Bottomless Afternoon Tea at Exchange

If there’s one thing you need on a Sunday, it’s tiny sandwiches and cakes as far as the eye can see. Happily, the Exchange are here to meet that need to you with their Bottomless Afternoon Tea, every Sunday for just £25 per person.

Feeling special

We were invited down to sample the inaugural Bottomless Sunday for ourselves and it was simply delightful. A table full of retro, mismatched crockery awaited us in the Exchange’s airy, light bar area. We were served up with a pot of tea and one of coffee when we arrived, as well as a glass of Prosecco to kick things off.

A cake stand of tiny sandwiches and petit fours was the next thing to arrive at the table. The finger sandwiches were made with a very soft, light ciabatta. They had a mixture of fillings, including a fragrant mozzerella, basil and red pesto, one with a gorgeous savoury prosciutto and another with homemade guacamole which had a lovely kick to it. And of course as it is a Bottomless Sunday when you’ve finished your sandwiches, you can always ask for some more! Which naturally we did, because they were incredibly tasty.

On the table are generous servings of butter, jam, clotted cream and fresh chopped strawberries ready for you to adorn your scones in your chosen fashion. I’m very much a jam then cream kinda girl, which is apparently the Cornish way. It’s the only way which makes logical sense if you ask me. The fresh baked scones had a lovely crumbly texture and a buttery flavour, they were totally perfect. I just wish that I had the capacity to eat more than one, but unfortunately my stomach doesn’t work that way.

On to the petit fours, delicious mouthfuls of sweet delight. The macarons were delicately flavoured and had just the right combination of lightness and chewy centre. In addition there were coffee chocolate sponges, chocolate truffles, teeny tiny raspberry tarts and more besides. And, did I mention? Bottomless. All the tiny cakes your heart desires. I managed to squeeze in a second serving of them. Squeeze was the operative word as our table was getting rather crowded at this point. I had to eat the petit fours so that they could clear one of the cake stands away to make more space. It was an act of public service if anything.

And of course if you run out of tea or coffee, just ask for some more. My glass of Prosecco was certainly bottomless and quite frankly there can be no better wine match for tiny cakes than a good Italian sparkling wine. Soft drinks and house wine are also available and bottomless for the duration of your stay between 12.30pm and 3pm.

Attentive staff with a fantastic attitude, a convivial atmosphere and a prime location in the heart of Leicester’s Cultural Quarter make this an absolutely divine treat for a Sunday afternoon. You have to book in advance though, and as places are limited I recommend getting in there quickly. This baby is going to be popular for a long, long time.