The UK is well-known world over for their love of afternoon tea – scones and cucumber finger sandwiches on a three layer cake stand? To be honest, this is more a front – no one I know regularly have afternoon teas. It is usually treated like a treat rather than a way of life, but it is the epitome of the days gone by where people actually stop and take a breather. Being the busy tourists, we kept running out of time trying to get in line for scones and tea at tourist traps like Betty’s ect. So we were pleasantly suprised when we found a twee teashoppe right smack in the middle of Whitby, a seaside town in North Yorkshire.

More famous for its fish & chips (I will cover this in a separate post!) than hot buttered scones, we were wandering around Whitby when I saw a sign saying ‘There is always time for tea’. Inspired, I turned my head, and saw Sherlock’s across the street. We were enticed by their window display – home made cakes, cookies, scones were all on display complete with a wooden 1920s cash register. Unable to resist, we stepped into this:

It does look like someone’s living room with mish mashed furnishing. I love it! I prefer the shabby chic bohemian style to the polished silver look which is so prevalent in so many teashoppes. Classy is not really my middle name. A rickety stairs leads to more seating upstairs, but all in all I think it holds about 30 covers max. I think it is designed to look like Sherlock Holmes’ front room, with books stacked haphazardly everywhere and bookshelves all over the shop.

There is really no guessing what we ordered, and as I was not very hungry, we just ordered two cream tea sets between the three of us. Their cream tea sets come with a humungous fruit scone with currants, clotted cream and strawberry preserves. It was freshly baked and tasted absolutely heavenly, even better than the crowd favourite of Betty’s of Harrogate. It is not crumbly and dry like most, but moist and buttery like it is supposed to be. The fresh clotted cream is a welcomed change from the whipped cream that is served in Malaysia.

I honestly do not remember the last time I had such delicious scones. It might be the freshness, it might be the lovely huge size, but I am still salivating thinking of it now…I love the currants as well, and I do not usually like currants due to their dryness.

My newly developed addiction to traditional english builders’ tea reckons that this is an excellent cuppa! I hate weak tea, and would much rather make my own at home. It is very hard to be served a cuppa that I really enjoy, and I did with this. The huge pot for two is enough to provide the three of us two cups each…I think there were still some left in the pot when we left.

At £3.75 per set, this was a bargin. I would happily miss lunch the next time and just have their scones. Other than the traditional english, they also offer a variety of tisanes, coffees and old fashioned pop like dandelion & burdock or elderflower presse. Food-wise, they also do panninis and baked potatoes, which can then be polished off with a slice of cake. They specialise in what they called Baker St. Ice …some sort of ice blended drink with dollops of ice cream.

Sherlocks Café
10 Flowergate
Whitby, YO21 3B

You might also be interested in these

• Betty’s Tea Room