Tea for two...your mother and you

IF you are in Nottingham and combining a luxury afternoon tea with a shopping expedition, several traditional tea shops have emerged in the city centre.

None is more spectacular than Patisserie Valerie – a smart new café in the continental style and with the city's most spectacular cake window display.

You can do your homework on www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk and decide in advance whether the Earl Grey is going to come with cheesecake, tart, frangipane, mousse, éclair or gateau.

The café extends from the main dining room, with an entrance on Smithy Row, into the imposing Exchange Arcade.

Patisserie Valerie, Exchange Arcade, Nottingham NG1 2DD, tel 0115 958 4094.

WHITE Rabbit is a homely, traditional tea room slightly off the beaten track yet within a few seconds' walk of busy Lister Gate.

Hand-decorated cakes are the star turn at teatime, when scones, sandwiches and other goodies are available as well as soups and light luncheons.

The tea selection: Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Lady Grey, green tea, strawberry, Assam, English breakfast, chamomile honey and vanilla, jasmine, Red Bush, chamomile or peppermint.

The White Rabbit Teahouse, 12 Hounds Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AB, tel 0115 924 0227.

ANOTHER tea shop off the main shopping thoroughfares is Thea Caffea English Tea Room. It's down an alley just off Low Pavement and handy for Marks and Spencer, Lister Gate and the Broadmarsh Centre.

Offering traditional afternoon teas as well as light meals, Thea Caffea gets glowing reviews on Tripadvisor.

Thea Caffea, Enfield Chambers, off Low Pavement, Nottingham.

IF you have your eye on Homemade, Jasmin Barlow-Wilkinson's independent cafe in Pelham Street, you'll need to be sharpish. It closes early on Sundays, at 3.30pm.

Get there on time and traditional teas are available with fabulous cakes. Favourites include chocolate banana loaf and Victoria sponge.

Homemade, 20 Pelham Street, Nottingham, NG1 2EG.

ANOTHER more informal tea venue is Lee Rosy's in Broad Street, handy for Broadway cinema (where the Mother's Day matinees include Robot & Frank and Dirty Dancing).

Named, presumably, after the Cockney rhyming slang term for tea – Rosy Lea – the cafe offers a range of teas and coffees with superb home-made cakes, served by a young and friendly team.

Lee Rosy's Tea, 17 Broad Street, Nottingham NG1 3AJ.

IF you are venturing out of town and treating mum to a day in the spring countryside, Southwell is an obvious stop. The cakes at the Old Theatre Deli are all made especially for the independent eaterie. If you want to make sure your guest of honour goes home with a treat, visit the well-stocked deli counter before you leave.

Old Theatre Deli, 4 Market Place, Southwell, NG25 0HE. Telephone: 01636 815340

WITHIN a few minutes' drive of the minster town is Bleasby, where you will find the 18th-Century Manor Farm Tea Shoppe on the edge of the village.

Mothers' Day may come too early in the year for enjoying the tea garden but indoors you can expect to an array of traditional goodies. Proprietors Andrew and Caroline Goodwin have been finalists in Period Living & Traditional Homes magazine's Best of British Awards.

Manor Farm, Bleasby, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire NG14 7FX. www.manorfarmteashoppe.co.uk

TO the west of Nottingham is Mintons Tea Room next to Greasley Church.

Established in 1993 by Roger and Judy Martin, the award-winning business is located in the heart of picturesque D H Lawrence country.

The menu includes hot lunches, healthy salads, appetising snacks, homemade cakes and desserts and speciality cream teas.

Mintons Tea Room, Church Road, Moorgreen, Notts NG16 2AB.