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| - I really don't drink alcohol or coffee, or get my nails done, but I do have one indulgence - tea. As in, the tea experience with the tiered serving platter and the finger sandwiches and the desserts. Oh, the desserts...
But I digress.
Starting recently I have decided to go to high tea when on vacation, starting with Montreal. Le Parloir wasn't super frilly with hats to try on. It was a little more modern but still fun.
The husband and I each had the $26 tea. I was hoping to get my 6-year-olds a teddy bear tea or whatever is the Montreal equivalent, but they didn't offer that. So we had the kids share a $26 tea. They ate everything.
First there were the savories. (Or as the French-speaking owner cutely called them until her daughter corrected her, "the salties.)" My husband and I skipped the ham and cheese and the foie gras and got more of the others. My favorite was the duck confit on crostini. I had my doubts since it was served cold, but my concerns disappeared when I tasted it. Topped with a dab of jam, it was really good. It was my daughter's favorite, too. Next best was the smoked salmon with cream cheese. It was delicate and just right. The cream cheese and cucumber was adorable and cut into a heart. However, it was still just a basic cream cheese and cuke. The kids liked their ham and cheese.
The next tier was my favorite: a scone and a panna cotta. The scone was more like a biscuit or a shortcake, and it was a big hit at the table. The owners said she made them. I would have preferred that they be served hot, but they were still good. They came with jam and everyone's serving tray had a different flavor. Three of the four of us preferred raspberry - the other jams were strawberry and blueberry.
I had my first panna cotta in my late 30s. My twins have now had theirs at age 6. This panna cotta was passion fruit-flavored and topped with (I think) graham cracker crumbles. It was one of my favorite sweets of the day.
The top tier was my least favorite overall but still really good. I am mentioning my quibbles below, but it should be known that the husband thought they were all perfect. Each of us had a different flavored chocolate. (Pistachio might be the standard but my daughter is allergic so they gave us others.) Mine was sea salt and I felt the saltiness overwhelmed the chocolate. The lemon curd tartlet with poppy seeds was fine, though I felt like I needed something to cut the lemon curd taste (perhaps a ginger cookie?) The last sweet was a macaron. We each got either a cherry or blueberry one, and they were very good - and for the most part better than those at Paillard (a bakery in Quebec City known for their macarons).
Oh yeah, the tea! The tea is always less important to me than the food so it's easy for me to forget. Our rooibos rosemary tea (I think that's what it was) was only okay, the chai better. There wasn't an obvious sweet fruity tea for the kids so we got them the vanilla-y Earl Grey, but they were uninterested. We all got a cutely packaged tea pot-shaped shortbread cookie to take home.
Our trip to Le Parloir began with us driving to Montreal from Quebec City, barely checking into our Air BnB and hurrying off to Le Parloir for a 2:30 reservation. We were the only ones there. It was really nice having a relaxing afternoon at Le Parloir. The mom and daughter owner and servers were very sweet. My own daughter declared she wanted to work there one day. When asked she said she wanted to be a cook and then changed her mind to be a server.
I'm the tea person so I was surprised when my husband announced that he'd like for our final lunch of the trip be at Le Parloir. (Clearly I need to take him with me to tea more often if he's this willing.) That sounded great to me too, but unfortunately when I called I discovered that they were closed for the week.
Kathleen's High Tea Rankings (I'm hard to please and I gave the first six places 5 stars):
1) LE PARLOIR, MONTREAL
2) Lovejoy's, San Francisco and Redwood City
3) The Fairmont Empress, Victoria B.C.
4) Aubrey Rose, La Mesa
5) Tea Upon Chatsworth, San Diego
6) Lovey's, Pacifica
7) Lisa's Tea Treasures, Campbell
8) Tyme for Tea, Fremont
9) Lisa's Tea Treasures, Los Altos
10) Tea Time, Palo Alto
11) Samovar, San Francisco (Page St.)
12) Cafe du The, Burlingame
13) Lisa's Tea Treasures, San Jose
14) The Huntington Langham Hotel, Pasadena
15) Satori, Saratoga
16) Dartealing Lounge, San Francisco
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