Afternoon Tea Menu Template

Once you have confirmed your afternoon tea recipes and planned your menu items, you need to look at designing your menu. Easy design templates for an afternoon tea restaurant menu are essential to creating a successful customer dining experience. From a psychological perspective, the layout, font, and overall afternoon tea menu design can significantly impact how customers perceive your restaurant and dining experience.

For example, larger fonts and emboldened texts can make your menu items more noticeable and appealing to customers. Additionally, organising items on the menu by categories, such as sweet, savoury, drinks, and desserts, can make it easier for customers to navigate and select.

Images and colour can significantly influence customers’ perception of your afternoon tea restaurant menu. The psychology of colour suggests that warm colours like red, orange and yellow can increase appetite, while cool colours like blue and green evoke a sense of tranquillity. Hence, it would help if you considered highlighting certain menu items with these colours to make them more appealing. Last but not least, including high-quality images of your several drinks and dishes online can help customers envision what the dish looks like, making it more desirable.

Following extensive research, we found these three meal options to be the three most common dishes served at afternoon tea (also known as high tea):

1. Scones

These are traditional English baked goods typically served with butter, jam, and clotted cream. Scones are a popular choice to add to your afternoon tea free menu template because they’re easy to eat, versatile, and a great accompaniment to tea. You can easily make them with flour, butter, sugar and eggs. Also, they can come in different variations, such as raisin scones, currant scones, cheese scones and more. Cut the scone in half and smother the inside with clotted cream and jam.

2. Finger Sandwiches

These are another popular choice for afternoon tea. You can make them with bread and fillings such as coronation chicken, egg, cucumber, and cheese. Sandwiches are an excellent meal option in afternoon tea spots because they’re easy to eat, and you can prepare them with various ingredients. Make your own bread to add profit margins and a unique twist to the sandwiches. Cut the sandwiches up into bite size piece. They’re also perfect for the treats typically served with afternoon tea.

3. Pastries

Pastries like cakes, tarts, and macarons are a common addition to an afternoon tea menu template. You can make them with a sweet dough or batter filled with sweet or savoury fillings. Pastries are a great option for afternoon tea because they’re lovely, satisfying, and perfect for ending a meal on a sweet note. It is always a good idea to place the sweet treats on a cake stand so your afternoon tea spread stands out beautifully.

The traditional English scone is probably the most authentic dish at an afternoon tea restaurant. Often served with butter, jam, and clotted cream (a thick cream made by heating milk), this simple yet delicious dish is easy to eat and perfect for pairing with tea.

Scones are an authentic dish for an afternoon tea restaurant menu because they’ve always been accompanied in this context for centuries. The custom of afternoon tea began in the early 18th century, and scones have been a staple component of this meal since its inception. They’re an essential part of English culture, and their popularity extends far beyond the UK.

Scones also offer an opportunity for the chef to showcase their skills, as there are many variations to the classic recipe, making them versatile. They’re often baked fresh and served warm, adding to their authenticity and the overall experience of afternoon tea.

You’re likely to occasionally find the following dishes accompanying the traditional scone in an afternoon tea menu:

• A selection of pastries and cakes
• Clotted jam and cream
• Tea
• Sandwiches

Afternoon tea features meal options like scones with jam and clotted cream, tea sandwiches with fillings like cucumber, egg salad, smoked salmon and cream cheese, as well as pastries like macarons and petit fours, and mini cakes. The essential flavours in afternoon tea food are sweet and savoury. Cups of tea (herbal, black and the like) and several other light refreshments like fruit juice, punch drinks, champagne, and flavoured lemonades are also served along with the food, offering enhanced aroma and taste

While the items on an afternoon tea restaurant menu may vary depending on the venue and region, some are relatively common.

In addition to scones, a typical afternoon tea meal includes a selection of the following sweet and savoury items:

• Sandwiches: Sandwiches are a staple of afternoon tea and come in various flavours. Some popular options and flavour combinations can include butter and cucumber, egg and cress, and smoked salmon and cream cheese. Still, you may find other variations, such as chicken or ham and cheese, or vegetarian options, such as avocado, cheese, and tomato.
• Pastries: An afternoon tea restaurant menu often features a variety of pastries and sweets. Some popular options include tiny macarons - round French cookies filled with buttercream or ganache - and petit fours. Mini cakes such as red velvet, victoria sponge and lemon cake are also delicious and sought after.
• Tea: Herbal teas, black teas, and some other light refreshments like fruit juice, flavoured lemonades, and punch drinks are also served along with the food to enhance the taste and aroma. The tea can also feature milk and sugar based on the selection. Some restaurants include champagne for afternoon tea parties.
• Savouries: Some afternoon tea restaurants also include savoury items like cheese straws, scotch eggs, sausage rolls, and quiche, which are perfect for balancing the sweetness of other meal options.

An afternoon tea menu layout should be visually appealing and easy to read.

Here are some tips and afternoon tea menu design ideas:

1. Use a clear and elegant font, such as Garamond or Times New Roman, to make the menu easy to read.
2. Use headings and subheadings to organise the menu into sections. This grouping makes it easy for customers to navigate through the menu.
3. Organise the menu items by course, such as savoury items, sandwiches, and desserts.
4. Use clear and descriptive language to describe the menu items; include information about ingredients and unique preparation methods.
5. Use images of the food items to make the menu more appealing. Be sure to use high-quality photos that accurately represent the food.
6. Consider using colours, borders or icons to make the menu visually appealing and indicate special items such as gluten-free, vegetarian or seasonal items.
7. Make it easy for customers to identify prices, ingredients, and special instructions.
8. If possible, provide additional nutritional information, pairings, or notable awards.

Remember that we’ve simplified your task of creating a menu for your tea spot; we’ve done most of the heavy lifting. When you choose from our comprehensive catalogue of afternoon tea free menu templates, you may only need to make a few tweaks to craft your dream menu design.