Of teapots and pretty cakes - York Part II

cafe-hopping? pfft. in York, this is taken to a wayyy higher level ;)

TEAROOM-HOPPING. 

how cool is that? ^^ haha i bet yi came up with that term herself, but i like the sound of it ;) sounds so classy and lady-like doesn't it? :D haha. totally living the life of a tai-tai. it was quite sad that while i was in europe i didn't find many cafes that were good for chilling in. in italy, that was definitely not the case. but in UK, it's a different story altogether! and York is the perfect place for tea ^^ so many places to go! 

Tea-rooms in York

what's the difference between tea-rooms and cafes you may ask? i guess the best way to distinguish between them would be their focus - tea, obviously, for tea rooms. and for cafes, i suppose they have a bigger focus on coffee? and the decor is strikingly different. it's hard to explain, but it's just a feeling that you get. when you step into a tea-room, you just feel that it's so...pretty (: it's whimsical, it's dainty, it's lady-like. it feels like it's fit to serve the royal ladies of the palace, who would enjoy a pot of tea in the afternoons, as opposed to coffee which was considered crude. okie enough introduction, it's time for the SHOWCASE :D

btw, all these tea-rooms are in no particular order. i don't have any particular preference for one. i loved ALL of them ^^

The Earl Grey Tea Rooms was our first-stop on our tearoom-hopping day! (: and i was so excited to have a real english afternoon tea set ^^ we ordered the traditional afternoon high tea set (£10.99) which consisted of a choice of sandwich (we chose tuna!), fruit scone with cream and preserve, fresh cake of the day and a pot of tea for one. i looooved the scones ^^ as i mentioned in my royal garden post, i first fell in love with scones when i was in york :') scones in uk are something else altogether!!!! never really liked them in singapore, but ohgosh, they are so good here, they taste great even on their own without any condiments! :))

the tea room also has a lot of lovely merchandise for sale such as jams and stuff, which are great to look at even if you don't want to buy them ^^ 

The Earl Grey Tea Rooms

13/14 Shambles

York YO1 7LZ

+44 1904 654 353

next, we headed to Molly's Tea Room! i'm SUPER devastated because i just had no fate with the apparently yummy cakes that day :( yi said that Molly's had the best strawberry cheesecake ever, but it wasn't for sale that day :((( i guess the way to console yourself is that the menu changes everyday, so it's kept interesting and means that everything is baked fresh! (: we tried the lemon drizzle cake (background) and the raspberry almond cake (foreground). both were yummy! loved the lemon cake for its tangy-ness and the almond cake for its nutty crunch ^^

Molly's Tea Room

41 Stonegate

just the first two tea-rooms kept us pretty full for quite awhile! that was our 'lunch' and we took a long break just shopping around while we digested our food.

and around 3pm, it was time for tea! ;) hehe. we tried a victorian sponge cake at The Vanilla Cafe! (: this cafe (and the next one) were located in a small quiet street just behind the York Minster. it's very quaint and cosier than The Shambles, and i simply loved the atmosphere there. 

The Vanilla Cafe

12 College Street, City Centre

York YO1, 7JF

Tel.: +44 1904 658 852

and for cupcakes, you should head to none other than Crumbs Cupcakery! (: they have a daily selection of cupcakes and the all look soooo pretty! we had a caramel/speculoos flavoured one and the other was peanut butter if i remember correctly! the icing was too sweet for me (seems like i don't like the icing on cupcakes in uk much haha) but the cupcake was delicious!! 

Bettys Tea Room is one of the most famous tea rooms in York and there are queues to enter the premises at almost every time of the day! we had to queue for around half an hour to get a seat and it was in the lower level of the restaurant, which is supposedly less popular! but it was worth the experience :) it's such a pretty shop!! and their afternoon tea was yummy ^^ i would say that it could perhaps be slightly overrated/overpriced though? because there are also other tea rooms which are definitely comparable (: 

we had the Bettys Afternoon Tea (£18.30). it came with a variety of sandwiches (plus points! ^^) and in interesting flavours too! scottish smoked salmon & cream cheese, roast Yorkshire ham and roast free-range chicken breast, egg mayonnaise & cress. loved loved loveeeed the sultana scone with strawberry preserve and Yorkshire clotted cream. there were a selection of miniature cakes - yummy raspberry tart! and also a pot of Tea Room Blend tea :) delicious :)

i've heard that Bettys has the most amazing victorian sponge cakes ever! unfortunately they're only in whole-cake size, so we couldn't order it because we would never be able to finish it! but do give it a try if you can! 

