Tables can be booked for brunch, lunch and high tea, seven days a week. The dining room is small, so weekend mornings and every high tea sitting fill up early — a few days' notice is usually enough, a week is safer for Saturday and Sunday.
Send us the date, the time you would like, the number of guests and anything we should know — a birthday, a high chair, a gluten-free guest, a table away from the window. We confirm every booking in writing, usually the same day, and hold the table for fifteen minutes past the booking time.
Parties of eight or more are seated at the long table at the back of the room. For groups we ask for a rough idea of what everyone will eat, so the kitchen can prepare in advance and the food arrives together rather than in waves. An eighteen per cent gratuity is added for groups of six and above.
High tea runs in fixed sittings so every table gets a full two hours with the stand, the pot and the service. Sittings are booked in advance only — walk-ins can join if a stand is free, but on weekends that rarely happens. Dietary changes to the stand need forty-eight hours' notice.
We always keep a handful of tables for people who simply turn up. Weekday mornings are the easiest time to get one; on weekends expect a short wait, which is best spent with a coffee at the counter.
Plans change and that is fine — just let us know a few hours ahead so the table can go to someone else. For high tea and for groups we ask for a day's notice, because the kitchen has already started preparing.