Katherine MacAlister joins the queue to enjoy soup and sandwiches Blenheim's revamped canteen

Have you been to the Ai Weiwei exhibition at Blenheim Palace yet?

There’s still time. It runs until December 14 and is well worth a visit. For a start you get to see inside the palace, which is always worth a punt, the contemporary Chinese artist having designed set pieces for each of the rooms, some of which you can spot instantly, others you have to search for.

It’s a brilliant meeting of worlds, a fascinating project and a vibrantly clever concept.

But once we’d finished gaping in awe at Weiwei’s fascinating understanding of a culture so far removed from his own, his passport having been taken away by the Chinese government in 2011, and the beauty and intelligence of his work, we found we were rather peckish, and gazing out at the pouring rain decided to stay put and eat in the palace cafe The Oxfordshire Pantry.

Having been recently revamped and stuck on the end of the new and impressive shop, one of the last Duke’s major projects, like so many of these public spaces the cafe is run as a self-service canteen-style arrangement which is one of my pet hates, but hey ho.

So we duly gathered our trays and pushed them disconsolately around the metal runners, stopping at the sandwich section for an egg and cress on brown, and a tuna and cucumber on white. So far, so very English.

A couple of bags of crisps and we trundled on to the hot counter where we waited a long time for some tourists to make up their minds about what to have and then work out which coins they needed to pay for it.

But that’s the thing about self-service. A bit like the self-scan tills at supermarkets, these marvellous new ways of serving us take twice as long and the queue of people patiently waiting for a cup of tea, holding laden trays of hot soup and sandwiches spiralled out behind us.

It struck me what a wonderful example of British stoicism and character this was. No pushing, no jostling, not even any complaining, as we edged ever nearer to the eternal soup station in an orderly line. Two tomato soups and two teas later we were then moved to the pay area (£21.85) and shuffled off to the tea accessory station and cutlery space on the other side, so completing our canteen journey.

Had there not been an available table in the new restaurant, I don’t know what we’d have done, but the large wooden trestle tables and benches had plenty of room as we sat down to rest our polite English legs.

It was nice to sit, eat and chat actually. We could have been more adventurous with our food, but not much. There were quiches and salads, paninis and sausage rolls, but I would have liked to have been offered something a bit more exotic. That said, our sandwiches were delicious, the bread fresh, the fillings well seasoned and generous, and the tomato soup piping hot, dense and home-made, perfect actually as the rain poured down outside and the wind howled.

So we counted our blessings and found ourselves suitably replete afterwards, but although there was a large table of tempting cakes to be sampled, we were reluctant to join the dreaded queue and go through the whole rigmarole again, so headed home instead for tea and biscuits.

Would I go to The Oxfordshire Pantry again? Absolutely, if I was at Blenheim and needed some sustenance. Once you’ve circled the lake, visitors and especially children tend to get pretty tired out and the lure of a cup of tea is often too good to resist. But would I choose it against the wonderful variety of restaurants, tea shops, cafes and pubs in Woodstock? No. There’s a lot to be said for waitress service.

The Oxfordshire Pantry is open from 9.30am to 6pm and is offering a £10 tea for two of two homemade fruit scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, and English Breakfast Tea for two between 
3.30-6pm.

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