Clarinda's Tea Room Edit

This is a tea room located on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile so it is a nice place to visit during a busy day of exploring the city. The tea room has a cluttered vintage decor including a type writer, needle point pieces of work on the wall and old books on shelves. At the entrance there is a glass case featuring an old petrol ration book. The menu has a great selection of food- breakfast (including a full traditional Scottish breakfast), lunch (Sandwich rolls and soups) and sweets. I ordered a cream tea and the waitress seemed surprised when I asked to smell the teas before choosing one. She brought me some small samples in the cream and jam holder glass containers but I found that they were strongly scented from their last dish-wash and had trouble smelling the actual tea. I selected the Scottish Breakfast which was brought to me steeping in a pot without an infuser. I had no choice but to drink an over-infused brew when I got to my second and subsequent cups. The scones were a bit to flaky for my liking and the cream was not the traditional clotted cream that most tea places serve with scones. The raspberry jam provided with the scone (there is no jam flavour selection) was quite delicious! I was also able to try a bite of the carrot cake which was incredibly moist and very good. I would go back but more so for the desserts and food than the tea.