Afternoon Tea at Hever Hotel in Sevenoaks

Ended up sharing 3 finger sandwiches and a sausage roll (split into 3) between the two of us. This trip and afternoon tea was booked as a special treat but left me feeling embarrassed as we were dividing miniature cakes into two! The castle and gardens are indeed amazing but the afternoon tea was massive disappointment. For about £45 for two people this was a waste of money and should have asked for a refund. I would suggest going to the coffee shop instead.

Let me be clear, this is about their afternoon tea and not the gardens and grounds which are fantastic. I've had many cream teas elsewhere in my time and this was the worst ever. We left without eating the scones and cakes, which were pre-packed rubbish like you'd get from a superstore. Cold, hard, bland scones. Not freshly baked like advertised. See pics - what they advertised and what we got. No pastries/quiche either. The clotted cream was hard and looked off. Hever is missing a trick here. The place would be buzzing if they baked fresh. Lovely looking fresh cakes in their coffee lounge, and they serve up junk in what should be a proper cream tea. Very disappointing and we felt sorry for the staff who clearly get the flack for serving up the sorry mess! They were understanding and gave us a refund. Hever need to up their standards on this or shut down doing afternoon tea. Don't be tempted to 'give it a go'. Avoid at all costs and try some cake and coffee instead.

Good food, shocking service.And don’t even try the spa! The woman on the reception desk is argumentative, the spa is dirty and most of it doesn’t work, the salt room which was heavily advertised was broken. The treatments were nice but the organisation was so bad it was absolutely not worth the £58 we paid for it. A formal complaint is going in.

Very poor quality of sandwiches and other fancies. Tea brought in cups with no saucers and staff member was taken aback when we asked for a saucer. Staff member that served us didn't appear to know very much about the products or how to serve a customer. Very disappointing.

Having read some reviews we were a bit hesitant but thought we would give it a try. Overall a waste of time and the service was dreadful. To summarise briefly, we had a reduced rate via wowcher, which the establishment seems to think they can provide very poor service. We complained but felt we were wasting our breath. Not worth it and we will not return.

Treated a friend to afternoon tea as a treat after a day out at Hever Castle ( lovely day at the castle) No one in the restaurant when we arrived, we were offered to go upstairs to lounge, no one there either! Wowcher given over for Prosecco Tea ( honestly wowcher it isn’t worth it) Tea and coffee were served in mugs, with tea bag floating! I don’t use a tea bag in a cup to flick out at home and certainly was not happy about having to pay for the dubious pleasure. When I asked the waiter about cups and saucers he said “that was the way we serve tea here” shame on you Hever Hotel! My friend went and asked for tea in a pot with cups and saucers......which were readily available in the downstairs restaurant. They were brought a few moments later. ( I note someone else mentions tea/coffee being served in mugs.....this is afternoon tea not breakfast in a greasy spoon!) To the food...no etiquette to explain what we were eating. Sandwiches were fine, scones were nice although we had to ask for jam ( another trip downstairs as no waiter visible) Cakes. Yeah very Mr Kipling..... and all sponge, lemon sponge, some red thing ( no idea) a small battenberg and tiny choc chip muffins. None of which were tasty. A mousse, pastry or fruit tart would have varied the tea......like what is on their website page for afternoon tea. I emailed the hotel hoping for a reply as to my disappointment with the tea. Needless to say they have not answered! So guys don’t waste your money however cheap it is, it is not worth it.

Very mediocre. Sandwiches poor- dry and boring fillings. Scones were delicious. Cakes did not taste freshly made. Service very good.

I thought I would treat my husband and I to afternoon tea for our anniversary, please don't bother going. Sandwiches were dry and cakes that I can only describe as looking like Kipling cakes which were not worth eating and our tea and coffee served in a mug, We had to ask for our Prosecco, then tried to charge us for it. Thank goodness we didn't pay full price Wowcher, it really was not worth the money.

