For our last day in Windsor, Mos and I decided just to walk around and embrace the city one last time. The weather report was for a cloudy but bright day...now that's a forecast you don't hear every day.While walking down the cobble stone paths on Church Lane, we spotted Castle Hotel, a spot known for good cream tea. Cream tea is tea served with scones, clotted cream, and jam. It is commonly served in tea rooms throughout England.
Castle hotel is an elegant hotel that was orginally a coaching inn in the 16th century. The hotel's heritage was evident through the artistic paintings of British monarchs hanging throughout the foyer and lounge areas. This hotel houses the AA Rosette awarded restaurant, Restaurant 18. The restaurant was closed when we dropped in, so we ate in the Pennington lounge instead.
I wanted to order the cream tea, but I was just not in the mood for scones and cakes. I went with the egg salad sandwich on brown bread with darjeeling tea instead.
Mos followed suit with the sandwich, and ordered a ham and cheese sandwich with a coffee. The coffee was served with a citrus, nut, and date biscotti-like type biscuit. It was in the shape of a biscotti, but much chewier than normal biscotti.
We headed to the airport right after, and our light meals were just perfect for our journey home. Nothing too heavy.
I attended a banquet dinner at 
For the banquet dinner, our appetizer was the grilled halloumi cheese. It was served on roasted vegetables, accompanied by pimento and rocket oils. This was actually my first time ever having halloumi. The cheese was squeaking between my teeth when I was chewing on it...is that normal? It was a bit salty for my liking but it was good to try something new.
Our main was chicken filled with farce of crab meat in a light lobster butter & chervil cream sauce. This dish was pretty good even though I don't usually care for chicken dinners.
The veggie option was the wild mushroom & parmesan risotto served with grilled aubergine. I had taken a picture of this, but it got corrupted somehow. Fortunately, it didn't look very different from the chicken dish.
I picked out a raspberry tart for myself. When I finally got around to eating it, I literally inhaled it because it was so good. We didn't end up eating our dessert until after our dinner at 
I couldn't believe it but Mos picked out an old fashioned donut with sugar icing. I was a little perplexed as to why he chose that of all things, but he loved it.
My dinner was a slow roasted half shoulder of lamb in a red currant sauce. It was served with champ mash, veggies, and roasted shallots. The meal was absolutely fantastic. The lamb was excellently charred, and the red currant sauce went perfectly with the meat.
Mos was craving bangers and mash with a side of gravy. They didn't have it on their dinner menu, but the kitchen agreed to make it for us anyways. He loved his meal, and vowed to eat bangers and mash everytime he went to the UK. Their gravy was one of the best gravies we had ever had.
We figured you can't go to a pub in the UK and not order a beer. I'm not a beer drinker, so Mos took one for the team, and ordered a pint of Foster's. I made fun of him for ordering an aussie beer.
This is a great place to experience a real English pub. If you are a sports fan, Royal Oak has a sports bar with a large screen tv that shows all major sporting events.
Their tea list is quite extensive. They only list a select few on the main menu, but if you ask, they will pull out an extended list of their blended black teas and herbal infusions. Here are a few that I was debating on:
It was a hard choice but I finally chose the organic hibiscus tea. The words 'tangy' and 'enriched with vitamin C' caught my attention. It was a beautiful deep red color, and it had a sour and tart taste. Very fresh tasting.
I ordered the somerset brie and vine tomato sandwich to go with my tea. They ran out of malted brown bread, so I had no choice but to go with the white bread. The sandwiches were served with marinated olives, marinated capsicum, and regular potato crisps.
Mos, for some reason, was stuck on orange pekoe tea. They didn't have it on the menu, so he ordered a coffee instead. The coffee came with milk, sugar, and two festive shortbread cookies that were shaped like Christmas trees...how cute. He had a piece of carrot cake to go with his coffee.
We had a great afternoon, and the slow European pace was especially enjoyable for me. Windsor is a very charming little area that is great for eating and shopping.
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