This update on my trip to Glasgow is indeed what could be described as a “bit late”. My last day in the city started with a text message from a friends asking if I’d seen the announcement of the invasion of Ukraine (no, so on went BBC Breakfast) and a glance out of the window provided a view of heavy snow.

Ambitious plans for striding quickly around the city were put on hold.

First: an excellent breakfast, at Cafe Ronzio nextdoor to Mother India’s Cafe…

…followed by a careful walk along the slushy pavements into the city centre…

…where I found a small gathering of people on George’s Square protesting Putin’s actions in Ukraine.

There was an interview taking place and as the snow started to fall again I headed for GOMA – The Gallery of Modern Art. I love a terrible art gallery but sadly, this one wasn’t very terrible. There were various pieces in there that I really liked and I thought I was going to leave disappointed, until I spotted this:

Apparently, this reflects on women’s relationships with the body and the domestic environment.

I left and headed off for afternoon tea… and now, I am going to explain why this post is a little delayed. I really was not impressed with the afternoon tea and I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews, especially not when businesses are just starting to have a little more certainty during this pandemic.

But I’m not going to pretend I enjoyed it, either.

What I should have done was go to the Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street or any of the other traditional tea rooms that I had actually spent time in during my few days in Glasgow. However, I didn’t because I had liked the look of this menu, belonging to The Corinthian Club, when I had carried out an online search for afternoon tea in the city.

This sounded delicious – an interesting and varied menu – and I booked. I selected for the vegan menu but requested no vegan cheese as it really disagrees with me. No problem.

It’s a stunning venue – big on bling and ostentation. The Club’s origins as a bank are marked in the name of the room where afternoon tea was served – The Tellers’ Brasserie and Bar.

The staff were friendly and the service was good.

A glass of bubbly was poured while the afternoon tea was assembled at my table.

I’m not going to give this the usual plate-by-plate treatment I give to an afternoon tea because I was a little disappointed by how little it resembled the menu.

The savoury canapes were somewhat underwhelming though hot tomato soup on a snowy wintry day did hit the spot. I just thought the fried spring rolls (which tasted as if they were from a well known frozen food store rather than being made on premises) along with the olives-and-feta-on-a-stick seemed like a 1970s party food revival, and not in an ironic way.

Having said I couldn’t eat vegan cheese, I had not been expecting the sandwich fillings to be virtually all replaced with cheese. Yes there was a tomato and lettuce sandwich along with an egg mayonnaise offering but the plate did not match my expectations.

As for the dessert plate – the less said the better regarding the soggy pastry.

The scones? Well, for a start, there were two and this is always a win in my book, and they were served warm…and they didn’t crumble away to nothing when I cut them. One was plain and one flavoured with cinnamon – which was delicious.

So the scones were fab, the service was friendly, but when asked was it worth £33 my answer is: no, it really wasn’t. I haven’t included a link to the website as I really wouldn’t recommend it.

My other reason for delaying blogging about the Corinthian Club is that I’ve been waiting for about a week for a response from them since providing feedback (that they or at least their automated system requested).

If in Glasgow for afternoon tea, try Cup Tea (which I am reliably informed is excellent) or the Willow Tree Tea Rooms. If their breakfast is anything to go by, it won’t be disappointing.