Saturday, August 9, 2008

Chouet Tea Rooms


Chouet Tea Rooms sit in a small hollow behind the rocky sea defences on the delightful northwest bay of Chouet. Surrounded by high hedges the Tea Rooms gardens are well protected from the sea breezes, unless you choose the garden annex which allows you to embrace the wonderful scenery and also the breeze.
Décor is average 70’s café, with picnic benches outside and beech furniture inside.
Special on offer is of course the cream tea. This consists of Tea/coffee, and 2 small scones, one plain, one fruit (substitutes available by request, though one must be careful as the almost-non-english-speaking staff are easily confused), squirty (whipped) cream, butter and the highlight which is a pot of Bon Mamon jam (!). All of which comes in at a fairly hefty £4.25.
Service was polite but limited, again by the almost-non-english-speaking waitress, which meant that conversation was almost totally one-sided, s s l l o o w w w and with frequent repeats, with frequent repeats.
One must order at the counter, where on an order of 2 cream teas (one decaf)and a coffee they managed to overcharge by one tea.
A reasonable wait for the tea to arrive, although it was more of a parade than a tea, as the scones and coffee arrived and the poor waitress seemed quite surprised when we asked for the two teas as well. One tea arrived as we finished the scones and the other tea arrived as the first tea was finished.
The scones were small with a slightly crispy texture and fruit was rather well spaced.
The coffee was good filter coffee
Tea was fine.
Overall impression, if you happen to be passing within 100 yards its worth making the detour, as long as you are in either a patronising or patient frame of mind.
Other goodies, plentiful but pricy.
High point was a Kestrel which was cruising the waterfront nearby.
Chouet Tea Rooms were chosen as an entré to provide a base line by which all other tea shops on Guernsey could be compared.
Cream Tea: slim 5
Cream: Whipped 5
Jam: Bon Mamon 5
Butter: Sufficient 5
Goodies: Not tempting enough 5
Environment: Pretty 5
Comfort: Picnic tables 5
Service One way, but pleasant 5
Timng: Reasonable
Price: over 5
Confusion lots 5
Total 55
Special Feature: Living on past glory
Overall We are ready to move on to bigger and better tea rooms

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very disappointing. We rang in advance to book a table for lunch. On arrival we ordered drinks but were not told we couldn't have hot food until after this as they had to unexpectedly shut the kitchen. The table before us had just ordered hot food, and were served.
When our subsequent order arrived it was incorrect.
I mentioned these issues on paying and no concessions were made.