Date visited: Wednesday 15th May 2024
Not so long ago, Godshill on the Isle of Wight could claim four tea rooms or tea gardens. By 2024, The Old World Tea Rooms and Gardens was the only one left. It is a large establishment in a tourist hot spot, with plenty of tables both inside and out for those wishing to take tea.
There is an extensive menu, offering a selection of sandwiches, baguettes, jacket potatoes, burgers, ploughmans, and omelettes. There’s also an extensive range of both sweet and savoury cream teas available, including such unusual offerings as a crab cream tea and a smoked salmon cream tea. Indeed, dishes including Isle of Wight caught crab are a speciality. There’s also half a dozen cakes and a wide range of ice cream offered. The choice of beverages is rather more limited, with half a dozen teas and an unspecified number of tisanes, as well as more extensive offerings of coffees, soft drinks and milkshakes.
I chose a ham and coleslaw baguette, a slice of chocolate cake, and a pot of English breakfast tea, which together came to £17.40. The baguette was accompanied by salad and nachos and was quite filling. The cake was rather less satisfying, being a little dry and – apart from the cream filling – not having much of a chocolate flavour. The teapot was rather small in comparison with the size of the food portion and, regrettably, the cup for the tea carried the branding of a coffee company.
In comparison with other tea rooms I’ve visited on the Isle of Wight, The Old World Tea Rooms and Gardens are rather expensive, but in line with the prices of other establishments in Godshill. Apart from The Griffin pub, for those parking in the nearby car and coach park, it is the closest place to eat and drink, and efficiently serves the large number of tourists that pass its way.
The Old World Tea Rooms and Gardens are open daily from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm during the season.
