We decided that since we visit so many tea establishments in the area to have a bit of fun and start the “Shelley Rating System”, and we will give an award to the best tea room in the area at the end of the year. However, the ones mentioned below are so popular with the residents that they request to return to these regularly! AND THE WINNER IS....... We went back to Dome Vintage Tea Rooms mid January- to enjoy their fine teas and cakes, and present them with their 'Shelley Award' for Best Tea Room (we visited) in Worthing! This tea room scored high with the first group of residents and even higher the secont time we visited. Congratulations to the winners from the residetns of The Shelley, who 'endured' the task of eating and drinking in all venues mentioned below. Great fun.
Shoreham Airport 'Hummingbird Cafe' The first place to be judged was the tea room in Shoreham Airports 1930's art deco departure lounge. If you haven't been before it's worth a visit you can sit in the main part of the cafe and watch the planes and helicopters coming and going, or you can posh it up, as we did by sitting in the art deco departure lounge with plush seating and period furnishings. All marks are out of 5 Shoreham Airport 'Hummingbird Cafe' AMBIENCE (furnishings and setting): 5 DRINKS: 3.5 FOOD: 3.5 SERVICE: 3.5 CROCKERY: 4 VALUE: 4 Overall score - 23.5 / 30
Denton Lounge on Worthing Pier Pete went with the residents to Denton/Pavilion Cafe Bar, this is a beautiful setting whatever the day as you can almost always get a table with a view overlooking the sea, so it's light with lots of space, and a nice place to catch up or just daydream out of the window. The large area can reverberate a little so if it's busy then it can be harder for those with hearing problems. Nice cakes - the vegan Victoria was as tasty as any standard sponge, with strong hints of vanilla and more moist than standard Victoria (possibly made with ground almonds?) which was nice, and the coffee cake got a very big thumbs. The cheese scone however was a disappointment - a bit too dry for those who tried it. Coffee also was complimented by those who had it, but the tea was functional rather than particularly tasty - came in a ridiculously large, industrial metal tea pot that was impractical to lift and didn't look that nice - it would have been more in place in a factory canteen, and spoiled the genteel tea room atmosphere that it feels would be in place here. Service was polite - they were happy to bring to our table (though didn't offer to do so), but rule one - never tell your customers how you've managed to mess up previous order and how the customer didn't notice! Just over £20 for 8 hot drinks and 3 cakes (which were of good size that we shared between us all with seconds) is good value. All marks are out of 5: Worthing Denton Lounge AMBIENCE (furnishings and setting): 4 DRINKS: 4 FOOD: 3.5 (would have been a 4 if not for the dry cheese scone) SERVICE: 3.5 CROCKERY: 3 VALUE: 4 Overall score - 22 / 30
Steyning Produce Shop & Tea Room Trip out to Steyning Produce Shop on Steyning High St, a tearoom at the back of a farm shop. This one starts on a big plus, as the drive over the downs past Sompting church and then on past sheep and cows and rolling green fields that remind us how lucky we are to live in this beautiful corner of England. It's nice to see a proper working shop with fantastic produce from the area, and the centre piece as you come in is a beautiful old 1950's red tractor. The cafe is the back of the shop, spacious with nice lighting which makes it warm and welcoming, and we were greeted by friendly and attentive staff, and we were made to feel welcome, and it was clear that would be willing to move things around without any fuss if required (though not required). You can sometimes really tell the class of a place by their toilets - often places look very nice, but when you go behind the scenes to powder your nose you see a different picture of slightly down on their luck restrooms. Not so here - really nice, clean and pleasant surroundings. Next year when we work on our 'best toilets in Sussex' guide, this one might feature. Hands washed, and back to the cafe....Tea came quickly - and we were delighted to see it was tea leaves not tea bags, which always gets a nod. Coffee got nod of approval from our resident coffee tasting expert Eve, and the cakes (some home baked, but others sourced from variety of local suppliers) were of very high quality - we tried the almond croissant, chocolate brownie & bakewell tart and all were delicious. Tea cups were a kind of half way house between the large clunky coffee cups we sometimes get served and the dainty china tea cups that we love, but wasn't so big to be hard to handle, though a more delicate cup would set off the tea better in our opinion. At £27 for 7 people (7 hot drinks & 3 cakes) this is a tiny bit more expensive than average, but you get what you pay for. All marks are out of 5: Steyning Produce Shop & Tea Room AMBIENCE (furnishings and setting): 4 DRINKS: 4.5 FOOD: 5 SERVICE: 4 CROCKERY: 3.5 VALUE: 3.5 (slightly more pricey, but worth it) Overall score - 24.5 / 30
