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| - This is a review of their Afternoon Tea service. I thought it would be fun and different to do tea in a casino, and it was, but I've definitely experienced better tea service elsewhere, emphasis on the word "service." That is what really brought this experience down. Our server was not all that friendly, and just not around. They were understaffed that day, but as Mel L. said, that could have been mentioned to us at the start. Our server brought our tea out without saying a word and walked right off while I guess I wasn't paying attention, so I was sitting there for minutes not realizing that our tea had been brought out! Usually they'll pour the first cup for you, but our server did not. Someone also usually comes by to ask if teapot refills are needed, but no one did. It took awhile for us to flag someone down so that we could get more hot water.
The ambiance was different for sure, and smoky. I thought it would be ok since we were tucked off in a corner sort of but it was pretty overwhelming. Also, the table next to us was occupied two separate times by out-of-town senior citizen gamblers who were not discreet in looking over at our table to check the tea set-up out and who held loud conversations about us (well, our whole table spread). Talking about us but not to us basically, fun. (More than half the people were there for bar service rather than tea service.)
As for the tea and food, tea is tea to me lol. It was fine. The sandwiches here are really good. You have your pick of I think four sandwiches if I recall correctly. There were two categories of sandwiches (again if I recall correctly) and you could pick and choose from each. I picked from the second category which might have been vegetarian/seafood and I really liked all of my picks. I basically picked sandwiches whose ingredients sounded familiar because there were some doozy ingredients in the other category! :p As for their scones, I thought you couldn't go wrong with scones but I guess you can. I wasn't a fan of theirs (cranberry I think?) and they were hard as a rock. As for the desserts, I have yet to come across desserts at afternoon tea that are good.
I'm glad I tried this place out, but even though I loved their tea sandwiches I doubt I would return. If they ever decide to move their tea service to a nicer, less smoky place in the hotel (why not facing the conservatory or the lake?) and focus solely on tea (or at least not focus on the bar and bar goers) and the whole experience (quiet, relaxing, non-smoky ambiance where people won't be staring and talking about you and your food!), I would consider returning.
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