Date visited: Monday 4th July 2022
As one might expect for a tourist hot-spot, Windsor has several tearooms, though all in one street. The Clarence Brasserie & Tea Room is the largest of the three in Church Street, with many tables inside for those taking tea, as well as tables outside in the cobbled, pedestrianised street.
The building dates from the 16th century, with 18th century additions, was originally a church house, and is Grade II* listed by Historic England. There’s a single, large L-shaped room for those taking tea. On the hot and sunny Monday morning when I visited, this was more than ample for those both taking tea and seeking shade from the sun, but I suspect it gets considerably busier at times, being just a few minutes walk from the tourist entrance to Windsor Castle.
The menu is quite extensive, running to several pages and includes afternoon teas, a separate menu card with a quite extensive selection of bagged teas, and six cakes both on the menu and displayed at the counter. Other hot and cold beverages and alcoholic drinks are also offered.
A ‘half-plank’ pizza with ham, mushrooms and caramelised onions, a slice of chocolate fudge cake, and a pot of organic jasmine green tea came to £22.71. Based on the price of the cake, an unusually expensive £4.95, I made the mistake of assuming the main course, at £12.95, would be relatively small. I’m just glad I didn’t opt for the ‘full-plank’ pizza! The pizza was not just filling but very tasty too. In contrast, the chocolate fudge cake was exceptionally sweet – even by chocolate fudge cake standards – with most of the chocolate flavour confined to chocolate shavings on the outside of the cake. This is the first chocolate fudge cake I have consumed where the ‘fudge’ flavour dominated over the chocolate.
Unusually, the tea was served as a tea bag in a cup with a teapot full of hot water. With hindsight, adding hot water to the teabag in the cup was a mistake. I should have placed the teabag into the pot to obtain a consistent flavour of tea throughout the meal, as the teabag wasn’t up to the task of providing more than one infusion. The pot had sufficient water for two and half cups of tea.
