Taking tea with Valerie - Patisserie Valerie afternoon tea, Durham

Among my friends and family, I'm known as someone who goes out for food quite often. Anywhere someone is interested in going, I've probably been and can give an in-depth review, or direct them to my blog (#pageviews). So when Christmas rolled around, Matt's Uncle decided it would be a great idea to buy us an afternoon tea for two at Patisserie Valerie, which has not long opened in Middlesbrough. Having only ever been for cake and a warmed croissant sandwich, I couldn't wait to try their afternoon tea.

After an especially busy period at work, I took a random Friday off and we ventured to Durham for the day to redeem our afternoon tea. From where we'd parked, we walked up the stairs to ground level and Patisserie Valerie was staring us right in the face.

We ventured to the cafe around 2.30pm, after a wander around the town, trying to spot the Marvel Avengers cast, and were seated immediately. Our afternoon tea didn't take long to come out and it looked packed with yummy treats.

We switched out a few of the sandwiches and were left with chicken, sun-dried tomato and pesto, egg mayonnaise and ham and mustard. As an extra in this afternoon tea, we both had a small, warm, vegetable quiche which was a lovely addition. Having worked our way through the sandwiches, which were very fresh and tasty, we were on to the scone level.

We had a plain and a fruit scone accompanied by four different mini pots of jam, clotted cream and butter. The scones were the perfect mix of firm, yet soft, and when accompanied by unlimited cups of tea, were great.

Finally, we reached the top level, the cake! It was a bit disappointing that we only had one of each type of cake, apart from the chocolate eclair, which meant we had to split the small servings of cake. I tried the chocolate and the carrot which were both very nice.

Overall for a 'chain' cafe, this afternoon tea was of a very high standard. Patisserie Valerie pride themselves on their top-notch cakes and their afternoon tea didn't falter on creativity or quality. For £25 for two, this afternoon tea is very reasonable and could be taken whenever you fancy it.

Leeds blogger meet up

A week or so ago I put my name on the reserve list for the #leedsmeetup that the lovely Hayley from Tea Party Beauty was organising. I didn't think there was any chance I'd be going as there was a long reserve list but on Wednesday Hayley informed me there was a place and I was more than happy to take it! I sorted my train tickets the next day and eagerly waited for Saturday to come around.

Saturday finally came and I was really nervous on the train down however when I met with everyone outside WHsmith at Leeds train station my nerves were calmed as everyone was so nice! We trekked to Patisserie Valerie to meet everyone else and soon we were all happily sipping our drinks. It was lovely getting to chat to other bloggers and see what they were all like behind their blogs. Whilst we all chatted we were served our cake. I had the strawberry gateau which was very yummy, filled with strawberries.

After we'd all finished our cake Hayley started handing out the goodie bags (two bags and a box!) which were JAM PACKED! There was also a raffle in which I won a Cyber Candy Tee! After this myself, Fiona, Kirstie and Elizabeth went out shopping in Leeds, checking out Harvey Nichols, Victoria's Secret and Trinity Leeds.

I had such a good time meeting other bloggers and would definitely attend something like this again in the future. Hayley did an amazing job organising this meet up, I am glad I got the opportunity to attend.

Lots of pictures below...

Thanks for this picture Yuna (techbunny.net)