Maes Manor – Picnic Bench Afternoon Tea Review

My mum, sisters and I recently went to Maes Manor for a picnic bench afternoon tea to celebrate our birthdays (they are all quite close together). You can catch up with my birthday photo dairy and vlog here if you fancy a nose). My mum booked us in and I was so excited to try it out as we had heard lots of good things about it. Maes Manor is near Blackwood in South Wales and is nicely tucked away in the countryside. That being said the sat nav took us straight there and if you live locally I am sure it’s even easier to get to.

First impressions

When we arrived we were greeted by the lovely staff, who took our milkshake and tea order and then brought out our picnic benches straight away. One of the members of staff noticed that I was pregnant (clearly the bump is very obvious now) and mentioned that there were items included that were not recommended for pregnant women and asked if would I like to change the items. They kindly swapped out the options for another great selection and my picnic bench was on its way. I really appreciated this, as clearly my baby brain has kicked in and I didn’t even think to check.

What’s on the picnic bench?

I was so surprised when the picnic bench came out to see that it was a good mixture of both savoury and sweet items. The benches at the bottom had a full-size southern fried chicken burger, breaded scampi and chips in a novelty fryer basket (I had mine changed to chicken nuggets and chips), brie in breadcrumbs with tomato and caramelised red onion chutney (or in my case pork parcels) and coleslaw for each person.

The table part of the picnic bench had our milkshakes and a selection of mini cakes for each person including red velvet cake, carrot cake, raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake, an orange cupcake and a scone with jam and cream.

Would I go again?

This is the first time I have been to Maes Manor and the first time I have had a picnic bench afternoon tea and I really enjoyed it. If you are looking for something a little bit different to your normal afternoon tea experience, then I would definitely recommend it. It was nice to try something new and I was so surprised by the portion sizes. I thought it was similar to a full size meal with a selection of desserts. I will admit we were all defeated by the afternoon tea and had to take a few bits home.

Have you had a picnic bench afternoon tea before? What did you think? I would love to hear from you, so please leave me a comment down below!