The Chichester - Rochford

Went here on an offer with my daughter and two teenage grand daughters. Lovely Country setting in an old converted barn. Clean, and set out well in keeping with the period eliminate. The food was plentiful a good assortment of sandwiches, nice dainty cakes and of course scones jam and clotted cream. A very good selection of teas bought to the table along with a teapot full of hot water, milk and sugar. Liked the idea of all the different teas and my grand daughter tried 2 or 3. The waiter was extremely attentive and keep asking if we needed anything else. Overall an excellent afternoon out, will definitely book again. Well done to the Management and staff!

We booked an afternoon tea here for a colleagues retirement. I have to say other than the company of the 40 people who attended it was awful. Where do I start. The sandwich selection was terrible. Not only was the bread hard from being made far too long in advance the fillings were boring and unimaginative. Egg mayonnaise, cheese and pickle and ham and the strongest wholegrain mustard which was most unpleasant. The cake selection was even worse! Inch long frozen selection from Macro! Scones were clearly from the same place and the jam to go with them resembled jelly with no taste. Come on Chichester I know the £17.50 price was reasonable but we would have gladly paid more for better quality. The only reason we booked here in the first place was because it was the only place that would cater locally for that amount of people. Save your money and go elsewhere.

I cannot explain how lovely this meal was it was peaceful in there and no rushing at all, obviously i just had to eat it all but was well worth it

My husband and I were given an afternoon tea voucher as a 10th wedding anniversary gift. We booked in online and advised the venue of the special event and that my husband is vegetarian. When presented with the afternoon tea it was immediately noted that the entire sandwich selection was vegetarian. When I commented that I was not vegetarian there was no attempt at asking the kitchen to provide at least a ham sandwich. The vegetarian selection was: runny egg mayo; cucumber; cheese and pickle; unknown (not sure if a jelly spread of some kind, but not pleasant). The selection of sweet things all looked suspiciously like they came straight from a packet. The one item that looked home made (choc mousse in a shot glass) was abruptly abandoned when a hair was found. After one coffee refill the staff did not return to ask if all was ok and we actually left without anyone noticing. No follow up has been made as to why we left nearly all the afternoon uneaten. A real shame and certainly not celebratory! For the advertised £16.50 per person this was a real let down not only were the sandwiches very boring but the quality overall was just not there. As it was a gift we couldn't ask for our money back but I feel very disappointed!

Like many other reviewers have commented this place was virtually empty. There was a mix-up with our Groupon booking and they clearly weren't expecting us when we arrived. After about a 10 minute wait we were finally seated. Good assortment of sandwiches and cakes plus a small quiche which was nice. Couple of negatives were there was no clotted cream to go with the scones, just some whipped cream plus we had to keep asking for both refills of the tea plus our glass of prosecco only arrived after we had asked for it at least twice. Not sure I would return. It is such a shame as the food quality and atmosphere in here used to be great.