It’s impossible to resist the lure of afternoon tea and as soon we realised we’d be passing by the gorgeous Adare Manor in Limerick on the return from a weekend away we were on the phone booking a table for afternoon tea! Our trip coincided with a double birthday celebration and what better way to celebrate than with a selection of delicate finger sandwiches and pink bubbles?!
Fabulous Irish afternoon teas at Ashford Castle, Dromoland Castle, Mount Juliet and the Westin meant that we had high hopes for the five star Adare Manor and we were excited for the afternoon ahead!
Afternoon Tea at Adare Manor
The Venue
Afternoon Tea is served in the beautiful and very pink Adare Manor Drawing Room which overlooks the impeccably manicured French gardens below. The room was full of afternoon tea goers and the relaxed and chatty atmosphere was the perfect setting for our afternoon tea festivities!
Our luck was in as we were shown to a beautiful window table with gorgeous views of the gardens:
Afternoon Tea
Pink was the theme of the afternoon with the stunning pink drawing room decor complemented by pink menus, pink sparkling wine and even some pink flowers!
The Menu
The afternoon tea menu included a traditional and a vegetarian option and we opted for one of each accompanied by a glass of sparkling wine. Not being a huge meat fan I was delighted with the dedicated vegetarian afternoon tea menu on offer. There was also a really cute children’s afternoon tea which sounded delicious and we had to resist the urge to try to sneak in an order!
Vegetarian afternoon tea
Our afternoon tea arrived and looked every bit as delicious as it sounded on the menu. We couldn’t wait to get stuck in!
The vegetarian afternoon tea at Adare Manor:
The vegetarian sandwiches were an enticing mix of warm goats cheese, a vegetable samosa, a cheese pastry and an egg mayonnaise sandwich.
My next stop was the fruit scones served with clotted cream, lemon curd and jam. The warm scones were delicious and our only request was for some butter to accompany the homemade jam so we could indulge ourselves even more!
The scones:
After devouring my two favourite layers I was struggling by the time I got to the sweet treats. I still managed to sample a tiny taste of each before surrendering them to Dave to finish! The sponge cake was my favourite while the carrot cake got Dave’s seal of approval!
The Traditional Afternoon Tea
The traditional afternoon tea offering mirrored the vegetarian scones and sweet treat layers while the sandwiches were swapped for a chicken caesar salad wrap, smoked salmon, crab mayonnaise on brown bread and a mini ham and cheese croissant. In case you notice that the pic doesn’t match the description my lovely mum opted for sandwich style bread only!
The traditional afternoon tea (we requested sandwich style only but the menu sounded delicious!):
Steak time!
Dave joined us in the Drawing Room and, wanting to sample the lunch menu, he opted for a hearty steak sandwich with carmelised onions and homemade chips.
Those chips!
The Hotel
Adare Manor was such a treat from the moment we entered the beautifully manicured grounds of the hotel and every detail in the grounds and public spaces exude luxury. In an effort to walk off some of the afternoon tea treats we took a lovely stroll through the gardens and to check out some more of the manor.
Welcome to Adare Manor!
I’ll have a bunch of red flowers please!
Pretty grounds:
Overall
We had a fab afternoon at Adare Manor and the afternoon tea was a perfect birthday celebration setting! The pink theme and the dedicated vegetarian afternoon tea menu were big hits in The Whole World is a Playground house, especially with the ladies, and we can’t wait to visit Adare again!