Bettys

6-8 St Helen's Square, York YO1 8QP

Tel.: +44 1904 659 142

Restaurants in York

i got my ribs fix in york!!!!! WOOTS! The Slug and Lettuce is a restaurant chain that can be found in many parts of UK. they have amazing deals every single day of the week, and on Mondays, the food goes for half price!! which means that a rack of ribs (originally £11.25) costs less than £6!!! :O i wouldn't say the quality is very good, but for that price, it's definitely worth it ;)

one of the best meals that i had in York was at Rustique. it's a french restaurant! (: again, love how UK has such a wide variety of cuisines :D they have a set menu - two courses £12.95, three courses £14.95. we opted for two courses each so that we wouldn't be exploding after that. haha we were still super full, but it was so worth it ;) we ordered one appetizer, two mains and a dessert between the two of us. started with the cromesquis de crabe which was a lovely deep fried crab cake with fluffy meat inside and served with a sweet chili salsa. 

for mains, we had the beef bourguignon which was pieces of super tender meat in a lovely red wine casserole.

we also had the jarret de porc an cidre which is a slow cooked pork shank braised with cider. loved the coarse grain mustard mash that came with it!! it's much more interesting than your average mash ;)

our dessert was so yummy!!! always go ga-ga over chocolate hehe ^^ we had the pot au chocolat which was this lovely little bowl of rich, creamy, luscious chocolate with a piece of shortbread to top it off!! SO DELICIOUS. i can't resist chocolate for nuts *hee*

Rustique

28 Castlegate

York YO1 9RP

Tel.: +44 1904 612 744 

Mon-Sat 12pm-10pm

Sun 12pm-9pm

i had spanish tapas in York too! ^^ and guess what, it was better than my experience in Barcelona. #theirony -.- we had the introduction to tapas set at £25 for two people at Ambiente. i wished i could have chosen stuff i really wanted, but i guess it was just easier to order the set. anyway, there were just so many to choose from that i was completely bewildered :p the introduction set includes the Pan (mediterranean bread & dipping oil) - simple & good, Chorizo patatas (caramelized chorizo and potato) - the sauce was da bombz!! you have to order this and just dip everything inside haha, Albondigas (meatballs in a chili and lemongrass sauce) - loved the texture of the meatballs ^^ , Caldosa (seafood risotto) - wish it was a bigger portion!, Championes (mushrooms with caramelized shallots) - simply addictive, Gambasal pil pil (shelled prawns cooked with garlic and chili) - can't really remember how this tasted, Patatas bravas (crispy potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce) - this was really super spicy!!!! 

overall a good meal (:

Ambiente Tapas Restaurant

14 Goodramgate, York YO1 7LQ

Tel.: +44 1904 689 784

scream with me!!! JAMIE OLIVER!!!!!! :D :D :D heehee so happy to be here!!! and omg it's in singapore now~ woohoo! haha i'm just quite a big fan of him - always so fascinated by his cooking shows where he looks like he's just plucking and throwing in random ingredients to come up with a dish which looks and tastes so awesome. 

Jamie's Italian is known for its pasta, and so that's what we ordered. i was really excited for both our crab spaghettini (£7.75) and black angel spaghetti (£8.20). there are two choices for sizes - the appetizer and main course size. we opted for the appetizer size for both, so that we wouldn't overeat. i think it was a little small, but just nice (: the crab spaghettini had fluffy pieces of meat in it ^^ yumms! i loved the black angel spaghetti, most importantly because it didn't stain our teeth haha. and it was sooo delicious! it had a pretty generous amount of fresh, fat scallops, and was well-flavoured with a wine/parsley/garlic/chili sauce. delicious! 

we also had a serving of posh chips (£3.25) which was basically truffle fries with parmesan. unfortunately, i felt that it was just lacking in both :/ could have been better.

i can't wait to try the outlet in singapore!!!! :D

Jamie's Italian

26 Lendal, York YO1 8AA

Tel.: +44 1904 283 979

Snacks on-the-go

cornwall pastys are the yummiest snacks ever!!!!!! I LOVE THEM!!!! and West Crornwall Pasty sells the best ever :D they look pretty much like our curry puffs, with a thicker crust that is more crumbly, kinda feels less oily (or maybe not haha) and has a variety of fillings which i had so much joy choosing from. 

