Oh You Pretty Things, Intu Lakeside *

When it comes to Afternoon Tea I instantly think of upmarket hotels in London and not places around Essex, but I was wrong. Oh You Pretty Things in the Intu Lakeside shopping centre in Thurrock has started to offer a super cute afternoon tea for shoppers, so myself and dad popped along to try it out!

As we arrived we were greeted by Sam, our server for the afternoon, and shown to our booth overlooking the centre of Lakeside. I love poeple watching so this is perfect for me!

We were booked in for the afternoon tea so all we had to pick was our drinks. We both went for mocktails as we were both driving that day and I’m off the drink until after my marathon.

Just look how good that is! Passionfruit drinks are my jam right now.

Our afternoon tea was the perfect size as I can often find you get given far too much when you go for afternoon tea and then feel guilty leaving it.

We had 4 sandwiches between us, and I picked the lowest calorie ones and dad had the slightly naughtier ones!

So I had the wild red salmon and cucumber, and the ham and mustard sandwiches. I now know that I need to get some wild red salmon into my life as it was so good! I’d never tried it before and think it’ll be a great addition to my salads.

I then went in for the scones…

Which was Tiptree jam, and when tyou’re in Essex that’s really the only jam you can have! I did try to not go too over the top with the clotted cream but when you’re having afternoon tea you just need to be super lavish and enjoy it!

 We had a great selection of sweet treats in the form of macaroons, meringues and a huge cupcake each.

I did take my cupcake home for my Mumma as she’s a big cake fan and I was actually quite full up after all of my nibbly bits.

To finish up I had a cup of fruit tea and a lovely chat with Sam. She was one of the best waitresses we’ve had in a long time. I find that customer service is on its way down hill drastically and it’s nice to be taken care of, especially in places you wouldn’t expect.

If you’re in Essex then I highly recommend stopping by as it’s a great value lunch and even better service.