{"id":801992,"date":"2026-03-03T21:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/801992\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T21:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:07:24","slug":"ive-sampled-wales-best-afternoon-tea-and-its-definitely-worth-the-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/801992\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve sampled Wales’ best afternoon tea and it’s definitely worth the drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

A really special treat, afternoon tea services in Wales are prolific – but this one’s definitely worth trying one day\"A<\/p>\n

A gorgeous Grove afternoon tea<\/p>\n

As someone who went for a lot of afternoon teas during the mid-2010s cake-on-a-tiered plate boom, I got pretty bored of them and these days, my bar is still pretty high if my presence is required for the odd hen tea, baby celebration or birthday.<\/p>\n

But there’s one destination in Wales I would never turn down and I was lucky enough to take my mother there for a Mother’s Day treat in recent times.<\/p>\n

Grove of Narberth is a multi-award-winning boutique hotel from the Seren Collection, with a Michelin and Good Food Guide approved restaurant, The Fernery, and chef, Douglas Bailish. They also have an afternoon tea service which is very high on my crumbly cake and tiny sandwich Richter scale.<\/p>\n

As you weave your way down to the hotel, tucked away in a glade, overlooking a pond and surrounded by cherry blossom trees and the wilder Welsh countryside, it’s a magical place to visit on the frostiest morning in mid-winter or sunny evening during summer.<\/p>\n

\"Grove<\/p>\n

Grove of Narberth(Image: Phil Boorman)<\/p>\n

The food stands toe-to-toe with the stunning setting and cosy luxury of the Grove. It would definitely be a destination dining experience I’d repeat for a special occasion, hopefully soon.<\/p>\n

Coming in currently at \u00a336 for their classic afternoon tea, you get a savory selection of sausage roll, smoked salmon, cheese scone and pastrami sandwich, as well as assorted cakes and sweets that change with the seasons and a buttermilk scone with preserve and clotted cream. Of course it comes with a choice of tea or coffee.<\/p>\n

You can also upgrade to a gin afternoon tea, and there’s a Champagne version, too. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The food was divine<\/p>\n

On our visit we picked one regular afternoon tea and one gluten-free afternoon tea, as I’d heard that the chefs here provide just as great care and attention to the gluten-free options as they do with the regular tea. I didn’t want to be disappointed – and I wasn’t.<\/p>\n

Beautifully presented, the scones were hot and fresh and melt in the mouth, even the GF one.<\/p>\n

But did the taste match up with the presentation? It absolutely did. For my mother, the sausage roll was the “nicest I’ve tasted” with crisp, buttery pastry casing a melty, flavourful hunk of sausage meat in the centre and the puffy cheese and chive scone was gone in an instant but its crispy exterior and the bite of cheddar flavour left its mark – great elements to add to a meal that we often find has too much sweet stuff.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The presentation was also incredible<\/p>\n

For the GF option, I was really impressed by the alternates on this visit, it takes a lot to replace a top-tier sausage roll, but the mini fishcake, topped with sweet\/sour crunchy pickles, elevated my expectations – there really is no excuse for rubbery or chewy gluten-free snacks. The arancini had loads of flavour and crunch, too, without its garlic element being overpowering.<\/p>\n

Sandwiches were nice, filled with salmon and cream cheese and smoked ham, with the free-from bread a step above – it had a lovely lightness and bounce that’s often missing from drastically overpriced, flavourless, gluten-free bread.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The food on offer<\/p>\n

I’ve not had an afternoon tea like it since I drastically cut down on gluten and wheat, and I would recommend it. The regular one too was simply one of the best I’ve seen. The care, attention and effort put into creating the tea menu is right there in front of you.<\/p>\n

Grove of Narberth is an obvious choice to book if you’re after a bonafide treat, not only does it have maximum effort put into its dishes and menu, it’s somewhere you’ll recieve a warm welcome and an escape from the everyday.<\/p>\n

Grove of Narberth, Molleston, Narberth SA67 8BX | Book here: <\/strong>grovenarberth.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A really special treat, afternoon tea services in Wales are prolific – but this one’s definitely worth trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,786,4884,186786,1149,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-801992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wales","tag-britain","tag-food-and-drink","tag-great-britain","tag-narberth","tag-pembrokeshire","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116167290427545299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}