You can have afternoon tea& cakes at the Hever Hotel,they also have a bar menu serving all day everyday,good value for money,staff excellent & helpful & go out of their way to help & accommodate ur needs ,highly recommended,we will certainly visit here again in the future

We were staying at the Hotel from 8th - 10th September as a special surprise for my Wife who has Motor Neurone Disease. I decided to surprise her with an Afternoon Tea. It was really delicious and we sharedc1 between the 2 of us as Jean struggles to eat large amounts. It was really well presented. the Finger Sandwiches of Ham & Mustard, Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese, Cheese & Cucumber and Egg Mayonnaise were lovely. The Selection of Small Cakes were also well presented and delicious. The Scones and Clotted Cream & Jam were lovely. Price wise they are extremely reasonable at £13.95 for the Classic or £18.95 for The Sparkling

My daughters purchased afternoon tea for two for me for my birthday. We were asked to wait at the reception area and told we would be collected to go for our tea. We only waited for a few moments before being collected by a waitress and taken the few yards to the tea room. This was a beautifully appointed room and our tea was already laid out and waiting for us, all we had to do was order tea or coffee which was freshly prepared. The food was superb, a selection of very fresh well filled sandwiches, scones to die for and more cakes than even I could eat! The cup of tea was excellent too and the prosecco beautifully chilled. The table linen, crockery and cutlery was spotless and the service faultless. Overall ranks with the best afternoon tea I have ever had.

We stayed at the Hever Hotel for 2 nights in mid June 2018. Our afternoon tea on arrival was most welcome after our long drive! Our room was of a very high standard, very clean, comfortable and lots of storage. All staff were welcoming and friendly and very happy to answer our questions about the local area. We ate dinner in the restaurant both evenings and our food was well cooked, fresh and very tasty. The breakfast service was excellent, lots of choice of cold and hot food, replenished regularly. We will definitely stay here again, a lovely area to visit lots to see and do.

We have just returned from a wonderful afternoon spent at The Hever Hotel enjoying afternoon tea on a rainy Saturday afternoon. My daughter organised this tea for her sister’s baby shower. We had all stayed at the hotel back in 2012 following our daughters wedding and knew it was a lovely venue. She had contacted the hotel and was quoted a discounted price as there wasp to be 10 of us. We were offered a private room at a cost of £350 which we declined as we felt we couldn’t justify it. When we arrived this afternoon we were shown upstairs where a table had been set for us in a lovely huge private room overlooking the garden. Although we were pleased, we queried it with the manager as we didn’t want to face a huge room hire bill. However we were assured that this was not the case. So we decorated the room and waited for the mum-to-be to arrive. The Manager and staff were wonderfully attentive taking orders for preferred drinks etc. They brought up two bottles of Prosecco on ice and pots of tea,plus assorted coffees. They brought in tea stands of finger sandwiches (salmon & cream cheese, cucumber and ham & mustard); assorted mini cakes (deep filled glossy chocolate eclairs, delicious carrot cakes and mini Victoria sponge) plus scones with clotted cream and jam. They had catered for 11 people (although we had confirmed and paid in advance for 9). They noted my daughter was trying to play music from her phone and provided a music dock/speaker for us. They replenished tea/coffee on request and never once chased us to vacate the room. In the end we were there for 3 hours as my daughter was opening gifts etc. We had a wonderful afternoon enjoying a delicious tea in lovely surroundings. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this venue not only for their food but also for fabulous customer service. Thank you.

My husband and I booked an afternoon tea using a Groupon voucher. It was quickly made very clear that the staff were rushed off their feet and the place was understaffed, especially as one member of staff was huffing and puffing and muttering under her breath how much she had to do. We and another couple who also had a groupon deal were then asked to sit on sofa whilst they got our tables ready. After a while we were then taken upstairs by a friendly male waiter who also explained how busy they were today. Our order for tea was taken and then we waited, and waited and waited whilst staff rushed around in a hurried manner making it hard to relax. I heard a few mutterings about a large party taking place downstairs. After about 10 minutes our prosecco arrived but nothing else. Just under 1/2 hour after we were shown upstairs I asked where our afternoon tea was, explaining we had a long journey home and wanted to get back before it got dark. The waiter apologised and shortly after our food arrived, but no tea. The platter consisted of 3 tiny finger sandwiches each, a couple of mini cakes/desserts and one each of the smallest scones I have ever seen. Although tasty I have to say the amount of food per person was very small compared to other afternoon teas I have had, and some of them have been cheaper. I suppose as we had a Groupon voucher the quantity wasn't such an issue but I would definitely have said something if we had paid full price! The irony of it was there was a couple sat close by who were given prosecco despite saying they had not ordered it, and then one of them mentioned they had a special diet (which she had previously mentioned when ordered, but had been forgotten about) so the waiter obviously had to rectify this too and brought out different sandwiches etc for her (a larger amount than we had) so that couple ended up with free prosecco and a lot more food! Anyway eventually our tea arrived which we had to drink fairly quickly and we left feeling rather cheated and still rather hungry. So overall we were pretty disappointed with the whole experience. We expected it to be a lovely relaxing treat at the end of our great stay at nearby Hever castle, but the ambiance and the quantity of food let it down.