Harriets Café Tearooms

My first British afternoon tea experience!
Thanks to Harriet’s, I enjoyed it overall.
To start, with two scones, 2×3 types of finger sandwiches and 3 desserts, one Special Afternoon Tea is enough for two, with the addition of another pot of tea.
Of course not knowing anything, I started with the scone with clotted cream and jam. As a starter, it worked for me. Great texture on their scone — slightly crunchy, crumbly outside with a moist inside.
Their sandwiches were delightfully light, but had good, subtle flavor. You get cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon and Suffolk ham sandwiches with the special. The latter two served with a clotted cream.
The desserts were also excellent. Can’t complain about a good macaroon, and the tart had good flavor. The Oreo cheesecake was good, but unfortunately it was no New York cheesecake. I did appreciate the tiny Oreo on top!
The service started off rocky with the waitress not seeing us apparently. After that, things went smoothly.
Even though I don’t have much experience with afternoon tea, I can’t imagine other places doing much better. I definitely recommend this place.

As one of the few tea rooms left in central Cambridge, Harriets has a brilliant «old world» and quaint atmosphere inside, with waitresses dressed up in old school outfits, brilliant décor and even a small piano for the occasional live music they do.
They have an array of baked goods and pastries available, most of them of fairly quality, as well as a savoury menu including all day english breakfast and a cracking Welsh rarebit!
Unfortunately though, the service here is erratic, with waitresses standing around chatting while there are clearly tables waiting to be served, and a general lack of direction in the overall movement of the staff.
Overall, an average experience that is boosted only by the décor and setting of the tearoom. Honestly, I think Patisserie Valerie’s cakes are better, but is much less of an «experience» given that PatVal is a pretty common chain now!

Recently had a good experience at Harriet’s! This place can fill up quickly (it’s also a bit small) and they don’t take reservations so be prepared to wait if you’re coming at a busy time.
They have a wide variety of teas but keep in mind that they run of out of their pastries /​food options early in the day. By the time we got there around 4pm, some of the best baked goods on the menu were no longer available. Service here is a bit inconsistent but this is still a great option for afternoon tea.
I also had to come back the next day to pick up some of their biscuits for my trip back to the states. Their butterscotch and toffee biscuits are the best by far.
Definitely make the trip to Harriet’s if you’re in the Cambridge area!

London has a reputation for being the capital of bad service, but all the places in that city ain’t got nothin’ on Harriet’s Café Tearooms.
We walked in at 1pm (admittedly without a reservation) and were told that we could stay until 2:30pm but then we had to be out. Not very welcoming already. But whatever, we were there on a friend’s recommendation so we persevered.
After browsing the menu, we decided on afternoon tea all round. Different types of tea for each person, and a combination of their specialty afternoon tea and traditional afternoon tea. Then we waited for someone to come and take our order.
15 minutes later, we’re still waiting so we start wondering ‘Maybe we go to the counter to order?’ After flagging down a waitress who looked annoyed she’d been stopped on her way to serve someone else, we were informed that someone would be over to take our order. So back we went to waiting.
5 — 10 minutes after that, someone appeared. FINALLY. We placed our orders and two of us went up to choose different desserts because we didn’t want the macaroons and I thought ‘Okay, the service was slow but it’s fine now.’ Until they started bringing the tea and food over.
Two people on our table had ordered the same type of tea. So Harriet’s put their tea in a pot for two. They were sitting on opposite ends of the table and each had ordered tea for themselves. Who DOES that? Who just combines an order because two people have ordered the same thing and makes them share?! Needless to say, we had to do a table reshuffle to get those two sitting opposite each other so they could actually drink the tea they’d ordered. What a joke.
Then the food started arriving… and they got an order wrong. They brought out two specialty afternoon teas when we’d only ordered one. Then they tried saying we were wrong and we’d ordered two. Nope, Harriet’s. We ordered ONE. So they had to go and correct that while the rest of us were sitting around waiting.
After we’d eaten, we asked for the bill and were handed a receipt. That’s all. Weird. So we worked out what each person owed, piled up money and cards on the table and waited. Again.
20 minutes later, we’re still waiting for someone to come over so we can pay. The staff are looking at us and giving us dirty looks because it’s 2:45pm and we were supposed to be out 15 minutes ago but what are we supposed to do? We need to pay!
Eventually a staff member comes close enough for us to grab her and ask when we can pay. We’re informed that we’re supposed to go to the counter to pay. Despite the table service and ordering sitting down and no one actually bothering to tell us. It’s beyond a joke now. We paid up, and left as soon as possible.
The only reason this gets two stars instead of one is the food. The sandwiches were lovely, the scones were huge and you got a decent amount of cream and jam with it, and the cakes were light and full of flavour. Really, really lovely.
I just wouldn’t step foot in there again because I can’t stand bad service. And the price was pretty extortionate at £18.95 considering you got a plate of sandwiches, two scones, three small cakes and a cup and a half of tea that you could refill once. I’ve paid £25 in Greenwich and got unlimited refills of everything, a glass of sparkling wine and a view to die for. This was NOT WORTH IT.

I would give 5 stars but I haven’t done an afternoon tea for so many years that I have nothing to compare this one to.
We went on a Wednesday afternoon, fairly empty. The place is extremely cute, set up exactly how you imagine for a civilized afternoon tea. Service was outstanding. There were three of us but they suggested we just go with two servings. They were right, it was plenty, and we really appreciated them telling us that.
Scones were excellent, little finger sandwiches about what you would expect. Pastries good to excellent. Clotted cream, ahhhhh. Strawberry jam awesome. Teapots came with an extra teapot of water and we got another free pot of hot water later. I am not sure but I think they will also give one free refill of the tea.
All in all an excellent experience, exactly the way we had pictured afternoon tea. Prices were about what we expected, about £16 for each serving (that’s for the fancy one that came with the smoked salmon sandwiches).

Au milieu d’une petite ruelle, on né passé pas tellement par hasard devant Harriet’s.
Petit salon de thé un peu kitsch (anglais quoi) mais tellement sympa. Attendez vous à faire la queue un petit quart-d’heure le week-​end pour avoir une table mais ça passé assez vite.
Parfait endroit pour petit-​déjeuner sucré ou salé plutôt traditionnel, déjeuner un sandwich ou un petit plat du genre.
Ils proposent des macarons, et il est possible d’acheter leurs pâtisseries pour emporter.