Tchai-Ovna House Of Tea
42 Otago Lane, Glasgow, 0141-357 4524
No lace doilies and no scones, but for people with an encyclopaedic knowledge of tea, this hippy-scented hideaway beside the river is hard to beat. Inside is a Moorish fantasy filled with cushions and hookahs; in summer you can sit in the garden. The menu offers more than 80 kinds of tea, though staff are mildly glazed and seem a little overprotective of the product; one sternly corrected my pronunciation of rooibos. Vegan food is available, but the real point of this place is tea in all its most subtle and esoteric flavours.
Anoushka Havinden via email
The Seabird Centre Cafe
The Harbour, North Berwick, 01620 890202
On a rocky promontory overlooking the Bass Rock, this a special place mainly due to its spectacular location. The food is a mix of reasonable 'light bites', good coffee and millionaires' shortbread, which is sublime. Don't sit inside - go on the outside deck, come rain or shine. Its location immediately on top of the rocks and overlooking the beach and sea means you're surrounded by the seaside without having to engage in sandy activity. Where else can you do a bit of whale-spotting or seal-watching while sipping a latte?
Lynn Kinnear London E2
Port Ban Coffee Bar
Kilberry, Tarbert, Argyll, 01880 770224
OK, so technically this calls itself a 'coffee bar', but it sells fine tea, cakes, scones and snacks, too. It also happens to have possibly the most breathtaking view of any tea-selling establishment in Scotland. Set in the Port Ban Caravan Park, one of the few stops on the spectacular coastal road on the west of the Kintyre peninsula, you get amazing panoramic views across miles of sea to the islands of Islay and Jura.
David Baker Tolworth, Surrey
Bradfords
245 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, 0141-332 5071
If the smell of Bradfords made my teeth nervous, then the pineapple soufflé - a wobbling mound of yellow cream coated in icing, atop a pastry base - had them screaming in protest. This camp confection was appropriately packed with sweet, synthetic fruitiness. Cakes, sandwiches and more substantial dishes are all made on site, but this is not a place for serious gourmets. It is old-school, lace-doily tea at its finest - the walls, if you licked them, would surely taste like the powder-pink icing of the delicious Chelsea buns. The best way to escape a Sauchiehall soaking on a grim autumn day.
May Rosenthal Glasgow