Milkshack has over 180 flavours of milkshakes!!!!! :O :O :O :O does the *hands on face with mouth open emoticon* expression. sooooo shiok!!!! i had the hardest time choosing a flavour because they all sounded so awesome. yi dabao one back for me please!! haha. this place is a great stop to drop by in the midst of your shopping in the shambles. the perfect sugar rush to perk you up for more shopping! ;)

Milkshack

14A Church Street, York YO1 8BE

so you see, there are really lots of things you can do in york! (: i stayed there for around...4-5 days if i remember correctly? and it was just perfect. so many things to see/shop, and eat! this little town is really a hidden find worth visiting ^^

Of teapots and pretty cakes - York Part I

if not for yi, i probably wouldn't have heard of the existence of York, much less set foot in the place. and what a pity that would be! this city, albeit small and relatively unknown, is one of the best kept secrets in UK (: it is that wonderful. and i loved every single bit of it :') apparently it's on the fb page "Places to visit before you die"!!! i'm so happy that i had a chance to visit ;) for all the afternoon tea-loving ladies out there, this is the place to live in :))) such a small, quaint town, but so many places to delight in. i really really miss the space and quietness of europe. *sigh* :') 

this is not a very good pictorial representation...it is too dark!!! but you've got to be THERE to experience York (: the shopping streets at The Shambles are just so picturesque! i was googling it, and i found the perfect description ever ;) "it's like walking down Diagon alley in Harry Potter!" so true ^^ it's just one small street after another, with the prettiest shops and tea houses, selling the most quirky and lovely merchandise that you'd feel like popping into every other shop just to oogle at the products. i particularly loved this store that sold soaps that looked like mini-cupcakes!! *squeals!!* i was just having to drag myself out to prevent myself from buying something i would never bear to use because it was just too pretty :p

did you know that harry potter was filmed in york?!?! i mean, just one scene in it. but stillllll. haha! and i wouldn't have known till yi told me, but once she did, i could immediately imagine the exact scene in the movie! in the first movie when hagrid passed harry the tickets to take his first train from platform 9 3/4. it was filmed at the York Train Station :O :O :O !!!! :D haha. i was there!!!!! *HELLO!!* haha okay i'm nuts, but it's so exciting!! can't believe that they actually came all the way here to film the movie! i didn't even go to see the platform 9 3/4 at kings cross station in london because i heard it's damn lame (there is even a queue to take a photo with the trolley -.-). THIS, is much cooler ;) hehe. totally being a typical tourist in york ;)

the York City Wall was probably to keep out all the baddies from the city. i'm not too sure about this, but i think York used to be the capital of england at some point in history? that's why they have these city walls and a castle (below) as well! 

Clifford's Tower - i really enjoyed walking around this area on my own on a quiet afternoon. there was a lovely light breeze that ruffled my hair, and it was just perfect (: i spent the afternoon strolling in the area, watching the geese play (so many of them in york!!!), watching a little kid run and tumble in the grass. it was such a wonderful day out ^^

the York Minster is this huge church in York that you can visit. it costs £15 for a combined minster+tower ticket. i don't think there is much to see in the church itself, but the tower was an interesting experience. first time climbing up a super narrow flight of steps. not an experience i'd want to repeat, but i did so again for st paul's cathedral in london lol. 

halfway up the steps....thought we had reached already but no....more steps to climb haha.

view from the top!! (: 

and one of my favourite places in York was the Museum Gardens (: this picture was taken from my seat on the grass hehe ^^ it's a wonderful place to sit and chill! 

if you can, venture beyond the city of york to the outskirts and you'll find more wonderful things there! (: we took a bus out to Balloon Tree Farm and it was such a lovely experience! they have both an animal farm and vegetable garden section. we actually wanted to go for the pick-your-own trail experience but unfortunately due to this year's bad weather, the harvest was late :"( sobs. nevertheless, we really had a lot of fun here! look at all those vegetables!! fresh from the farm ^^ 

they also had a number of cute animals there ^^ look at the adorable pony behind me!! there were goats, chicken and a pig as well heh ;)

we had our lunch at their in-house cafe, and i just love how everything was fresh from their farm! the quiche lorraine (£7.25) had apparently shrank in size since the last time yi visited, but it was deliciously tasty nonetheless! i just love the crust of such pastries ^^ 

they also have a daily specials menu, where there are more interesting dishes! (: we ordered the salad of smoked scottish salmon with balloon tree asparagus and parma ham (£7.95). so delicious!! i just loved how healthy everything seemed there (: 

surprising how such a small city can have so much to see! ^^