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| - Review for Afternoon Tea
I came here in a party of five for a pre-wedding celebration. They do afternoon tea sets from 2-4pm on weekends only -- reserve in advance because it can get busy. When we were there there were lots of birthdays, family gatherings, and other groups.
There are a variety of choices from the "classic tea" to sets that have cocktails or champagne. We just went with the classic tea ($38 per person). Our server brought out a nice box of teas - 12 kinds. She clearly specified which were caffeine-free, low caffeine, and regular. There were some herbal teas, oolong, green tea, and black teas. She left the box with us for a few minutes so we could smell the different teas. I went with the vanilla rooibos which was perfectly sweet and didn't need any added sugar.
Then the savoury bites came out, beautifully presented. My favourites were the smoked salmon croissant and mushroom quiche (there were also meat quiches, I think with bacon). The raisin scones were quite good too, although I'm not a fan of raisins. The portions are mostly bite size and look small, but it's deceiving... It actually adds up to a lot of food! I was glad I skipped lunch so I had room to eat everything.
Next were the sweets. There were so many things we couldn't finish... There were a variety of flavours, definitely something for everyone. The winners for me were the opera cake and lemon meringue tart.
Everything was very well done and fresh. I had a much better experience compared to the last time I had afternoon tea which was at the King Edward Hotel. Service was good. We sat inside and when I asked if we could sit on the patio, the server was very serious and apologetic, stating that they do not serve afternoon tea on the patio (something about the wind blowing things away, or the clotted cream melting in the sun... apparently the chef was quite adamant that it's an indoors only affair...). Overall, a lovely place to spend an afternoon. It's not cheap but for a special occasion it's worth the splurge.
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