When you’re greeted by a gigantic Christmas tree, a bough of mistletoe, a pianist and a saxophonist playing Christmas classics when you walk into a hotel foyer, you know you’re in for a festive stay.
That was the scene I was met with as I stepped inside The Angel Hotel in Abergavenny last weekend, while a warming apple and fig aroma wafted up my nose.
Hotel of the Year for Wales 2016/17
Named Hotel of the Year for Wales 2016/17 at the recent AA Hospitality Awards, The Angel Hotel has built up a strong reputation in Abergavenny. Guests are reported to travel from as far afield as America to experience the award-winning afternoon tea at The Angel Hotel.
The hotel is perfectly located for visiting Abergavenny’s many boutique and independent shops, including the Market Hall, as well as exploring Abergavenny Castle and the beautiful grounds of the nearby Brecon Beacons National Park. It’s also the perfect base for anyone looking to attend the annual Abergavenny Food Festival in September – the largest, longest running food festival in Wales.
Classy yet comfortable rooms
The check-in process was efficient and welcoming, with an offer of a wake-up call and complimentary newspapers for the following morning.
My room upheld my expectations of the classy, plush rooms I tend to associate with hotels of this calibre, while also managing to be comfortable and casual.
A super king wine green leather bedstead was made up with a crisp, cosy white duvet and pillows that you just sink into. Lying on the bed felt like what I imagine laying on a cloud would feel like.
A pretty pink orchid sat on a mahogany wooden desk, in front of a large mirror, sandwiched between two tall windows draped with pale grey voiles and heavy beige tweed curtains.
If I was here for a longer stay, I’d have enjoyed storing my clothes in the enormous wardrobe…
…not to mention snuggling up on the cushioned sofa to watch my favourite TV programmes with a hot cup of tea.
The bathroom was equally impressive, boasting a large monsoon shower, spacious sink and luxurious toiletries.
After settling into my room, I tucked into freshly baked shortcrust mince pies and hot, spiced mulled wine courtesy of the hotel. I would normally have ordered something more substantial from the room service menu (just reading it made my tummy rumble!), but I was due to go for high tea at 5pm.
Festive afternoon tea at The Angel Hotel
Afternoon tea at The Angel Hotel is a big deal. They really know a thing or two about how to brew the perfect cup of tea. Only one of few hotels outside London to have received an Award of Excellence from the Tea Guild (considered the Oscar of the tea and cake world), the hotel won the coveted Top City and County Hotel Tea Award in 2011 and has held a Tea Guild Award of Excellence since 2008.
Our festive high tea consisted of three tiers of freshly cut triangular sandwiches, sweet treats and hot savouries, served with a selection of fine teas including Sri Lankan ‘Rainforest Lumbini’ and Himalayan ‘Darjeeling First Flush’. Experiences like this highlight how important professional tools, such as cream chargers for restaurants, can be in delivering desserts and drinks that look and taste the part.
Freshly made on-site on both white and brown bread, crusts removed, the sandwiches consisted of pickled cucumber with cream cheese, salmon and dill, turkey and cranberry, and egg mayonnaise.
The sweet layer consisted of fresh cream pastries, cakes and bakes. Highlights included a black cherry chocolate yule log, mince pies topped with brandy cream, strawberry meringue and a fresh cream custard eclair topped with coffee-infused icing.
Meanwhile, the hot savouries included the likes of ham hock terrine, mustard-glazed chipolata and coronation chicken vol-au-vent.
I went on to share a fresh cream and jam scone with my friend and fellow blogger, Jamie of Explore With Ed, followed by a few mouthfuls of fruit trifle.
At £30 per head, festive afternoon tea at The Angel Hotel certainly isn’t cheap, but it is delicious and it would make for a lovely Christmas catch-up with friends or family, or the ideal gift for someone special. The festive afternoon tea is available until 30th November, but it won’t be available on 24th-26th December, 31st December or 1st January. Gluten-free, veggie and vegan afternoon teas are available upon request.
