Vegan Afternoon Tea at the Laura Ashley Tearoom, Coventry

Disclaimer: This is a gifted review however all thoughts are my own.

If you told me a couple of years ago that I’d be invited along to try out some afternoon tea, my eyes would be popping out of my skull. It’s one of my favourite things to do (and gobble down) so when I found myself sitting in the Laura Ashley Tearoom in Coventry waiting for our vegan afternoon tea I was almost trembling with excitement. The room was empty so I kept getting off my seat to walk around and take photos, with my husband’s eyes following me in amusement. Soon the waiter came in and laid out a delicate bowl of tomato soup in front of us (aka tomato amuse bouche), and I couldn’t contain my surprise. Soup? Where was the tiered platter of cakes? We waited for a while but soon realised that the tiered platter was not going to turn up anytime soon, and tucked into the soup.

As soon as our soup was cleared (which was lovely, by the way, and I was glad it was only a small bowl as it was pretty filling), the waiter brought out the long-anticipated tiered of vegan afternoon tea, fully adorned with cakes and scones. This was what I was looking forward to the most, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I needed to write a review I would’ve dived straight in. My husband and I were trying to guess earlier whether or not we’d have clotted cream and how they’d make it vegan, and the answer to that was that it was coconut cream. My nose wrinkled at the sound of that. Coconut and I aren’t pals, so I scoffed down the sandwiches first.

My favourite was the avocado and tomato drizzled with lime, and I was so glad that my hubby didn’t like it as much so that I could have them all to myself. It was so lovely, that I was sad to see that I had eaten them all in a matter of seconds. The other flavours were tomato and shallot chutney, cucumber, and then pepper and hummus. My hubby’s favourite was the pepper and hummus but it was one that I turned my nose up at as I wasn’t keen on hummus.

related post: Alice in Wonderland Afternoon Tea at Kona

Then it was time for the scones.

I watched my husband layer on the coconut cream and jam onto a half of his scone, taking note of every small reaction that the lines of his face would reveal as he took a large bite into it. His eyebrows furrowed for a moment in curiosity and then raised in surprise. I couldn’t wait any longer and did the same, and was pleasantly surprised. This was gorgeous and I could barely taste the coconut. In fact, it was perhaps the most delicious scone I’ve ever had and I’ve had many in my lifetime. It soon became one of the favourite things out of the whole platter (sorry, delicious macarons!). Even when I moved onto the cakes I always took another small bite of the scone that I had left, just to balance everything out.

You might think I’m only saying this because it’s a gifted review, but I’m not going to lie to you – I was thoroughly impressed with the vegan afternoon tea at the Laura Ashley Tearoom. My hubby and I ate everything apart from 2-3 cakes, which is a rarity as we’d usually leave a lot more. I don’t know if it’s because it was vegan, but the afternoon tea wasn’t anywhere near as sweet as the previous ones I’ve had which was why we were able to eat so much.

Have you tried vegan afternoon tea before? What was it like?

Love,
Lizzie xx