A trip (or two) to the Peninsula Tea House.

On the Swan River in Maylands, there is this fantastic spot right next to the river.  There is a Tea house there.  There aren’t many tea houses around Perth at the moment, so after discovering the place, the better half and I went off to check it out.  It is placed next to a museum of sorts, Tranby House, which was an early WA settler.  Hmmm, Historic! I like it!!

Google reviews were not all that endorsing of the place to be honest, so with a bit of apprehension, we went off.

This was our first trip and I have to say, despite the ragging the reviews seemed to rant on about, it was quite nice. 

Just at the end of the path.  Although the path doesn’t end there, but in the photo…  Is where the house is.

When we arrived there, it was early-ish and nobody else was there.  Weekdays free are awesome!!  We chose a seat that we liked the look of.  The grounds are very pleasant.

And ordered our scones and tea.  For the Devonshire Tea.  They have a large selection of teas available and most of them (Having only drunk 4 so far) taste very nice indeed.  I forgot to ask for plain scones and ended up with sultana scones or something.   Next time, must remember to ask for plain specifically…

The tea, scones, jam and cream when they arrived.

Thus we munched on our scones and enjoyed the scenery and weather.  It was a brilliant day!

Trip 2 to the Tea House.

It was a fine day, a public holiday in fact.  I thought the place would be packed.  However, it wasn’t which was good for us.  I believe that often one has to book a table to get a spot, but since we had gone for a bike ride and had left early, it was still before lunch when we decided to head in.  It wasn’t busy and there were a few people, some tourists and others, mainly ordering the ‘High Tea’ menu option.  Which definitely needs a booking.

They have a typical ‘tea house’ menu, cakes, coffee, a pretty good variety of teas to choose from and of course scones.  Being somewhat fond of scones and tea, we ordered a ‘Devonshire tea,’  just one though, this was our second visit and I was shocked on the first one to discover that Devonshire tea cost $12.50 each!  this time, we shared it.  One scone each.  I also ordered a pot of tea so we could have a variety of flavours to try.  And as of now, I can’t remember which ones I ordered, so apologies for that.

The Devonshire Tea in question.

The scones weren’t bad, however be warned that they automatically cover them in icing sugar.  Personally I feel that if the scone is good enough, it doesn’t need anything else.  I asked if we could have un-iced scones.  They brought un-iced scones, but one had been iced and then had the icing brushed off…  Luckily for them, the better half doesn’t mind a bit of sweet with her tea.

And thus we dined, taking in the view of a beautiful day and enjoying the tranquillity being close to the river can provide.

Sadly though, the one faux par of tea house raised it’s ugly little head.  Well, it’s not only Tea Houses that can have this.  Anywhere that serves pot tea (preferably with leaves, as opposed to slapping a tea bag in a pot, which is cheating) can fall victim to.

The old Chipped tea spout!

Oh god, I hate it when this happens.  Obviously if one is advertinsing an exquisite serv of tea from a POT, the entire experience WILL be completely ruined when one pours tea and the tea dribbles all over tha place as it tries to come out of a chipped tea pot.

This happened at another place I went to as well, and despite the delightfulness of the taste of the tea (which was devine), it was ruined greatly by Grumpy old Dribbly Pot.

Please, please please people, check your tea pots and if they have a chipped spout, chuck them out!  You are charging me $12.50 for scones, and some tea and I have to make do with a dribbly spout?  Why didn’t I complain?  Well, I was trying to enjoy myself, the staff were getting busy and to be honest, for something like this I shouldn’t HAVE TO!  It’s tea house basics.

Anyway, moving on, I managed to get past the dribbling tea pot and ended up having quite an enjoyable time.  the tea tasted fantastic, to the point where I got over excited trying to get it all out.

Ratchet and his little LEGO pal manage to have a nice time too.  Look at that scone behind them, awaiting jam and cream…..  Mmmmmmm Yummy!!

On an extra note, here are a few shots of Tranby House that I took.