During the coming academic year, I will be on sabbatical, spending much of my time visiting Guelph University. Earlier this week, Ms. Eclectic and I made the two-hour drive there to move some supplies and equipment into the office I will be using there. While in Guelph, we visited The Boathouse for afternoon tea.
Overall it was a pleasant experience, and certainly far less expensive than the places where I had taken afternoon tea in England. For my earlier reviews of those afternoon teas, see my postings about The Four Seasons in London, the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath, The Pump Room (also in Bath), and Claridges in London.
The Boathouse is nothing like those four places. Let me make clear again that we enjoyed it, despite its short-comings.
First, The Boathouse refers to its afternoon tea as high tea, not afternoon tea, listing it on the reservation and receipt as "hi tea". As I have written before, a proper English afternoon tea is not at all the same thing as "high tea":
A proper English afternoon tea is something that refined people take in an elegant atmosphere. I have been told by several people that it is not the same thing as "high tea", which the plebian middle classes take much later in the afternoon/evening in their attempts to emulate the aristocracy.Second, the atmosphere is nothing like the tony places I visited in England. The outside temperature was 32C (recall that C stands for Canadian and F stands for foreign) and there was no air conditioning and there were very few open or openable windows — it was uncomfortably warm in the tearoom portion of the establishment.
Also, it is not just a tearoom. It is also an ice cream parlour and upscale yuppie restaurant for seniors (i.e. people like Ms. Eclectic and me). The setting in a former boathouse on the river is pleasant, and so is the interior; but it isn't the atmosphere of the more upscale places in London. Further, The Boathouse uses paper serviettes — not my idea of a classy afternoon tea.
The tea list at The Boathouse is lengthy but far from extensive. The list of herbal and decaf teas is longer than the list of black and green teas! I was disappointed not to find Lapsong Souchong tea on the list, and so I tried their special blend. It was quite nice. And Ms. Eclectic thoroughly enjoyed their black currant tea. The teas are all loose teas, and they are presented already in the pot in long paper filter sleeves. The server was less attentive than some, but she was perfectly on the spot with additional hot water when I was ready for more.
The food was presented in the standard 3-tiered tree with sandwiches on the bottom layer, scones in the middle, and desserts on the top. Unfortunately, the server placed this contraption smack-dab in the middle of the table, making it difficult for us to see and talk with each other. Of course, we eventually rearranged things on the table, but that should not have been necessary.
The sandwiches at The Boathouse were very good. They were presented on delicious multi-grain bread with the crusts trimmed, as expected. But the sandwiches there were more basic than the exotic ones served at the better places in London. The sandwiches were larger than the English ones, and were tuna, curried egg salad, and cucumber and creamed cheese. They were very good, but they weren't crab or smoked lobster or chopped olives or...
We were both hungry and uncomfortably warm, and we finished the sandwiches in record time, even for us. Unlike the better (and pricier) tearooms in England, The Boathouse did not offer us additional sandwiches when we had finished the first batch.
So we moved right on to the scones. They were big and slightly moist. The dough was a bit sweet, which I liked, but that meant they didn't really need the granulated sugar, which was abundant on top of them. The jam with them was standard, but the cream was a far FAR cry from the clotted cream or Devon cream to which I had become accustomed in England; it was much airier, with virtually no substance — quite a disappointment. Again, after we finished the scones, we were not offered any additional ones.
They presented us with four petite desserts — small cakes and mousses, and all of them were quite tasty.
As I have tried to emphasize, for the most part we enjoyed the afternoon tea at The Boathouse. But the heat in the place was overwhelming, and as a result we rushed much more than we should have, just to get out of there and off to some place that was air conditioned. And the price was about a quarter what I paid for the snooty afternoon teas in England, so we didn't really mind not being served extras.
Digression: There are many old photographs adorning The Boathouse accompanied by write-ups explaining the history of the location. I found them quite interesting, but I suspect the aboriginals from the area might take exception to the statement that Peter Gow was the original owner of the land on which The Boathouse is situated.