Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea at Bread & Pullet

[AD – Gifted] The Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea was complimentary for the purpose of a review for National Afternoon Tea Week

Who loves Afternoon Tea!? ME! 

That’s why I am delighted to kick off National Afternoon Tea Week with my review for Bread & Pullet; Northampton’s modern British tapas restaurant which takes influence from further afield and combine flavours into cohesive dishes. 

But I was very surprised, when I held a poll on my Instagram stories, that people didn’t realise that Bread & Pullet do more than just tasty British tapas; they do incredible themed Afternoon Teas and they do it WELL! 

What Bread & Pullet do effortlessly and are very passionate about doing is making everything from scratch, using local ingredients sourced from local producers which they have an awesome detailed map mural on their wall which displays where and whom they get their ingredients from – I love a place that is all about sourcing local! 

On this occasion, we were given a complimentary Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea, which was themed around Father’s Day, for the purpose of my Northants Afternoon Tea guide – it was a great occasion to take my dad out to celebrate the day and spend some quality time together. 

As you walk inside, you’re instantly greeted by someone at the bar and you feel like you’ve walked into somewhere in Crete, Greece. It’s bright, airy blue decor, rustic wooden chairs and tables and their beautiful white bar filled with plenty of gin and more make you feel like you’re worlds away from Northampton. 

My dad and I sat in a cosy two person table, though my only criticism would be that the table was incredibly small, so we would sometimes find it difficult to fit everything on there. However, it’s a minor thing to complain about and what was about to come was going to blow our minds…

We were offered tea, coffee or something stronger with our Afternoon Tea. Whilst I opted for a coffee, my dad went for a pint of larger, which obviously suited this ‘Gentleman’s’ Afternoon Tea very well! So far, so good and my dad and I enjoyed the relaxing environment and raised a glass for Father’s Day.

My dad was really impressed by the water bottles the staff brought over to the table, which was contained in an up-cycled Two Birds Spirit Vodka bottle – we both felt this was a quirky feature and was later inspired to do the same at home with an empty vodka bottle!

The menu was easy to read and understand; with everything clearly labelled out into three different courses: Savoury, Scones and Sweets.

It was a different concept to know that we were going to get a different course one at a time, as opposed to all at the same time like usual Afternoon Tea; which we both felt was a very good idea!

Savouries

The first course swiftly arrived, the Savoury course and from the eye, everything looked incredibly fresh, colourful and each element had something interesting to look at. The Everything smelt rich and full of flavour, which both my dad and I were excited to sample each mini dish. 

Rather than being presented as a high tea, the Savoury and the rest of the boards were presented on wooden slabs, to fit with their greek summer vibe! It consisted of Chicken Tikka Scotch Egg, which if all scotch eggs could come how Bread & Pullet make them, I would be a very happy girl – they were so full of filling, moist in the middle and had such a lovely golden colour!

The Pork, Apple & Black Pudding Pie was one I was a little nervous about, as I’m not a fan of black pudding; however, the pastery was incredibly crumbly and fluffy and the meat was soft with every bite and the black pudding was just an additional flavour tingle that we both loved  – it was my dad’s favourite too!

We also had Crispy Devilled Whitebait which were really crispy and not too strong of fish flavour. We also had Seared 32-Day Aged Steak Open Sandwich with Picalilli which was really well put together and tasted great! The steak was tender and soft and full of meaty flavour!

And finally, the Sticky Honey & Wholegrain Mustard Glazed Pigs in Blankets were gooey, cripsy and loaded full of bacon! It was such a British delacacy!

Scones

The next course was the scones and they were not your typical sweet scone.

Traditionally, at an Afternoon Tea, you are served sweet scones, so it made a really nice change to be offered a savour scone made with a local Northamptonshire cheese in a warm Cobblers Nibble Cheese Scone which was just as light and fluffy as a sweet scone – plus the Cobblers Nibble taste was so satisfying as it’s one of my favourite flavours!

It was served with a chive mascarpone, which was nice as the butter base along with the smothered treacle cured bacon jam – for another scone, I added the rosemary and maldon sea butter which gave this cheesy scone more of a lift!

Dad and I were so full after the scone round that we didn’t think we could eat more, but alas, there was one more course to come…

Sweets

The pudding round is always the sweetest!

The pudding round consisted of 4 mini dishes and most of them were cake based and ofcourse, tied in with the British classics theme. You could tell from the moment we laid eyes on them, that everything was homemade, just like everything else we had been served.

The first treat was a Maple and Whiskey Madeleine which was soaked in strong whiskey flavour and as soon as yoi bit into it, dripped out and oozed with the sweet maple flavour that swirled perfectly with the whiskey flavour.

We also had the Bannoffee Treacle Tart and the banana flavour was so instant and I loved the subtle element of treacle that made everything taste incredibly luscious!

Another favourite of mine and my dad’s was the Guiness and Dark Chocolate cake – the whipped guiness topping really made the dark chocolate cake complete and it was so rich, buttery and simple, yet effective!

Finally, we had a Coffee and Walnut Whip, which I personally left the walnut bit out and gave to my dad as ‘m not a fan, but the coffee flavour of the cake was full of life and texture wise, it was very fudgy and indulgent!

The sweets round really completed the whole Afternoon Tea experience for me and as for my dad, he felt everything was really tailored for his exact preferences – he loved it so much, he wants to take my mum on a date for tapas!

Overall, Bread & Pullet’s Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea is just a snapshot of the creativeness and cleverness that is involved with the planning and creation of these themed afternoon teas as it was so well thought out to the point that my dad, a non-afternoon tea lover, thoroughly enjoyed it. 

They have created experiences that everyone can enjoy and are fantastic at combining local ingredients to create taste sensations in both their savoury and sweet treats, whilst staying true to their British tapas theme.

I hope they continue to do these themed afternoon teas in the future and I would certainly bring my dad back to enjoy their British tapas. 

Bread & Pullet’s themed Afternoon Tea’s always ensure to have a vegetarian/vegan menu and there is also a kid’s menu available too if you want to bring the kids along.

They are hosting a Unicorns & Rainbows Afternoon Tea on Sunday 18th August to raise money for The Lewis Foundation!

Rating: ★★★★

Will you be going to one of Bread & Pullet’s Afternoon Tea experiences?

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