Hesp Out West 4 - Classic Afternoon Tea - but on a Cornish Island

Strange how trends come around. The classic afternoon tea has had its ups and downs over the years - there were times when it seemed to have passed almost completely out of fashion, holding on in just a few upmarket traditional haunts like The Ritz. When I was a boy, a posh afternoon tea was the ultimate dream for people like my mother and her Westcountry friends but, decades later working as a food writer, I somehow managed to ignore the existence of these very British and grand repasts for years on end. 

Sailing to St Michael’s Mount on the foot ferry

Now they are back. My daughter and her friends, for example, will occasionally devote an entire day off in their busy lives to enjoy this very British afternoon ritual, Instagramming everything as they make their way through the dainty sandwiches, cakes and pastries.  

She turned green with envy the other day when I told her that I may have recently discovered the best grand afternoon tea in all of England. Which is a big claim too make… Could the classic afternoon tea served at the Harbour Loft on St Michael’s Mount really be the best in the land?

For a start, I suppose you could argue that an island off the coast isn’t really “in the land”. But that’s being pedantic and, anyway, there are good reason I make the claim. 

For a start, this well-known restaurant has now devoted itself to the unique and complex art-form of the afternoon tea. Which surprised me because, half a dozen years ago, I visited the establishment to meet the dynamic young head-chef, one-time heavy-metal rock-band lead singer Gregory Milne, who was making a tremendous name for himself preparing all-manner of wondrous seafood dishes mixed with foraged offerings from the island’s small woodland and its beaches. 

Greg Milne, head chef at St Michael’s Mount

Now Greg has devoted himself to pursuing afternoon tea perfection. And the amazing thing is that the local seafood and the foraging is still in evidence. There are tiny savoury tartlets featuring things like mini-home-cured mackerel fillets and tips of local asparagus topped by wild garlic stalks and flowers. There are perfect cut sandwiches containing all manner fabulous ingredients. There are immaculate sweet dainties featuring things like pine needle essence gathered from the island’s trees. And of course, there’s a whopping great big cream tea besides, just to make sure no one goes hungry. 

All this at a cost of £32.50 per person. Which is actually very good value - there was enough of it to have my wife and I asking for doggy bags. While I admit I’m not exactly an aficionado when it comes to the classic afternoon tea, I can tell you that The Ritz version comes in at £75 a head, while Harrods charges £73.

And it’s what you get on the plate which counts most. And the moment I tasted the beautiful little amuse-bouche savoury - a cured Cornish mackerel, asparagus and prune ketchup crostini - I knew we were in for something special. Accompanying this was an English pea, sea-vegetable and horseradish tartlet. I’d say they were the best small bites I have eaten anywhere this year. 

Crustless sandwiches featured a Davidstow cheddar and wild garlic pesto, a house-baked gammon and rhubarb conserve, a third filled with grilled leek and wild leek salsa, and (my favourite) the fennel pollen egg mayonnaise. Moving onto the sweeter morsels, there was a pine and rose mousse cake, alongside a walnut, tarragon and dark chocolate financier, as well as a sour lemon and raspberry ripple chiffon. Then, of course, there was the cream tea - house-baked scones with local Trewithen Dairy clotted cream Cornish strawberry jam. Needless to say, this is all accompanied by a pot of excellent local Tregothnan tea, although you could pay extra and go for Cornish sparkling wine.

All very impressive, especially when you learn that the man running the kitchen has never been to a catering college. Instead, Greg spent his early adulthood working as both a lead-singer in a heavy metal band and a National Trust warden.

When we first met six years ago, Greg had not long been the island’s head-chef. He took me foraging, using private paths (normally only open to gardeners and estate workers) where we picked various sea vegetables as well as wild edible flowers and woodland herbs. We harvested a bag of young nettle leaves with which he made the most amazing, vibrant and zingy mayonnaise. 

As I say, he still goes out foraging now, but everything is aimed at that one distinct repast: the classic afternoon tea. So why the change?

Greg explained that after Covid, the island management team thought about streamlining the food-offering and brought in a consultant. It was he who came up with the idea specialising in an afternoon tea. At first, Greg was not convinced. “But eventually I came round to the idea and I was like… right, I’m not gonna lean into it as much as I can. With my full personality - foraging - everything! So I put together this menu and I thought it was pretty brave. It featured loads of foraged stuff from the island and loads of crazy concepts,” Greg told me.

“Then we invited James and Mary, Lord and Lady St Levan (of the St Aubyn family which retains a 999 year lease on the place), who live in the castle, at to come down and try it. They tasted it and were like… ‘Yeah, let's go!’… I was a little surprised because I was being edgy - almost pushy - wanting to get my flavours in there. But they went for it!

English pea, sea-vegetable and horseradish tartlet

“Now it’s become a kind of theme,” says Greg. “People come to Saint Michael’s Mount for tea and they are experiencing the flavours of the island. In many ways it contains all the flavours I was featuring before. And it is proving to be a huge success.”

I bet it is. The place was packed on the chilly but sunny mid-week spring day we were there. I hope and trust the management will never be tempted to water down this remarkable offering by making it somehow more conventional.  Greg tells me the flavours will change with the seasons, and I look forward to another visit some other time. 

Because I’d like to answer my own question: is this the best afternoon tea in all the land? Whether it is or not, the St Michael’s Mount afternoon tea is set to become one of this region’s must-do, bucket-list, rituals.