The Bantam Tea Rooms & Guest House — Restaurant in Cotswold District

Absolutely incredible gluten free scones (and customer service)

We stumbled across this bakery in Chipping Campden, and I wasn’t really hoping for much more than a cuppa and a chocolate brownie if I was lucky. My sister isn’t celiac but always tries her hardest to find places that accommodate me and has seen me experience some really really awful gluten free food.

I was delighted when I saw the cake selection which included gluten free lemon drizzle and gluten free chocolate cake, but then my heart did a little skip when the guy serving us told me there were gluten free scones, plain AND fruit. Only celiacs will understand the rollercoaster of emotions here 😂 I asked him, ‘please be honest with me, if the scones are not good I will just order the chocolate cake, as you can’t go wrong there’. He replied, ‘I’ve worked in a few bakeries and these gluten free scones are the absolute best, they sell out regularly’ - so at this point, my excitement levels and expectations are somewhere in the clouds.

Another lady cake out five mins later and said ‘I’m so sorry, we just sold our last gluten free scone. However, there is a fresh batch about 30mins off, and trust me, they are worth the wait’... so I had the time, and we had a little Prosecco while we waited... eagerly!!

They finally came, and they were everything I dreamed of! 😂 I’ve had some decent gf scones and some shockingly bad ones. These were exquisite. I went back the next day (today) to order some more for my freezer. I asked for the recipe, which they wouldn’t hand over - ha! I don’t blame them, that is a secret I would never give away if I owned it!! Absolutely fabulous and gorgeous staff/ team there too.

Also, for the record, the “normal” cakes looked amazing too and my sisters scone was also very good.

I...

This review is of the Tea Room only We only spent a morning in Chipping Camden. We had an early start and had been driving around so a cooked breakfast was in order. We picked the Bantham Tea Rooms simply because it was on the high street and looked a nice traditional cafe. We were very happy we chose this place. The cooked breakfast was fantastic. As an Irishman I do love a cooked breakfast, with the amazing produce in Ireland I do have high standards. Every time we visit a rural area in the UK we always get a cooked breakfast to test the local produce. The Bantham did not let us down, everything on the plate was of a high standard, specifically the sausages and bacon (which we found out later are locally sourced, as you would hope). The food was all cooked very well, and served with door stop sized slices of home-made bread. We really enjoyed it. I am a huge coffee fan, to my tastes the coffee in here was a fairly weak. As others have mentioned, service is a little on the slow side but I had no issue with that. I live in London were everything is done at 100 miles per hour. I was in the countryside to relax so was happy to sit in the quaint café and relax. I have found the service to be similar in many rural areas, its something to enjoy rather than complain about, a different pace of life. We were served by the lady that runs the café, she was very warm and polite.

If we ever wander back this way we would certainly eat here again....

This place deserves to go out of business.

The place is run by teenagers who seem openly hostile to the customers.

We entered and immediately felt like the staff resented us for bothering them for tea on a Sunday afternoon. They never brought us any menus -- I had to go grab one from the hosting station. I then had to go ask them to come take our order. When our tea arrived and I poured my cup, a wilted piece of salad flowed from the teapot into my cup. Disgusting! When we asked for a replacement pot, there was a bunch of yelling between the staff. Furthermore, when I looked into the kitchen through a plexiglass window, the floor was filthy. We then had to hunt them down to pay, at which point they had the gall to ask if we had enjoyed our tea.

Another reviewer hypothesized that the staff may be racist. This might play some role in my experience because some of our party were Asian, but no one in the restaurant looked happy with their experience, so don't count on having a good time just because you have white skin.

This place obviously survives on the tourists like us who don't know that the place is terrible. There are some really great tea places in Chipping Campden. This place really should go out of business so someone who actually wants to run a tea house...