Afternoon Tea at Waterloo Gardens Teahouse Cardif

I'm currently so full of cake that I'm lying down and have had to unzip my dress! This afternoon was my first visit to Waterloo Gardens Teahouse here in Cardiff, an absolute paradise for tea lovers with its extensive range of fine teas all racked up behind the counter in their silver cannisters.

For their afternoon tea you receive a choice of tea, selection of finger sandwiches, scone, and a choice of cake, served on a three-tiered cake-stand (shared between our party of four, not like some places where you get a tiered cake-stand each!). There was quite a variety of sandwiches, but oddly only three of each kind when there were four of us, so we ended up cutting them in half. Portions of clotted cream were a little stingy but they happily gave us more when we asked, but were not able to give us any top-ups of hot water, saying we'd have to purchase another pot of tea.

Between the four of us, we sampled Pu-erh, Assam, Earl Grey and Lychee Oolong teas and were all pleased with our choices - mine was the Pu-erh, which I found smoky yet lighter than a Lapsang. As for the cake... I tried the Sweet Potato and Berry (a bit like carrot cake), and we also went for Courgette and Lime, Lemon Curd, and Tia Maria. All were very, very good and we struggled to finish them after the sandwiches and scones too.

I think for afternoon tea the Hamptons' Blue Pelican Cafe in Penarth is better value for money (£2 cheaper and much more generous with the clotted cream, hot water etc.) but for the sheer choice of teas, Waterloo Gardens Teahouse is the place to go - I would be quite happy spending an afternoon working my way through some of the more exotic sounding teas on their menu.