and a muffin which was £9.95 it was hard to fault the 11.95 value for money this was. We finished most of it but were stuffed – I didn’t have dinner this evening-  this was a 4pm tea (although just beginning to get peckish now looking at the pics again ! )

I loved the teapot design and the silver 3 tier plate – how gorgeous and contemporary is that ?

 Will definitely revisit here in the summer on a nice day on the deck it would be delightful.

Thankyou Watermill – we had a great couple of hours catching up and supping tea.