Huffkins Bakery and Tea Rooms

On first glance it looks like a very quaint Tea Rooms however the menu was more extensive than one would expect. Not conforming to the traditional menu I decided to go for the chicken, bacon and mushroom pie. The pie lacked filling and the chips felt that they had been left sitting out under a hot lamp. My partner went for one of the specials and the red onion marmalade was amazing. It was great, apart from the same issue with the chips. Overall I have mixed feelings but maybe I should’ve stuck to the traditional tea room dishes. (Visit — 07/​11/​2014 Lunch)

Came for afternoon tea with the family. We had to walk through the bake shop first to get into the tea rooms, but more about that later. Overall, the place is pretty casual, which is good for passing tourists like myself.
A sign in the tea room said to wait to be seated, but we stood there for a few minutes (no exaggeration) before anyone came to seat us. The place wasn’t crowded at all and I saw lots of staff throughout my visit, so I don’t know why there wasn’t anybody on the floor to greet us within a minute or so at most.
Once we were seated I went to use the restroom, which is located on the second floor via the bake shop. The second floor is a lot more informal and cozy. The restrooms are also a bunch of individual rooms with multiple facilities for each sex, which I thought was nice.
The afternoon tea menu was simple but it had a lot of selection. We settled for classic tea for each person, which comes with a pot of tea, 2 scones, some desserts, and a selection of tea sandwiches. They offer plain, fruit, and cheese scones. There are also lots of classic and interesting teas to choose from.
The tea arrived almost immediately after ordering, and the goodies came promptly afterwards. Everyone enjoyed their tea very much. We had the detox, girlie grey, earl grey, and Cotswold fruits teas. We liked the Cotswold fruits tea so much that we bought some from the bake shop to bring home. The scones were fluffy and very enjoyable. They came with whipped butter, clotted cream (amazing!), berry jam, and chutney (this went great with the cheese scones).
The desserts we received were also available in the bake shop, and they were very good. I had a strawberry mint cupcake and a vanilla napoleon slice. Both managed to be sweet without being in-​your-​face with sugar. Overall, the tea and goodies were lovely.
Now for the bake shop. It is very small, which I think is its main problem. It serves as the main entrance, the entrance to the tea room, the way upstairs, the way to the toilets, and still functions as a bake shop. Additionally, they sell drinks and sandwiches to-​go, which increases foot traffic in the already busy room. To pay for our tea we had to go up to the counter in the bake shop, so we couldn’t really avoid the chaos. Plus they have their jams, marmalade, chutney, salad dressings, tea, shortbreads, and other products for sale in shelves in there too, which adds to the people stopped in front of shelves and take away from the space in the room. Behind the counter there are reasonably priced pastries, desserts, baked goods, and clotted cream. There was definitely a bit of a line in there too, though.

During our tour around the Cotswolds, our tour group was given an hour for lunch break in the Stow-​on-​the-​Wold Square. Since our tour guide had highly recommended that we grab a quick lunch from Huffkins and eat as we walk around the square, my family decided to take his advice and give this place a try.
Immediately, once we entered the place, I was sucked into staring googly-​eyed at all the yummy looking desserts. Cakes! Pies! Cookies! Eclairs! I was in dessert heaven! (
) But no, we must eat lunch first, so I unwillingly tore my eyes away from the sugar and proceeded to stare some more… this time at the savory pies and pasties. and what were those wavy-​looking things clustered in a pile in the middle shelf (
)? Enchanted by the strange pastry (which was filled with beef and potatoes and other veggies), I told my dad that’s what I wanted for lunch.
My sister, who had gone upstairs exploring for the restroom, came downstairs to inform us that there was actually a lounge area with tables for people to eat apart from the afternoon tea drinkers in their separate tea rooms. Oh, really?! Excited by the prospect of having tables for take-​out food (which is almost unheard of), I made a mad dash upstairs only to see that the soup we had ordered was already heated and placed nicely on one of the tables for four. Eh? Seeming to have read our mind, the waitresses had gone a step further to reserve a table for us ahead of the rest of tourists/​customers.
My verdict on the food (
):
Potato and Onion soup (served with a grain-​and-​nut-​embedded bread and butter) (
) — I like creamy soups, and this one did not disappoint. The potatos had been blended into the soup and added a nice thickness to it. Although there were only a few strands of green onion (we had been expecting sauteed onions or something) in the soup, there was something addicting about the soup. Maybe it was the subtle acidity or the smooth texture and strong flavor, but whatever it was, it worked.
The Cornish («wavy») pasty — This pasty is like an upright pasty with wave crests on the top, which was what lured me into ordering it. The flavor of the beef, veggies, and gravy were decent, but kind of dry. It seemed as though the gravy had evaporated or been absorbed. Hm. maybe that’s why I kept drinking the soup…
Steak and Guinness pie — Both my mom and sister ordered this, and it was very delicious. There was so much flavorful sauce packed in this pie it came oozing out once they hacked into it. We all agreed that this was very yummy in flavor and in texture.
Pork Pie — Apparently, this is traditionally eaten cold, because when my dad went down to the kitchen in confusion thinking they had forgotten to heat this up, they informed him that pork pies are meant to be eaten cold. They really packed their pork in this thing, because it was really dense! I guess this makes for food travelers’ food, but I’d already gotten sick of cold food by this point.
Homemade Seasonal Roulade (filled with fresh cream) (
) — I had my eye on this thing the minute I entered Huffkins. The cake and cream just looked so fluffy! Although the texture did not disappoint (fluffy and light, indeed!), it was kind of lacking in flavor. I kind of wish they had rolled more jam into this thing because all I tasted was the spongy cake.
TL;DR: Quick service, many options, and nice seating areas. However, in general, the food here seems to look better than it actually tastes. I noticed that they do have some award-​winning scones and fruit cakes, though. So maybe those are better dessert options.