This is my idea of heaven! a little hidden gem, a delightful little Tea room and very popular with…read morethe Barnt Green folk. Walking in from the small high street of Barnt Green village it's style is a combination of someone's living room and what I would imagine a post war tea shop would be like, Minus the hair net and curlers! It is filled to the brim with vintage crockery and gifts, quirky ornaments and fabulous post war style tables with cute little table place settings. Everything in the shop can also be bought. Although Vintage Tea Rooms are the current trend I welcome the quirkiness and makes it more of a unique day out as opposed to the high street franchises and once again supporting local and independents. I stumbled across this tea room by accident whilst visiting Barnt green and as I was on my own they just about had a place for me to have lunch, it's very busy with small groups of ladies lunching with their three tiered ornate cake stands and afternoon teas. It needs to be booked well in advance to reserve a place. I had a simple lunch of soup served in an ornate tea cup and a small plate of sandwiches and of course Earl Grey Tea for one. The staff are very friendly and helpful. I will definitely visit again with friends and it's only a short walk from Barnt Green station. Looking at their website you can also hire their services or the tea room for parties. Lush!

Now this little tearoom only opened today. I was one of the privileged few to have stepped through…read morethe doors of this amazingly quirky and colourful venue. The theme is inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Not surprising really, considering the owner/proprietor also has a gift shop called Mad As A Hatter directly opposite! The tearoom, aptly named The Tea Party! (what else!?) is very child friendly, with high and low chairs, with pushchair & wheelchair access, two toilets (one of which is also the nappy changing room) a selection of reproduction, upcycled, ornate seats and chairs to choose from, it provided a cornucopia of dizzying delights to bombard the eye with an original look to an otherwise oft neglected part of Bearwood. As a stand out, it really provides a change from the generic high street cafes and as an independent cafe/tearoom. It's going to offer a "library" where patrons can simply read or work on their tablets/laptops or other electronic devices, a "gallery" for local artists and photographers to display and sell their work, craft workshops and rooms to hire to either demonstrate/teach "crafty" things or simply have a small party! The whole concept or venue really offers good value for money and can easily become the creative community hub of Bearwood. Watch this space! It's open 9.30am until 5pm.

If the Alice in Wonderland inspired Tea Party was in Los Angeles it would have a cult following and…read morelines around the block. As it is, in Bearwood, would you believe, it is a fine place to while away an hour with a friend over a pot of tea or coffee. A lot of imagination has gone into making this a fun and relaxing place to be - from the pretty tea pots leading to the entrance, to the delightfully mismatched furniture, hand painted cups and cuckoo clocks! When I was there, the coffee was really kinda lovely and Santa was in there too, taking a tea break!

Winterbourne is a great place for a sunny day. £5 gives you access to the Arts and Crafts house and…read moregardens, both of which are lovely. Behind the more formal gardens are woodland trails (you might even see a beech tree I helped to coppice as a student many years ago) and Edgbaston reservoir, a calm expanse of water populated by ducks, moorhens and crested grebes. There are beautiful waterside rock gardens with stepping stones, which I love. The whole place feels like a sanctuary from the city and is conveniently located close to the Barber Institute and the university campus if you want to make more of a day of it. There's a tea room which sells serviceable scones (with that really aerated cream rather than proper whipped or clotted cream though) and also sandwiches, soup and potatoes etc. You can get plants and gifts at the shop- and if you go during the week you may be able to get some advice from the gardeners, too.

