marthasoft

I can’t take a whole weekend to do this, as I don’t have many weekends left in Seattle. So I thought I would try fitting in as many short reviews as I can.

29 April 2007: Neville’s (at The British Pantry Ltd.) in Redmond

Not a bad high tea, especially considering that it’s in Redmond. The tea included cucumber sandwiches which were nice and fresh, if a bit bland. The tea was great – it was their house blend. They also brought milk in a nice little pitcher without me asking, which is always nice.

The tea also had a delicious scone – it was perfect and even warm! Definitely a bonus. There was butter and strawberry jam for the scone, but it was also good with the cream that came with the tea – I think it was Devonshire, but it’s been a while, and I am not positive. Lastly there was a nice-sized small cake which was also excellent.

The atmosphere of Neville’s is kind of like what you’d find at a small-town pub in England, and it’s quite nice. The tea cups and china are sharp, casual without being dowdy. The import store attached has a great selection of (of course) teas as well as other interesting candies and imported English foods. They also bake pies and other baked goods daily.

I also give Neville’s some bonus points for having the good sense to seat me next to the American version of Chus Lampreave, one of my favorite Spanish actresses and one who I think would make a fun grandmother (seemed to be confirmed by her granddaughter, who was having tea with her – lucky!).

Taking the bus as often as possible, even though I usually can’t take it every day, is definitely worth the effort for the additional time available for reading, napping, listening to music, observing weirdos and occasionally surfing the Internet. I am moving soon, and in my new location I will have a rapid public transit system and no car, so I look forward to continuing to enjoy public transportation and my reading/napping time.

This Winter, I didn’t have time in my schedule to take French Five. Instead, I found this site: http://ftew.libsyn.com/ which has French lessons via podcast, so I’ll be trying to stay in practice with that for the next few months until I can move to the next class.