The Foxhunter Bar
After our indulgent afternoon tea, I waddled around the hotel taking photos with Jamie. We stopped for a drink in The Foxhunter Bar; with wood panel walling and an authentic log fire, this looks exactly like the kind of place I picture when I imagine a traditional, old-world tavern. This bar serves just about everything you could possibly want to drink, from wines, spirits and liqueurs to beers, ales and ciders.
Swiss fondue dinner in the Aprés Ski Bar
At around 8.30pm, we re-grouped in The Angel’s pop-up Aprés Ski Bar for a traditional Swiss fondue evening meal.
We warmed ourselves up with hot mulled wine at the bar, which also stocks a range of German beers, local spirits, hot drinks and festive cocktails, as well as festive snacks like sausage rolls and mince pies.
Dunking boiled potatoes and fresh, crusty bread into hot cheese fondue, I felt like I was sat in an alpine ski lodge somewhere in Switzerland, rather than a courtyard of a hotel in Abergavenny!
I’m not even going to try to put into words how much I enjoyed the cheese fondue. I’ll just let this hilarious photo taken by Jamie do the talking! 😀
After polishing off the cheese fondue, I’m ashamed to admit that we had dessert. I don’t know how we found the room for it, but we nibbled on a flaky, sweet Swiss apple tart topped with vanilla ice cream. It was just too good to resist!
The Aprés Ski Bar makes The Angel Hotel the perfect venue for a festive getaway. The bar is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout December, with the Swiss cheese fondue served every Thursday evening. I am told booking is essential, so better call in advance to reserve your space – I can’t imagine how gutted I’d be if I had to miss out on this!
To get a taste for how The Angel’s offering compares to a festive feast at an traditional alpine ski resort, check out this post on the Julbord at Romme Alpin ski resort in Dalarna, Sweden.
Breakfast worth getting up for
After an amazing night’s sleep, I awoke and got dressed and went for breakfast, which is served from 7am until 10am in the elegant Wedgewood room, or in The Foxhunter Bar up until 12pm. You can actually order breakfast to your room if you like, but I was keen to see the dining room. Having scoured the room service menu, I knew the breakfast would be well worth getting up for!
While I deliberated over what to order from the hot food menu, I was invited to help myself to fresh pastries, cereal, fruit and yoghurt. As I was already nursing a food baby after feasting on savouries, sweet treats and scrumptious melted cheese the night before, I politely declined. Although tempting as it was to order a full English breakfast, I opted for the less indulgent option of Eggs Royale, along with a rich, creamy latte to perk me up.
Within less than ten minutes, I was tucking into fresh smoked salmon sitting atop two toasted muffins, smothered in tangy hollandaise sauce. At just £8, this was very reasonably priced in comparison to some other hotel breakfasts I’ve experienced.
A festive stay to remember
Short but very sweet, my stay at The Angel Hotel couldn’t have been better. I left the hotel feeling well and truly ready for Christmas. I’m sure the hotel is just as lovely to stay throughout the entire year, and I would be delighted to return at any time in the future. Afternoon tea at The Angel Hotel certainly lived up to my high expectations, and I loved the classy-yet-cosy feel of my room.
In fact, I almost ended up visiting Abergavenny again this weekend for the Abergavenny Christmas Fair, but sadly it was cancelled due to heavy snow. The organisers of the fair have now started a campaign to encourage people to buy festive food and edible gifts from the independent producers directly, so all their extra stock won’t end up going to waste this Christmas. You can shop the range of available produce here.
You can book a room at The Angel Hotel from £95 per night. To book an overnight stay or afternoon tea, please contact the hotel directly using the below details.
The Angel Hotel
15 Cross St
Abergavenny
NP7 5EN
01873 857 121
www.angelabergavenny.com
What qualities do you look for when booking a hotel room? Do you love afternoon tea as much as I do?
This post made me feel so festive! I want to stay there too! I think I’d also have a similar face after eating that cheese fondue too lol. I love the look of the bathrooms there. It’s usually the first thing I check with hotels to make sure they’re all nice & clean.
haha, you will not believe how much me and my friend laughed over that photo. It was a funny moment! Glad you enjoyed the review.
