Red Bus Bistro Afternoon Tea

18:00
August 4, 2021

After continuously seeing a voucher on Itision for an Afternoon Tea for 2 on the Red Bus Bistro, I couldn’t resist trying it out.

The Red Bus Bistro is a red vintage 1966 Routemaster double decker bus which has been converted in to hosting afternoon tea whilst driving around for some sightseeing through Edinburgh. You make a few stops along the way where it’s possible to stretch your legs and go outside for some photos. The whole tour is about 1 hour and 30 minutes and starts and finishes by Waterloo Place in central Edinburgh. There’s also the opportunity for photos in the drivers seat on one of the stops, which we couldn’t resist.

Afternoon Tea onboard the Red Bus Bistro

Because of the moving nature of the experience, the tea or coffee was served in reusable plastic take away cups that were placed int he cupholder on the table. There was not any options of different teas, only standard British breakfast tea.

It was a very hot day when we went along to the Red Bus Bistro and first impression of the food was that it had been sitting out for quite some time and was almost melting away which wasn’t the most appealing start to the journey. There was an interesting selection of food and the scones were prepared already with clotted cream and jam. The scones almost had more of a soft roll consistency, rather than crumbly but were still very nice. The sweets involved a berry tart and carrot cake.

I believe people that are booking through Itison by default get put on the bottom floor, unless you pay extra for other seats. It did seem as if the guests on the top floor were prioritised and we were left without much service, which was a shame as we were considering buying an extra glass of sparkling wine during the trip but never really got the chance.

Overall it was quite a fun trip, but because of service and first impression of the food I would probably recommend another afternoon tea unless you pay the extra for the better seats upstairs, go on a less hot day and don’t book through Itison so that the service might be better. The ladies upstairs seemed to have quite a good time and kept the sparkling wine flowing so I’m sure they enjoyed it slightly more than we did. I was just a little bit disappointed by the overall experience as I had really been looking forward to it and my expectations fell short.