Le Chalet is an oddity, but it has the potential to become a new favourite, provided they iron out…read morea few kinks. It's very new, and to some extent it ticks all my boxes - nice and light, fairly spacious, white / turquoise / silver decor, elegant but homely, loose leaf teas (including green tea with jasmine pearls, a favourite when out and about)...
Oddly, given how new the place is, it feels somehow a bit tired. The beautiful, opulent crystal chandelier is dangling drunkenly askew, with its fitting on the ceiling not quite - well - fitting. The ceiling itself is a bit coarse, too, a bit of a plasterboard magnificence, and in general reflects a sense of just Not Quite Ready. In short, the detail didn't deliver on the promise of the general aesthetic.
When visiting here with two old schoolfriends, we were but one of two tables downstairs that were not part of a large afternoon tea party - the place was not busy - but we seemed to be waiting an age for service, even just drinks. The reason, given swiftly on our arrival, was that there were no menus available. It seems odd to me that there should be so many empty seats and yet still insufficient menus to go around. And the menus, once they did arrive, were battered in slightly torn plastic folders. We had been there for nearly an hour by the time our food arrived. It was all very strange.
Side note: they could also do with specifying that their pink lemonade is the Fentiman's Rose Lemonade that I do so dearly love (roses being my Thing etc etc) instead of just "pink lemonade", because what to me was a delightful surprise might be less so to the less florally inclined customer.
HOWEVER... that's all of the criticism done with. The food - light bites, largely - was excellent. I had a quiche lorraine, expecting the usual slice of cold quiche, but what arrived was a beautiful, hot, delicate quiche for one, siting in perfect pastry, served atop a lovely fresh salad that itself wore a fine dressing. It made for a perfect light lunch and at less than £6 you could do far worse.
A macaron for just 85p is definitely stealing the show as well. They had a range of flavours - strawberry, chocolate, lemon, pistachio - and initially the wrong flavour was brought to me - but they were very nice macarons and for that price you can't go wrong.
It was £2.50 for a pot of tea, which is also pretty decent, especially given the sheer capacity of those beautiful glass pots. They appeared only half full but did a good three full cups, and the waitress arrived shortly after we'd finished to offer hot water refills.
With some great-looking cakes on display and a nice two-slate-tier afternoon tea for £12.50, it'll definitely be worth another visit, and I'm sure they'll iron out their odd little kinks with a bit of time. I'm looking forward to another trip here at some point.