Winterbourne House and Garden is an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the University of…read moreBirmingham campus, located a short five-minute walk from the eastern edge of the University. Built in the early 1900's, the entire Grade II Listed estate was bequeathed to the University in 1944 and is composed of a villa house and seven acres of gardens with thousands of different plants from across the world. Owned by the University, students are admitted for free while general public tickets are £6 per entry. The gardens are best visited on a sunny day in the late spring or early summer when you can take advantage of maximum flower coverage. With such a staggering numbers of plants on display, one could easily make a day of it to properly examine them all. Plants are both planted throughout the garden outside or placed within greenhouses to regulate temperature and moisture, an excellent example being the orchid house. The grounds are laid out with meandering, terraced paths on a hill that eventually lead to a stream at the back of the property. A wooded trail gives access off the property to Edgbaston Pool, which is classed as a site of special scientific interest with numerous birds that call it home. The house itself and attached grounds are set up as a quasi-museum to display early twentieth-century country estate life. The garden sheds/office house a second-hand bookstore, art gallery, plant store, and the ticket office/gift shop. Cacti, flowers, herbs, and other interesting plants can be purchased at reasonable prices. Attached to the ticket office is Winterbourne Press, a fully functioning printing press that performs demonstrations every Friday. The house was built with the most modern of amenities, including fully functioning cistern toilets for servants. A restoration in 2010 brought the house back to its former glory. A secondary feature of Winterbourne is their vaunted tea room, one of the primary reasons for my visit with Brittany A. recently. The public are not able to simply enter the house to visit the tea room, so each visit to the room will cost a person the full ticket price. Given these preconditions and the grandeur of the house, I had high expectations. Unfortunately, the 'tea room' is a basic cafeteria style set-up that you'll find at many historic sites across the UK. Pre-prepared cold case sandwiches and drinks are available, and until 3PM on most days you can order toasties and hot soup. I skipped the unimpressive looking and overpriced scones and ordered a slice of carrot cake, which was absolutely delicious and worth the price. Tea here is the most disappointing aspect, consisting of a tepid pot and a bag of Twinings thrown in. No loose leaf tea is available, and you get the luxury of carrying your supermarket tea out on a cafeteria tray, once more shattering the splendour of the home and grounds. In this aspect, Winterbourne could take notes from the splendid tea rooms of sites like Edinburgh Castle, which offers table service and higher quality teas at comparable price points. The lackluster tea room experience aside, Winterbourne House and Garden is a real gem of a historic property in the University area. While the ticket entrance price won't see me coming here all that often, the free entrance for UOB students is a reason to visit regularly if you attend the University.

Kings Heath Park Tea Room is a quintessentially and quaint British tea room, with delicious cakes,…read moreice creams and of course some splendid tea. Situated in the centre of Kings Heath Park, It is one of the more serene places that I have been to sip on a cup of tea. It transports you from the bustle of inner-city Birmingham and nestles you into a tranquil and enchanting environment where you can forget your troubles and return to a more balanced state of mind. There are few place in Birmingham that you can spend an afternoon having tea and treats with such an idyllic view to take pleasure in whilst doing so - Kings Heath Park Tea Room is a delightful place, in a beautiful spot. The British Tea Room lives on.

Also known as The Victorian Tea Room, the cafe at Kings Heath Park is a lovely place to spend the…read moreafternoon. Set within the park grounds it affords splendid views of the park and offers what you'd expect - sandwiches, tea, cakes and best of all ice cream. It is also housed in between the Horticultural College - where you can pick up leaflets on all sorts of things (not just gardening based stuff either - I found information on local tango classes and listings for the nearby Red Lion Folk Club as well as whole load of flyers offering mega bucks if you are interested in working from home - needless to say I ignored the latter) and the nursery. Fully decked out in bunting in readiness for the Jubilee celebrations it had a sort of Cath Kidson-y vibe which I expect was unintentional and sort of all the better for it. The ice creams are to die for and the cakes looked pretty good too.

