'Took mum for M&S Mother's Day afternoon tea - great but one key thing missing'
Trying to decide what you want to do with your mum for Mother's Day can be really difficult.
You don't want to just copy what you did the previous year, but many of us are tightening our purse strings at the moment, so spoiling her rotten can feel like an impossible task. You may decide to take your mum out for afternoon tea, but you may be concerned that you won't get value for money - especially around Mother's Day. But when Manchester Evening News reporter Emma Gill took her mum to M&S for afternoon tea, she was left feeling as though she'd got value for money.
She wrote: Teeny sandwiches, cakes, scones and a pot of tea - those are the things that immediately spring to mind when I hear the words afternoon tea. Expensive is another one. Because let's face it, quite often you'll find you're not quite getting your money's worth from the £20 a head, or however much you're shelling out. And when you factor in Mother's Day to any booking, the price usually shoots up even higher.
So when I heard that Marks and Spencer is doing afternoon tea for a tenner a head, I was keen to sample the goods. I obviously had to take my own mum along for the occasion and, not wanting to miss out on some nanna-mother-daughter time, my eldest decided to come too. Three generations, each of us with a suitably sweet tooth. If you're going to put something to the test then you may as well do it properly, and a busy Saturday afternoon at the new Trafford Centre store was probably the ultimate 'if it can go wrong it will go wrong' scenario.
Emma was really impressed (MEN)I did think the lunchtime crowd may have died down by the time we arrived about 3pm, but we were lucky to get a table it was that packed. Ordering was simple enough though. There are screens at the front that allow you to select your food and drink which is brought straight to our table.
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I wasn't expecting so much choice for the afternoon tea, but it takes you through the various elements, where you can pick your preferences along the way. It starts with sandwiches, with a choice of the classic selection, the seafood selection, or the gluten free option with the popular M&S Cheddar Cheese New Yorker.
You then pick from either a fruit scone, a Devon scone or a cheese scone and can even pick what sort of tea you want - just tea, Earl Grey, decaf, green, triple mint, lemon and ginger, red berry, or biscuit. If you don't want tea, you can have a coffee, or you can upgrade to add prosecco or alcohol-free fizz for an extra £5.
Our order couldn't have been simpler, two afternoon teas both identical - with the classic sandwiches, fruit scones and normal tea. We're easily pleased. My daughter on the other hand made the most of the menu, which is much more varied than I expected from a store cafe, and ordered a chicken burger and chips, a cookies and cream milkshake and a slice of lemon drizzle loaf. Perhaps it wasn't our company that enticed her here after all.
Honestly, it looked nicer than what you'd get from a restaurant or pub and she said the same about the taste. And it's cheaper too, hers came to around £15 altogether. Timing didn't go too well and she'd eaten her main before ours had even arrived, but it wasn't really a big deal.
When ours did come I was amazed to see how much you actually get. As well as the sandwiches and scones, which come with a pot of jam and a small tub of Cornish clotted cream, we each got a macaron, a small chocolate cupcake and something that looked like a biscuit but tasted like a crispy pastry.
We didn't get the strawberries mentioned in the advert, but with the amount we had to go at, I doubt they'd have got eaten anyway. We also didn't get our pots of tea - until we asked for them - and it did seem a little chaotic given the fact the store has been open since December. But staff seemed to be doing their best to keep up with the orders that must have been flying in from those time-saving screens.
Emma said it was good value for money (MEN)You can still order at the counter as well, and lots of people were, perhaps that just adds to the confusion all round. But we got our tea in the end, a decent-sized pot each, and managed to scoff our way through the various treats. We also discovered that the afternoon tea is not just a Mother's Day thing, it's something M&S Cafes sell all the time. If that's not a reason to return then I don't know what is.
It's available in store cafes every day from 2pm. If you can't get to the store there are other M&S Mother's Day treats you can get delivered to your door. There's a Pink Prosecco Afternoon Tea, which includes a hamper full of all sorts of goodies. Costing £55, the 'scrumptious gift' includes Devon scones to enjoy with Elsanta strawberry jam, Cornish clotted cream, and luxury tea. There's also red velvet cake, mini macaroons, and Bellante pink prosecco.
Alternatively, you could opt for the The Perfect Blend Coffee Letterbox, which is ideal to send to your mum if you're not able to share the day with her. For £20, your loved one will find three varieties of coffee sachets including Jump Start, House Blend and Italian. She can enjoy a cup with a sweet treat or two, including carrot cake, chocolate biscuits, indulgent millionaires shortbread, chocolate flapjacks and caramel waffles.
Check out the gifts available to order online here, including flowers, nightwear, beauty products and more.
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