Bettys Café Tea Rooms

The Yorkshire tea room since 1936, with a fat rascal, a queue and a mirror signed by wartime airmen.

Bettys is a Yorkshire institution: Swiss-influenced cakes, the fat rascal scone, afternoon tea in a room modelled on the Queen Mary liner, and in the basement a mirror scratched with the names of airmen stationed nearby in the war. The queue is part of the experience; it moves. Indoors, central, and a good wet-afternoon reward.

When it works

Indoors, so the weather does not matter. Best morning, afternoon.

Good for a first visit, kids and a date.

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Opening hours and prices change; the official site has the current ones. See everything in York ranked for right now.