brunch & tea on samedi

Met with a couple girlfriends for brunch on Saturday at the beach-side location of JACK N JILL'S, a popular little place apparently known for its muffins and its egg masterpieces. All I had was a flavored coupa with rice milk, but what my friends ordered looked "formidable," as the French say.

My coffee was flavored hazelnut, and though it made me slightly ill (I didn't realise rice milk had dairy...is that dumb?), it tasted good before that! I won't fault them for their food, either, which was large-portioned and tasty to my fasting eye (I had to abstain, as I had already made food plans with another friend for just two hours later). The only disappointing peccadillo of my brief stay at JJ's, then, was their lack of a recycling bin. They were serving green tea at the door and invited their patrons to promptly garbage their plastic, eco-unfriendly cups. And for a place that had ORGANIC stamped on everything, I just expected a wider-cast net of earth-love. Apparently organic is just a trend and not a way of life to Jack n Jill's. So be it; I'll bring my own cup next time.

After my non-brunch, I walked the pier with Connecticut and her friend British Visitor. We did a little shopping then stepped into YE OLDE KINGS HEAD for high tea. Yes, high tea. (You see that? I will be international no matter where I stay.) Though the selection of teas was minimal (Earl Grey, Darjeeling or English Breakfast), the most important three were there, and the selection of mini sandwiches and bite-sized cakes that followed complimented our tea choices grandly.

We were seated in a room with very low leather booths whose walls were deep red and paneled into sections that celebrated a few prolific kings of England's royal history. It all felt very authentic, and with British Visitor there to verify both our meal and our surroundings, it almost felt like a history class, or at least a brief seminar on British culture, but better, because there was food. And so I tried everything, even the sandwich of cheese and pickle spread (it was good). The tea was complete--with raisin scones, jam and Devonshire cream, as well as egg sandwiches, cucumber cheese sandwiches and both Battenberg marzipan and Victoria sponge cake--and it left us completely stuffed. Luckily, we were able to walk it off up and down the promenade for the rest of the afternoon.

BRUNCH: http://www.eatatjacknjills.com/
IN FIVE: (can I really rate it if I didn't eat there?) 3.5/5

TEA: http://www.yeoldekingshead.com/
IN FIVE: 4/5 Definitely worth giving a try.