J G Ross, Oldmeldrum

Today I went with The Mothers to J G Ross Bakery in Oldmeldrum for afternoon tea.

I live in Oldmeldrum so I am familiar with this place.  It can often be hit or miss but I am always keen to support the local shops and businesses in Oldmeldrum.  The cafe is a fairly new addition to Oldmeldrum, opening in September last year.  I have been on a few occasions, both for takeaway and sit in options, with varying success.

Unfortunately, this visit was not one of the better ones.

We arrived in the shop at around 2.30pm, perfect time to miss both the dinnertime rush and the after school customers, and were given menus and told to pick a seat by a rather somber member of staff.  Two out of the three booths were already occupied, we sat at the third.  The few other tables in the shop were empty.

Last time we were in, mum had spied the offer of afternoon tea on the menu so was keen to try this.  It costs £12.95 for two.  We waited quite a long time to be served, despite the place not appearing busy, however thee were only two members of staff there which seemed a little short for a bakery with cafe. We asked the young waitress if we could pay slightly more to make it for three people.  She seemed a little confused by this, but took our order nonetheless, asking which sandwiches we wanted.  Mum and I were not overly fussed, but mum-in-law is vegetarian so obviously asked for any available meat-free option.

We were brought cups of tea and coffee.  Unfortunately, there were wee blue bits in the tea!  It looked like teeny tiny bits of a J-Cloth.  Not ones to complain, The Mothers just picked them out.  I had coffee which was nicely made, however, the cup I was given was quite dirty.  Again, following in the footsteps of my companions, I just drank from the not-quite-so-dirty side.

We had a tower of goodies delivered to us.  The bottom tier was a mixture of chicken mayo and cheese sandwiches.  I'll admit, I found these options a little uninteresting and 'safe' but they were nonetheless lovely.  One of my favourite things about J G Ross is their brown bread.  Its lovely, soft, squashy, thickly cut and seedy, so I was pleased that some of the sandwiches were made on brown bread.  Scones were next up.  We had one plain, one fruit and one wholemeal.  They were of good size and lovely.

To my horror, each of the mothers put both butter and jam on theirs!  Ugh!  Who would want cloudy, salty jam?!

The traybakes on the top were plentiful, although, again, a little uninteresting.  They consisted of teeny pieces of rocky road, tiffin and a coconut slice.  It would have been nice to have something a little less chocolate-based, as these were all rather heavy and similar in texture.  I'll admit that I completely forgot to take a photo of the afternoon tea tower in all it's glory, however I did get one right at the end of the few traybakes which were left.

We paid at the till and were asked if we enjoyed our food.  In typical British fashion, 'yes, lovely' came out of our mouths.  The young lady perked up at that point, stating that she was pleased as it has been her and her colleagues first ever afternoon tea order, admitting that she couldn't remember exactly what was supposed to go on it.  We commended her for a job well done.  I have certainly been in a similar position myself and it means a lot to have a customer compliment you for an effort you have made.

No doubt I will be back, if only to keep another empty premises from appearing in the beautiful place I live.