afternoon tea at schenströmska herrgården

Last weekend we went on a little outing, to one of my favourite parts of Sweden - due to it's often lush, pretty appearance of a quite not graspable eerie magic - Bergslagen. Not the best part of the year to experience that green lushness and charming environment, but still a nice outing it was.

Destination: afternoon tea at Schenströmska Herrgården (mansion) in Ramnäs. The afternoon tea experience at this hotel and conference facilities had apparently been praised in Sweden's largest newspaper DN (Dagens Nyheter, Daily News) earlier and M thought it would be a nice treat.

 

And yes, it did look promising when we first arrived. Very much so, the open fire, tea buffet on a drop-leaf table. The very stately outside had a surprisingly unpretentious, austere inside. But what looked like rather mouthwatering food on display turned out to be rather disappointing. Looks ain't everything...

At closer inspection I got the impression that it was a mix of leftovers from previous day's dinner/snacks (pizza slices and bluecheese is out of place at afternoon tea) and not very well composed ingredients.

The buffet lacked displays (when it isn't obvious, I really appreciate the guest courtesy to tell me what is suitable for vegetarians and what is not).

No cucumber sandwiches and such.

The standard of the scones was really appalling, a large bread from which you broke your own piece, dry and very far from proper scones consistency.

The cakes, muffins and cookies were all too sugary.

There were only two jams, neither raspberry nor strawberry. The red jam was cherry and it was really more like soup than jam (and so runny that no matter how careful you were you still ended up with stained clothes).

It wasn't very convenient to have the table with tea in another room.

So, my overall impression of this afternoon tea experience at Schenströmska Herrgården does not agree with that of DN (and I'm not surprised, we rarely do agree on things);

Food - 2/5
Service - 2/5
Ambiance - 3/5 
Value for money - 2/5

That said, it was still a nice outing. And we plan to return come summer, because I'm sure the nearby lake with streams and woods offer lovely nature walks during the lush, green time of the year. We also spotted a nearby café that looked nice, somehow I think it would offer more value for money tea-and-cake-wise.