Abbottslee:
Abbottslee Tearooms are situated on the main road on the Northern end of town (34 Great North Road).
I’m not sure why they are called ‘Tea rooms’ as that to me conjures up dainty little images of drinking cups of tea with maybe a scone with raspberry jam and cream on…
But in my opinion, Abbottslee is more a ‘Restaurant’ than a ‘Tea Rooms’.
Abbotslee is one of the older houses in town, so it has that lovely old world character. It is set in lovely gardens with roses and big trees, wisteria around the verandah, lawns with tables and umbrellas… It’s just a beautiful place to be.
I drive past Abbotslee every day on my way to work and I love to see what interesting shapes Bill has clipped his topiary bushes into – it really appeals to the sculptor side of me – and he changes them from time to time
I don’t know how Bill and Julie have time to run this very successful restaurant and to keep up the beautiful gardens but it is a real credit to them.
Bill’s food is not fiddly little French cuisine with tiny portions on fiddly little plates decorated artistically in a swirl of sauce.
Nor does it bend towards the trendy ‘what’s in vogue’ café type food.
His meals are REAL meals.
Real = traditional, wholesome, perhaps a little old-fashioned (in a good way Bill! – I’m certainly not being critical) and VERY TASTY!
Perhaps the ‘old-fashionedness’ of the food is something that is in character with being in this lovely old house, or, perhaps people like it because it reminds them of an era gone by.
A lot of people already know about Bill’s lovely meals as often as I pass by I see cars parked all the way down the street, and buses too.
