Regular readers of the blog will know that I adore afternoon tea. There is nothing nicer than spending a lazy Saturday having the chats with mates over lots and lots of tea and cake. So when a friend said she had seen a voucher for afternoon tea with prosecco in the Morrison Hotel we were on it faster than you could say BAKE!
I have good memories of The Morrison as it is where my family and I went to celebrate my college graduation years ago! It has been totally renovated and the interior is beautifully chic with tones of purple, white and grey running through the hotel. We were welcomed into the hotel by very friendly staff and placed at a lovely table for two that overlooked the quays and the Liffey where we could see the world go by.
The afternoon tea started off well with a wonderful glass of prosecco. At this point my friend also told them she was vegetarian as she had not been asked on booking. The staff were very accommodating and said that would not be a problem at all. Then the afternoon tea arrived. It all looked lovely displayed on its blue and white three tiered platter.
First up were the sandwiches. These were ok but they were just standard white and brown bread fingers. The fillings were so uninspiring, plain chicken and butter, smoked salmon, cucumber and egg mayonnaise. My favourite was the smoked salmon but how can you really go wrong with that. My friend’s vegetarian offerings were even worse and looked like they had just been thrown together. We are still not sure what the below offering was meant to be! If the hotel wasn’t able to substitute good sandwiches for a vegetarian they should have just said so.
Then it was onto the scones. Dear god these were desperate! There is no excuse for a bad scone as they are one of the easiest things to bake. These ones were small, hard and dry and it took lashings of, admittedly nice, jam and cream to make them passable.
The top tier was much better in comparison. My favourites were the lemon pastry which was lovely and lemony, the chocolate brownie which I could have eaten more of and the macaroons were fab. I’m not usually a huge fan of macaroons so I was ppleasantly surprised by thes. The other two offerings, the chocolate sponge and the berry panacotta were both lacking in flavour while the sponge would glue your mouth shut with dryness.
Another thing that disappointed us was having to ask for more tea and coffee. It took a while to get the server's attention so we had well finished our drinks before we got more. Afternoon tea should be overflowing with, you guessed it, TEA! Now I know I have high standards but other places out there, such as Ariel House, have set the bar for afternoon tea extremely high. I have to admit that I wouldn’t be running back to the Morrison Hotel again for afternoon tea and I am quite glad that we only payed 16 for it on our voucher and not the full €28.
Having said all that I do like the setting of the Morrison Hotel and I will have to go back to see what their main menu is like as I noticed that they had a Josper Grill on the premises. One of the best burgers I have ever had was from one of those up in Donegal so I won’t be crossing the Morrison off my list just yet!
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