When I first started with Yelp, I threw this question to the masses; "Where is the best tea shop in…read moreBirmingham?". One of the first recommendations I received was the Edwardian Tea Room. Now, I have always known this place existed - but never had a chance to visit. This was finally rectified last week. The Edwardian Tea Room is housed within the fantastic Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (on Victoria Square). You need to head in the building, up the stairs and through the shop and the Buddha exhibit to find it. Decorated beautifully, the tea room really does feel like you've stepped back in time. No music plays in the background, but you can hear the murmur of conversation, the scraping of chairs along the floor and the clanging on trays as the staff clean up the empty tables. The menus are displayed on the wall (rather than individually on tables). You need to head up to the counter and order before you find a table (although if you're in a group, you would do well to bag a table first). The Tea Room (as you would expect) has a large selection of cakes (and tea, of course). A slice of cake and a pot of tea is a bargainous £2.95 - meaning it's a wallet safe alternative to some of the more hipster coffee and tea shops in the centre of town. Again, as previously mentioned, it's very popular with an older crowd due to the prices. However, on my visit their were older visitors, young people and families (who were catching their breath after trekking around the huge museum). I grabbed a herbal tea (£1.60) and took a seat in the large room to do a little bit of work while I enjoyed my hot drink. As well as tea, coffee and cake, there is a varied menu on offer for very reasonable prices. A large fish and chips (with all the trimmings) and a cup of tea was around £7.50. Not too bad, and they offer many other hot options too. Even on my many trips to BMAG, I haven't ever taken the opportunity to visit the Tea Rooms. Following my trip last week, there is a good chance I'll be back JUST TO visit the tea rooms.

Such a beautiful place to spend time. It's a great way to end or start a visit to the museum but…read moreyou can also just pop in for food and drinks which I've done before. As I said, it's completely lovely. It was re-decorated about a year ago, which improved an already lovely space. Mis-matched furniture and big prints of Edwardian ladies sit perfectly in the lovely, big, light room.There are tables for big groups and soft chairs for cosy coffees. I've had a fish finger sandwich here which was nice but nothing to write home about. I've also tried the afternoon tea which was lovely, especially the cakes. It's not a particularly fancy afternoon tea but it makes a lovely lunch. The highlight here is really the space and the atmosphere- definitely worth spending some time in.

Just from hear of the name of this shop, my mouth is watering already!…read more Yes, Chocolicious of Coleshill is a friendly Coffee shop (and Bistro) placed in the high street of its beautiful city that can really change your mood.It's a truly paradise for those who look for delicious homemade products as well and if you cannot resist the chocolate temptation, it's certainly a place to visit soon! Sweets, jams, ice creams, curds and other gorgeous products are available in the place that also has a takeaway menu with a range of sandwich and salad options. I would highlight their display of retro sweets that are probably successful among the children as well as their range of Mrs. Darlington products that are also a lovely suggestion of present, for sure. It's a lovely place to bring your family or friends for a tea or coffee and their facilities also include a beautiful Tea Room. The service is incredibly attentive and they're a fine example of independent shops in the area, as with the range of homemade local products, as with the lovely Community board placed outside the shop!

As it turns out, Cannon Hill park has more than one option for a cup of tea!…read moreThe tea rooms sit higher up the hill towards Moseley village just inside the entrance on Edgbaston Rd, opposite the cricket grounds training pitch. Unlike the mac, which I guess prides itself on being super cool, the Tea Rooms are just happy being tea rooms and offer well tea and honest grub, albeit at slightly cheaper prices than the mac! I would say in feel, it's more intimate, less of a canteen and more of well, a tea room and feels like an older building. Frequented by a range of people and particularly popular on a Sunday I would reccomend The Garden tearoom to anyone who fancy a change of scene from the mac, possibly a more low key venue to sip a cuppa on a Sunday morning. Clean white decor and simple fare, The Garden Tearoom offers a more traditional feel for lovers of the simple cuppa.

This tea room has more of a traditional feel about it compared to the coffee shop based at Mac. It…read moreis a lovely little place and can be quite quiet in here depending on the weather and also what is going on at Cannon Hill park. I like to come in here for a cuppa with a book after walking around the park. I think it has a relaxing and lazy-day atmosphere and I can sit in here for hours just topping up my tea and getting lost in a book. The décor is simplistic and that is one of the things that I love about this place; it is not trying to be anything other than a traditional little tea room. A great place to bring friends and family for a cuppa after a nice stroll around the park. If you're like me, come with a book!