Sitting on top of the Ashmolean Museum, Benugo rooftop restaurant has the perfect position for a bright and bubbly afternoon tea. With one wall completely made of glass, light streams in and gives the place a cafe vibe which leaves guests feeling able to enjoy a casual and relaxed meal.

Living in a cost-of-living crisis, afternoon tea can seem like an extravagant expense. However, we feel this afternoon tea is good value for £25.00 (+£5 for a glass of Prosecco). The Prosecco was delicious and in our opinion and well worth the additional cost!

The portion sizes are on the ‘lighter’ side when compared to other afternoon teas but we don’t see that as a bad thing, you leave satisfied but still able to move! The afternoon tea is served from 3pm and is clearly a very popular choice for many, the restaurant was full of others enjoying it. If you’re booking ahead, we’d recommend asking for a round table (particularly if you’re opting for the afternoon tea) as we were a three on a small square table and it felt a little cramped.

On a less rainy day, they have a lovely outside terrace which would be the perfect place for a social gathering.

The crockery is very ‘instagrammable’ and suitably English, there was a good choice of teas available, including a rather interesting Blood Orange Rooibos. We weren’t completely sure about the refill situation but did get a refill towards the end – you may need to be proactive in asking!

We started with the sandwich layer, despite observing many people actually mix the savoury and sweet layers (can you imagine?!). There were four savoury options: two of which had dill as a main ingredient which as a non-dill lover was a bit of a disappointment, saying that though we were impressed with having a variety of bread which included:

The brioche needed a bit more filling but the flavour of the chicken was delicious, the truffle mayonnaise subtle. The Oxford Blue Tart was tiny but perfectly made, beautiful pastry – the blue cheese was delicate, the filling had more of a quiche texture and egg taste but the caramelised onion added a lovely strong flavour.

Our first stop on the cake layer was the orange and cardamom brownie which was much more of a cake texture. The orange was a lovely addition, sharp and palette-cleansing as was the Raspberry and Lemon tart which packed a punch and was equally enjoyable. The artisan macaroons were interesting flavours, ginger and Nutella but weren’t standout, they were however visually appealing!

Lastly, we had the tea-infused scone. It was very slightly over-baked but had a really nice bite, still slightly warm in the middle and served with a cute Tiptree strawberry jam pot and traditional English clotted cream.

It ticks a lot of boxes; price, location, Instagram-able aesthetics, and is somewhere you can rock up in casual attire but for some, it’ll lack the special edge in terms of ambience and attentive service.

For those who don’t have a sweet tooth, the meat and cheese sharing boards looked exceptional and they also had a main menu you can order from.

Overall, we left having had an enjoyable experience that we would have been happy to have paid for which I think is as good a recommendation as any. You’d be hard-pushed to find somewhere serving an afternoon tea as flavoursome as this for the same price in central Oxford.

The Ashmolean Rooftop
Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont St, Oxford OX1 2PH
www.benugo.com/restaurants/rooftop-restaurant