Bettys Café Tea Rooms Harlow Carr — Restaurant in England

I took two very old friends to Harlow Carr yesterday (November 4th) as one of them had her birthday on that day. She and I have been to Betty's regularly since about 1956 - firstly at the shop in central Harrogate long before it moved into the current building at the top of Parliament Street, and more recently but regularly since it was built, to Harlow Carr. She is now quite badly disabled and cannot walk without a physical aid. We were given a table in the Coffee Shop as usual because we always just have a hot drink and either cinnamon toast and/or toasted teacake. Yesterday to our amazement we were told on ordering exactly this for all three of us that we had to move to the Restaurant as hot food had never been available in the Coffee Shop. This was so blatantly untrue that we were all completely taken aback, and although I explained our longstanding experience in the Coffee Shop I was made to feel that I was lying. Too many staff seemed very new and unsure of what I was saying. I've been used to Bettys for most of my life and found this experience extremely uncomfortable and rather sad in terms of the current state of Bettys presentations. The toast and teacake were both very much smaller and less genuinely tasty than they used to be; the coffee is OK but frankly has for some time now been outshone by some of the coffee chains. I feel that too many people go to Bettys because of its very good longstanding reputation which is quickly being dumbed down amongst several friends of mine for all the same reasons. It's a real shame that this has happened and that public relations have declined so badly andinsensitively. I really used to love Bettys. I will still go to Harlow Carr for the sake of my disabled friend who rarely goes far from the house unless I go over from York to take her out. My husband and I occasionally visit the Northallerton Bettys which we find far more down-to-earth, friendly, unpretentious and overall a real tea shop in every sense, and possibly in the original...

It’s been a number of years since we’ve been to Betty’s at Harlow Carr! So we decided to make a change; rather than go to the York cafe (which we go frequently!), we’d come here instead!

Once we parked in the car park, we made our way to a friendly lady who directed us to the queue to the entrance. She mentioned it would be 15 minutes wait. It didn’t bother us as the view of the gardens were beautiful!

Once we got a table, we sat in awe of the view! It was by the window which had a beautiful view! We were greeted by a friendly waitress who took our drinks order. We perused the menu in the meantime! Normally, we have afternoon tea but we wanted to try the other dishes. The waitress came with our drinks and then took our lunch order!

It didn’t take long before the food came. It was well presented and delicious. We were also given some chutney to compliment the meal!

During our time, another waitress came and asked if we wanted to buy anything from the shop. She could take our order to save us queuing. We thought that was a great service and that she would bring us the goodies!

We made room for desserts and picked the Brown bread ice cream sundaes! That didn’t disappoint! There were chunks of brown bread that tasted caramelised. The toffee sauce was delicious as were the pecans! The whipped cream was very light! We were full by then!!

I would definitely recommend a trip here for breakfast/brunch/lunch/afternoon tea. You won’t be disappointed. The staff are friendly and efficient; and the atmosphere is perfect! Tables were safely spaced and we didn’t...

My toasted muffin, soggy and barely seen any toasting. It Couldn’t handle the scrambled egg and was all soggy.

Tuff inedible woody spinach with a slight crust?!?! Both in the vegan brekkie and the extra portion I ordered.

Vegan brekkie felt dumped and piled on plate. Far too much spice, overwhelming. Beans claggy and swamped on plate, no ramakin or serving finesse.

Smoked salmon I expected in my scrambled egg was thin ribbons, similar to Gravalax. It was in fact very salty overpowering chunks and flakes of smoked pocked salmon and incredibly salty.

Aubergine looked like crispy bacon, vinegary and tuff.

Overall I feel their menu needs to be more descriptive.

We never ever send food back to the kitchen. And in a packed room with people in close proximity, trying to enjoy their Xmas eve. I wasn’t about to start a negative conversation with the staff. Our view is. For the prices you pay here, someone in the kitchen or in the serving team should be more than capable of spotting a raw muffin. Woody dry spinach. Or a piled plate of vegan slop.

Been to many bettys since 1970’s, this was awful.

Christmas Eve, not any decoration or sense of occasion at our end of the restaurant. Literally not one clue it was Xmas. One Large Xmas tree with no lights on it. And a large double pram buggy parked in front of it.

Xmas eve treat, set off 6.45am to be first on the queue....