I’ve been to my fair share of afternoon tea’s and I have to admit this one looks great. The rooms like awesome too, no wonder the hotel has won an award x
They totally deserve the Tea Guild Award of Excellence, that’s for sure.
These looks delightful I love a good afternoon tea. The sandwiches and cakes look to die for
I especially loved the black cherry chocolate yule log – mmmm!
I have never been to an Afternoon Tea because I’m quite fussy with my food and I have allergies but I really want to try one. This hotel looks incredible, I can see why it won the title and I’d love to stay here
Aww that’s a shame. You should contact this hotel – I bet they’d be able to cater for you.
This look truly fabulous! I love the fact that they give you Aromaetherapy Associates products as they’re so great for relaxing and the scents are amazing! The smoked salmon and eggs had my mouth watering, what a perfect breakfast – great choice. I also liked the idea of a sofa in the bedroom to add another element of comfiness, like you said, to snuggle up on!
I hadn’t heard of the brand before, but they were lovely – really foamy and luxurious on my skin.
I love afternoon tea so much and this one looks lovely. I also love the shortcrust mince pies and hot, spiced mulled wine welcome from the hotel in your room. It is those little touches that go a long way x
I really appreciated that, too – it made me feel like a valued guest!
Oh me oh my, that looks like an amazing day out. The food looks delicious
The food was a real highlight of my stay 😀
Your photos make me want to visit there so bad! Especially those afternoon tea and pastries, omg just share with me! haha. Beautiful hotel.
Haha, glad you liked it 😀 It is an amazing afternoon tea experience
I love how the hotel is decorated for Christmas, it also looks so cosy and relaxing too. I need to go here one day
I thought it looked lovely too, so festive and welcoming.
Oh wow this looks absolutely amazing!! What a gorgeous place for afternoon tea, there really is nothing nicer!
I love afternoon tea, always such a lovely indulgent treat 🙂
I haven’t been to Abergavenny for years – think the last time was the food festival in 2006! I would love to to visit The Angel – that afternoon tea looks superb. You really do eat with your eyes don’t you and the cups and china is as pretty as the food.
I bet you’d love it! I only started going to Abergavenny recently, but I do really like the town – it’s great if you love food 🙂
That sounds like such a lovely stay! The afternoon tea looks incredible!
It was amazing, highly recommended!
This looks like such a lovely experience around Christmas, a bed makes the hotel for me, got to have a good nights sleep for the next day. The afternoon tea looks yummy too! X
The bed was unbelievably comfy. Loved it!
The hotel itself sounds and looks great. I normally do afternoon teas in London but this one sounds like it’s good too.
I love the look of the afternoon teas in London, especially the Beauty and the Beast one!
Your pictures look truly amazing of the afternoon tea and actually made me hungry lol I love the look of this hotel and will bear it in mind if I go to Wales x x
It’s so nice here, I’ve just bought an afternoon tea voucher here for my mum’s Christmas present!
Well I was going to start off by saying “what a lovely looking hotel” Then I saw that sumptuous afternoon tea…. then the fondue……then the eggs. I so NEED to go and stay here as it fulfills ALL my dreams!
Haha, it just kept getting better and better!
Mmm yum that looks amazing, I especially like the idea of the alpine lodge restaurant. I used to take dancing lessons at the Angel and I know a friend is booked in there for NYE. The afternoon tea looks amazing!
Oh, small world! I never knew they taught dancing lessons there. I bet it will be really special spending NYE there.
What a lovely festive afternoon tea. A good selection of cakes there too which is always good.
It was superb! I’ve just treated my mum to afternoon tea here for Christmas. She doesn’t know yet!
Oh my goodness that food! It looks amazing and I am so hungry now lol x
It was so good. I’d love to have lunch or dinner here, as I’m sure it would be delicious.
What a beautiful {& very festive} hotel! I do love a hotel that feels like a home away from home!
It’s a lovely hotel – I’ve just bought an afternoon tea voucher for my mum for Christmas.