Hidden Lane Tearoom - West End in Glasgow

Just as we have all recovered from BBC British Bake-Off completely, Emily invited us for a tea and a cake deal at this rather a bit quirky and cute tea room tucked away from a busy Argyle Street in West End of Glasgow.  This is aptly named The Hidden Lane Tearoom (http://thehiddenlanetearoom.blogspot.co.uk), situated at Unit 8 Argyle Court (The Hidden Lane), 1103 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8ND.

Yes, it's literally hidden, so you need to look for a wee lane off Argyle Street, I think it was quite near to Crab Shack seafood restaurant.

Look out for this sign at the entrance of the lane off Argyle Street

You just keep going to the end of this lane and turn left, until you are wondering if you are really in the right place...

And, yes, here is is! The tearoom is at the end of the street!!

Despite the horrible weather with strong wind and rain earlier in the day on one Sunday afternoon, the place was very busy for 3.30pm.  At least Emily booked the table for us so no problem for seating.

As we walked into the tearoom, we saw a young couple having bowls of tomato soup that was emanating wonderful aroma.  Whilst I was distracted by the tomato soup, the staff started to explain to us what cakes were available for the day. There were lots of varieties of cakes, such as chocolate brownies, sticky toffee puddings, chocolate oranges, cupcake, scones and Guinness cakes which look like Guinness.

The tearoom has quite a good selections on the menu, including sandwiches and soup, notmentioning selections of loose tea.  Craig chose this milky Indian (?) spiced tea (sorry, the name has just escaped me ... was it Masala Chai tea...?), my husband and I chose Darjeeling and Emily had cold apple and mint tea.  All came in lovely cups, saucers and pots, individually matched that add quirkiness.

Craig ordered orange chocolate cupcake. Indian tea was milky, sweet but had kick with spices. I tried it a little just to taste it. I would have liked it if I did not have lacto intolerance. 

Craig's Chocolate orange cup cake -  looks yummy!

My husband had chocolate brownie and I had sticky toffee pudding cake, which was really yummy and moist.

Emily had Guinness cake; it's named so as it looks like Guinness.  Despite the thickness of cream on top, it was not overly sweet, it was light and delicious.

Guinness cake

We asked the staff if we could get our pot of Darjeeling tea topped up with hot water, which was no problem and got it for free of charge too.

We looked around us and saw others enjoying afternoon teas with delectable looking cakes on cake stands. We could not resist trying something more, and decided to opt for something savoury.

Having remembered the wonderful aroma of tomato soup earlier, My husband and Craig decided to order the tomato soup each. In fact, I think it was a roasted pepper and tomato soup. Emily and I decided to share hummus, carrots and beetroot sandwich between us.

Emily enjoyed this sandwich so much she decided to make her own for lunch at work the next day - spread of hummus, grated carrots and some beetroot in brown bread.

Hummus goes so well with carrots and beetroot in lovely and soft brown bread! 

We really enjoyed our afternoon.

Despite how busy it was, I thought the service was very good, food was very nice and everything was reasonably priced. I would like to try their afternoon tea sets next time. They looked really delectable!!!

I know it's a cliche but the Hidden Lane Tearoom is a hidden gem indeed.

That's all forks.