Oxo’s at the Mount Royale has a few steps up to the front door but nothing the two of us found tricky to carry Baby Fork’s pram up. I was very taken with the building and gardens on our last visit for Sunday lunch a while back and was pleased to find us seated in a comfortable drawing room at low sofas that gave the perfect ambience for leisurely indulgence.

The Afternoon Tea offering here certainly leaves nothing on the table, so to speak. The breadth and quantity on offer put many other offerings to shame and took a little bit of ingenuity to squeeze onto the table! Our place settings were pre laid with a bag of crisps on which to munch before we started proper with a sweet passion fruit milk shake. The sandwiches included usual suspects such as egg mayonnaise and ham & tomato but the Coronation chicken was good enough to justify swiping Mrs Fork’s portion as well as my own.

Scones of course came with generous amounts of clotted cream & jam, hitting the expected high standard. These were quickly dispensed with, allowing us to get into the serious business of cakes. The cake selection was impressively broad and inventive featuring various flavours of macarons, Battenberg, brownie, cup cakes and an Eton mess. I have to admit that the selection overwhelmed us, though this was a function of their quantity rather than any lack of commitment on our half. Leftovers were happily packaged to take home and even more happily shared with a neighbour.

For £19.95 a head, this is a something of a conspicuous bargain, just as much so at £26.95 with a glass of something appropriately cold and fizzy. Not only does that get you the fabulous afternoon tea but also licence to explore the beautiful gardens attached to the establishment. Afternoon tea might not be my most favoured meal, but this was an exceptionally pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Baby Fork is still working on her walking but we’ll certainly bring her back in the summer to explore those gardens on the back of more sweet treats in the summer.

Disclaimer: No charge was made for our attendance. Opinions are impartial.

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Minor pronunciation-based confusion aside, it’s not too hard to find Bicis y Mas on Walmgate; the latest addition to the street’s food scene comes from a slightly oblique trajectory. A bike shop and workshop that offers vegetarian food and continental beers (‘bikes and more’, literally) situated in the former GA White’s furniture store feels a slightly worrying collection of specialities to fill.

We popped up early on a Saturday morning for breakfast and made a couple of easy choices to have a standard vegetarian breakfast and some spiced beans on toast.

Service was a little bit on the slow side but when the food appeared, it was clear that the presentation and fresh preparation took a little bit of time. In the interim, a well balanced Americano and an Earl Grey tea (loose leaf) kept us ticking over despite my partner’s difficulties with the mechanics of the teapot.

The vegetarian breakfast was pleasingly hearty and varied in taste. A brace of perfectly fried eggs topped bubble n’ squeak, veggie sausage and a hash of tomato and mushroom while toast was served on the side (a mix of granary and white). The bubble n’ squeak was excellent, fried to a perfect crust and consistently tasty. It missed the pleasingly unpredictable nature of Sunday roast B&S leftovers, but this was a moist pleasure. Vegetarian sausages were a touch less overwhelmingly successful: butternut squash, sage and onion came through but none strongly enough to really replace a more porcine offering. I’m still trying to place the flavour, but this was the one element which felt notably inferior to its fleshy counterpart. Tomato and mushroom chunks complemented everything well to negate the need for other sauces and I left satisfied. Those eggs in particular were notable. I’d not want to fight a hen laying eggs with yolks that size!

Spiced baked beans was a more straightforward dish, though not to the detriment of flavour. Lemongrass flavours made their way through from the more generic spice and marked out an adventurously spiced portion. It was perhaps a touch too much so for my taste but (as mentioned before) that reflects me as much as the dish.

The coffee was good, tea was good and came with an offering of lemon or milk, loose tea portions being left to one’s own devices to infuse (unless you get confused… ), so everything worked. Having a sniff around the bikes, I found them more sensibly priced than I’d feared too.

That name though. I can’t help but think that easy pronunciation of one’s name should be a priority when opening a new place. As we were leaving, we asked the staff how it should be pronounced and got a very mixed response. Still, if you can manage to arrange the meeting point and are open to vegetarian food, you’re onto a winner with Bicis y Mas.

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