Review: Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party is a small family owned independent cafe group who make it their mission to offer simple & well-prepared food and drinks. They make sure that all of their ingredients are ethically sourced, affordable, feel-good and excellent quality.  They use products sourced from the West Country and serve only free-range meat & eggs as well as 100% organic milk and meals made from scratch onsite every day.

I must admit I spent of lot of my student days in here, and was obsessed with their white hot chocolates.  Still popular with students today, and in a great location in central Exeter, it is always a buzz of activity.  I haven't been back since leaving college and I couldn't wait to try it and see if anything had changed!

When you first go inside it looks really small, but luckily there is a large seating area upstairs.  You have to order your drinks and food at the tills when you come in, then your food is brought to wherever you choose to sit.  The staff are all really friendly and casual which is really refreshing. Inside are really quirky and rustic chairs that don't match and a mish mash of tables, but it does somehow work. Upstairs has a selection of sofas as well as long tables, making it comforting and welcoming.

I ordered a Hot White chocolate, which was just as good as I remember! It was creamy and tastes just like the name suggests, white hot chocolate. They have a really varied menu, from breakfasts to sandwiches, afternoon tea and cakes. For my main I went for their "Ultimate Burger", Homemade West Country beef, burger topped with melted mature, cheddar, bacon jam, pickled, cucumber, leaves and chipotle, mayo, served with chips and homemade slaw and some pulled pork on top of the burger, just because I can!  The coleslaw was deliciously fresh and homemade, which I really enjoyed. The burger was succulent and really juicy, but the pulled pork was disappointing. It was really chewy and flavourless to the point where I "pulled" the pork out of the burger and left it.  As a massive fan of pulled pork, I have to say that I have been really spoilt with what I have eaten previously so I have high standards which today they didn't meet.  The fries were nice and crispy and there were plenty of them.

To finish off I have a salted caramel tart, which was divine!  Delicious chocolate tart on a biscuit base with a layer of caramel, topped off with slated caramel; it was heavenly but very very rich!

It was a really nice meal overall, even though the pork was disappointing.  I liked the atmosphere and it had still kept its strong student/relaxed vibe.

They have 13 cafes across the south west country and beyond, find your nearest one on their website
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