DOME VINTAGE TEA ROOM As part of our ongoing search to find the best tea rooms in Sussex we went to The Dome Vintage Tea rooms which are part of the Dome Cinema building. Delightful decor and setting, with a warm welcome with staff who are attentive and on the ball - on hand to help us get into place. It's not the biggest of tea rooms, so there's a chance on a sunny day you might not get a large table, but we went on a cold blustery day so we had lots of space to ourselves. Nice vintage-era style music played in the background (but importantly not too loud), and we liked the nick-nacks that adorned the shelves. Brilliant vintage bone china which makes such a difference when drinking tea, and the tea is with tea leaves rather than bags which gets extra bonus points in our book. Cakes were good, although the chocolate banana cake was maybe a bit too bananary that overpowered the chocolate, but all others were generous and moist. Toilets are clean functional, but feel like an afterthought, not up to high standard of Steyning Tea Rooms that we visited a few weeks ago (who are currently in the running to win the much coverted 'Best Tea Room Toilet in Sussex' award.) This will surely be one of the tea rooms to beat, and currently nudges into first place. Dome Vintage Tea Room AMBIENCE (furnishings and setting): 4.5 DRINKS: 5 FOOD: 5 SERVICE: 5 CROCKERY: 5 VALUE: 4 (£21 for 7 people with hot drinks and share of 3 cakes is pretty good) Overall score - 28.5 / 30
Denams Gardens Our quest to find the best tea room in Sussex took us to Denmans Gardens, which has recently re-opened after being shut for a few months. A couple of our party chose to forgo the tea and cakes for a stroll around the gardens (entrance £4 OAP's / £5 Adults) which was deemed "pleasant rather than spectacular" - not too big, and can probably be done in a leisurely one hour stroll, and is ideal for those daunted by larger gardens. The tearooms themselves are surrounded by nice trees and vegetation and on warm days, it's very nice to sit outside in the dappled sunlight, but we chose to sit inside in the large glass conservatory-feel room. Our waiter Andy was celebrating his 19th birthday, so we sang him Happy Birthday, and reminisced about what we were doing when we were 19. Down to the business in hand. The room has been decluttered, which gives way more space, and light, although maybe at the expense of some of the character that it used to have. Service was very polite and attentive. We all went for toasted teacakes (£1.40 + 40p for jam) which met with universal approval, the cake selection (including Gluten free) looked nice, and were very reasonable at £2.50, but we didn't try any this time (excuse for a revisit!). At £28 for 8 of us who all had a hot drink and something to eat it was remarkably good value. Denams Gardens AMBIANCE (furnishings and setting): 3.5 (surroundings 5, tea room is a bit bland inside) DRINKS: 3.5 FOOD: 4 SERVICE: 4.5 (came and asked us a couple of times if we wanted anything else, and let us have an extra cup for no extra cost for one of our party who joined later) CROCKERY: 3.5 (bland slightly chunky cups that we see in quite a few cafes) VALUE: 4.5 Overall score - 23.5/30 Surroundings and accessibility are generally good, with good space for us to move around (some tearooms can be very cramped), though access up to cafe was bit tricky with wheelchair due to gravel lead up to tearooms, tearoom decor & crockery could do with bit more thought. Would we go back - definitely. Residents enjoyed the surroundings and feeling of space, though it's just a little short for being our cafe of the year. But.... then came the next tea room visit with Mel
The Bluebird Cafe Mel's first trip to a tea room since the ratings began was to The Bluebird Care in Ferring. A beautiful view out over the sea. Great company, great conversation and great cakes. This was given top ratings by the residents - a tough one to beat! All marks are out of 5: The Bluebird Cafe AMBIENCE (furnishings and setting): 5 DRINKS: 5 FOOD: 5 SERVICE: 5 CROCKERY: 5 VALUE: 5 Overall score - 30/30
Joanna's
Today our afternoon trip took us to the beautiful town of Storrington where we found the most delightful tea parlour. Joanna's will certainly do a return trip as the homemade cakes and ice cream were delicious and the place was like an eloquent dining room. We adored the Bombay Duck China and the staff were friendly and most helpful. This is definitely a contender for best afternoon tea on The Shelley voting list. It is certainly a Jewel in the crown and a hidden gem. What a perfect place, even down to white cotton table linen and crystal chandeliers. No 'number' of how excellent, far too busy admiring the location but then it means we can go back again to rate it!
