Tourists enjoy the ultimate British taste as Buckingham Palace opens new café

How does one take one's cappuccino? Served with a crown of chocolate, if one is dining at Buckingham Palace's new café.

After 173 years of receiving royal guests, Buckingham Palace opened its own café this week for the 400,000-plus tourists it expects over nine weeks of the summer.

One of them, Marie Croot from New Zealand, was among the first to sample strawberry scones and coffee at the Queen's home — and declared they tasted of "Britishness".

But those who would expect nothing less than bone china will be in for a disappointment. The special-issue blue plates and cups marked "Garden Café, Buckingham Palace" are cardboard.

Nuala McGourty, director of retail at Buckingham Palace, said the café expects less recycling than in other coffee shops, as customers are likely to smuggle out their cups, plates and even trays as souvenirs. "But if someone would like to take a cup home, then we're very happy to offer them an unused one," she said.

Mrs Croot's son Daniel, 26, a pilot from Auckland, said the decoration on the cups was "pretty high-class" but he wouldn't take one as a souvenir — he planned to buy a more lasting memento at the gift shop.

Edward White, originally from Yorkshire but living in Hasselt in Belgium, said the café location, with views of the 40-acre royal gardens, was "highly impressive". He added: "You can always say you had tea in the garden at Buckingham Palace — you don't have to say who with."

Brigitte Erler, 42, from Austria, said: "I'm having a drink at Buckingham Palace looking over the view the Queen must wake up to in the mornings. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

The café, on the west terrace, is open to anyone who pays the £17 Palace entrance fee. Along with traditional British fare of scones with jam and cream and Sandringham pressed apple juice, there are Greek salads, bagels and French strawberries-and-cream cakes for sale.

All proceeds from the Palace summer opening, which generated £8.2 million last year, are reinvested in the royal collection. Since the Golden Jubilee in 2002, the collection has added a one-off exhibition each year. This summer's exhibition, The Queen's Year, traces her official engagements.