Should you meet your heroes?
Today, at The Enchanted Tea Rooms in Leamington Spa, Ida and Martha met theirs.
Belle and The Beast.
I’ve wanted to go to The Enchanted Tea Rooms even before I was pregnant. Maybe I’ve been engineering my girls to love princesses so I could be at the table with a cake, watching students dressed as Disney characters sing and serve.
It has long been on my bucket list, and today I ticked it off.
Did it live up to expectations? Well, let’s explore in my review of Enchanted Tea Rooms.
The drinks
I had an entire teapot of tea to myself. Lovely. Though only one toilet and lots of kids drinking gallons of juice. Matt had a coffee. You can also order things like Elsa Hot Chocolates, and cocktails and mocktails with flashing lights and funky glasses, but I felt we were in for enough sugar without the top up. More tea please. Kids had a jug of squash.
The food
Food comes out for you soon after you’re seated. The table is set with cups and saucers, a jug of juice and a jug of milk. We had 2 x kids meat, 1 x adult veggie and 1 x adult meat. The kids came out on one tower and the adults on another.
Food was generous. Lots of cake options. The adults had more adult flavours like lemon, banoffee, and almond. Kids were chocolate cakes, blondies, chocolate tarts and generous helpings of icing. Ida licked all the cakes. Including ours. Kids are gross. Refer back to “Things I didn’t know before I had kids” blog.
The scones were good, too. Jam and cream were in pre packed plastic. Might have been a more planet and pocket friendly choice to do little pots of this.
The sandwiches were a bit of a let down. Spread very thin. I was glad I had the gallon of tea to get it down. I want to say one was egg, and another cheese. The cheese one had literally one chunk of pickle – a little disappointing. Kids had a crustless ham sandwich. They both enjoyed without complaint.
The show
Mrs Pots and FiFi (The brush, I Googled that. Is she ever actually named in the show? Disney Wiki must have it right so I’m going with it), served us. They offered to take our payment before the show but Matt was in the toilet with the bank card. I’m glad we didn’t pay first. I think we needed the sugar to soften the blow. Thinking back, pre payment is probably another tactic to get you in and out quick…more on that.
Belle and the Beast walked around each table and spoke to the families. Martha had been completely star struck and had no words. Ida opted for some pictures. Marfs wasn’t convinced on the Beast, but both were very happy with Belle. They performed a few of the favourite songs — though they didn’t do the one at the start “Here goes the baker with his tray like always” etc. I love that one. But, they did do the one where Belle recognises it’s a little “alarming” that she’s in love with a beast. Never clicked at the weirdness of that but here we are.
The actors were all very lovely and talented. It was a nice show.
But, it was over really quickly. We got up and danced for one song, then back in our seats and were given a take out box. Was this to hurry us on our way? Pack up and leave. But we’d only been there 45 minutes? Wasn’t it a 90 minute activity? I’d still got half a pot of tea left! Seeing the pot as a challenge at this point.
We were seated at 1pm, and were back in the car by 2:05 sugared up to the eye balls and £110 poorer. But richer in memories of Martha’s face when she saw Belle and Ida’s dance moves with the brush (AKA FiFi).
The place
The building is on a main road. It stands out as it’s bright and colourful. You can park in the local car park. They suggest not parking on the street as it’s only 1-2 hours, but chances are you’d be okay. But if you have kids who are more interested in fighting over an umbrella, or running into the local Nisa shop over getting back to the car then park in the carpark to avoid a ticket. Kids are unpredictable after sugar.
The decor in the tea room is great. Lots to look at, lovely cups and china.
Overall thoughts
It was a great event. Maybe a little pricey when you consider how quickly you’re ushered out. While you’re given 90 minutes, it was more like 60. They obviously have a quick turnaround before the next show, they do three a day. It would have been nice to hear a few more songs, maybe some audience participation, a sing-a-long even. But you can’t fault the actors, or the place.
Price
You pay a £10 deposit when you book. For adults it’s £30 and for kids it’s £25.
Have you been?
What did you think? Did you manage to finish the pot of tea? Hats off to you if you did.
Fromthemotherside 
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