Betty's

Betty's is a Yorkshire institution, having started in Harrogate and blossomed into several other branches. As I was visiting York, and being a huge fan of tearooms, it was somewhere I simply had to visit, my Mecca if you will!

Betty's as a venue is beautiful. It reminds me of Main Street USA in the various Disney Magic Kingdom theme parks, a turn of the century upper class tea room and shop, offering the finest quality goods, and tempting you with the prospects of an Afternoon Tea.

We entered and were promptly seated in the main dining area, and given a couple of menus. After obviously deciding to try out the Afternoon Tea, a waiter turned up and asked us what we'd like, but even though he was polite, he didn't tell us his name or particularly seem to want to engage with us, and seemed a little rushed. It was nice to be asked whether we'd prefer milk or lemon with our tea though, and we were asked if we were happy with the choice of sandwiches available.

Our tea arrived in chrome teapots, and was pleasant enough, but for the "tearoom blend" we didn't find it particularly memorable. When we looked in the teapot, we saw that the loose leaf tea looked more like sludge, and was either a powder, or very fine leaves. Wasn't very pleasant though.

Before very long, our Afternoon Tea arrived. Unusually, it was not on a single stand, but two individual tea stands, taking up quite a lot of space on the small table. The presentation was fair, and in the correct stand-order, but the quality was sadly lacking.

The sandwiches were quite dry, lacking any sort of chutney or dressing, so the chicken was simply a bit of dry chicken on buttered bread, and only a quarter triangle of each sandwich provided. They were very much like sandwiches you'd find at a funeral wake buffet. Underwhelmed.

Sadly, the scones, which are the corner stone of any good afternoon tea were also quite dry, perhaps because they had been pre-sliced. The clotted cream was pleasant (although simply dolloped onto a small dish), and the jam was fair. The cakes on top were pretty, but nothing remarkable; a small chocolate cake which tasted like any other you'd find, a green macaron which had a pleasant texture, but which neither of us could identify the flavour of, and a small fruit tart, which was nice, with fresh fruit.

The waiter who served us came to take away the cake stands before we'd finished, removing the top plate from my partner's cake stand and placing it on the table, before scurrying off again. He then seemed to disappear for a while as we were waiting for him to return so we could ask to pay our bill, which came to £37.90 for Afternoon Tea for two, but which really didn't feel like what pay was merited, in either the quality or the service. I would say that Betty's is very much style over substance, resting on its laurels and knowing that it will be popular and paid for no matter what, but although the food and drink quality was lacking, I did hear other waiters and waitresses nearby happily chatting with their customers, and engaging a lot more than ours did. I guess ours was too busy or simply not interested.

I may have been a bit critical in this review, but I left feeling genuinely upset and disappointed, as I was really looking forward to this as a birthday treat, and a special occasion, and was expecting something a lot greater than I got.

I won't be returning to Betty's. I'll stick with Poppins!

Betty's Café Tea Rooms
6-8 St Helen's Square
York
Y01 8QP
(01904) 659 142
https://www.bettys.co.uk/