The Dome Vintage Tea Room (2nd visit)
We really like this place and is our second visit this year (this time with different residents) - nice decor, location, lots of light from it's large glass windows looking out onto the seafront. Cream teas, with clotted cream on the scones, nice fine china cups, and tea with tea leaves all score points. A mark was almost taken off for the slightly hard chairs, however cushions were quickly found, and the friendly welcome & service more than makes up for that! Must be a contender for shortlist for The Shelley's 'Tea Room of the year' award. Mel will get the hang of ratings very soon, we have designed a form which can be filled out during the tea room visits! Dome Vintage Tea Room AMBIENCE (furnishings and setting): 5 DRINKS: 5 FOOD: 5 SERVICE: 5 CROCKERY: 5 VALUE: 5 Overall score - 30 / 30
Kaspa's Cafe Trip out to the newly opened Kaspa's Cafe in Worthing - channelling the spirit of a 50's style American diner it specialises in nothing but sweet things, waffles, ice creams, milk shakes cheesecakes etc Very helpful staff who were very attentive, and luckily we hit it when it wasn't busy so lots of space for us to settle ourselves. Chocolate ice cream was deemed to be 'the best I've ever tasted' by one resident, whilst the pancakes with maple syrup , strawberries & cream went down a treat with another. We all felt a bit sorry for Michelle who came with us to help out who is trying to be on a diet as there isn't really much for those trying to stay off the calories, though her Diet Coke did come in an old 1950's style glass Coke bottle. Bit echoey, and if there were lots of people it would probably be quite noisy and difficult for those who are hard of hearing, though wheelchair facilities were good and staff eager to help. Not our normal kind of destination for tea out, but for a change of scene it was a breath of fresh air. Kaspa's Cafe AMBIENCE (furnishings and setting): 4 (not to everyone's taste, but it certainly does it's thing) DRINKS: 3.5 FOOD: 4 (if sugar isn't your thing then you are in trouble, but luckily it was for all the residents!) SERVICE: 4.5 (very attentive and keen to help) CROCKERY: 3.5 VALUE: 2.5 (puddings are not cheap, though you can get pancake for about £4.50 or just a simple single scoop ice cream for £1.95, so cheaper options are available if you tiptoe through the menu) OVERALL SCORE: 22/30
The Happy Teapot
Trip out to the Happy Teapot in Worthing (opposite the library) Great selection of cakes, and lovely china crockery (though half a point taken off as saucers and cups didn't match!) The Happy Teapot Ambience - 4 not to everyone's taste, but everywhere you look there's a wacky sign or something to look at with pink being very much the in colour Drinks - 4 Food - 4.5 very good cakes - moist, and generous! Maybe best cakes we've tasted this year, though Steyning tea rooms are excellent. Service 3.5 - polite and helpful Crockery 4 - would have been higher had the saucers and cups matched, but nice china cups... Value 3.5 23.5 / 30