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Don’t be fooled by its name: the Stoke Newington Tea House is not a teahouse. It’s actually a pub, near Clissold Park, that serves booze and roasts and also speciality tea.
In fact, when we headed down on a Sunday afternoon, we were the only people in the joint with teapots on our table. Everyone else was boozing and tucking into Sunday roasts. That’s not to say they don’t have a great selection: there are almost 30 blends on the menu, priced between £3 and £4. We tried the Nutty Chocolate Tea, which smelled like rich cocoa but didn’t deliver on flavour, and a ‘show-stopper’ blend named ‘Fairy Lady Gold Rings’. It was fragrant and refreshing. Treat-wise: the sticky toffee pudding was gooey like treacle.
Ultimately, the tea-meets-pub thing doesn’t quite work. Especially in an area that has both excellent pubs and brill teahouses. What the Tea House does offer, though, is something different to lots of Stokey’s other hip spots: it’s very family-friendly. (I was joined at the bar by a ten-year-old ordering a piece of cake.) Plus, there’s also a low-lit wine and cheese bar downstairs that would make a great late-night date spot.