I've been dying for proper high tea in Brisbane and I noticed there's quite a few places for high tea around ranging from $35 onwards. I read online that Stamford Hotel offers one and reading their description it sounds pretty promising, but after searching around, I noticed there weren't that many good reviews about it and most people I know advised to give it a miss as the view is fabulous, but food wise it was quite pathetic.
A friend then suggested checking out high tea at Versace in the Gold Coast (as the decor is quite stunning) and we decided to organise with some ladies in Brisbane to head out for some dainty sandwiches and pastries. There were two other girls who have also lived in London for a couple of years and this was a great way to catch up and reminisce about good ol' London. We ended with 5 ladies attending the High Tea on a Saturday afternoon..
What makes a good high tea is the atmosphere. I love watching ladies all dressed up in pretty dresses and heels, nibbling on dainty sandwiches and all the lovely fine china used.
Le Jardin @ Palazzo Versace
Main Beach, QLD 4217
07 5509 8000 or emailrsvp@palazzoversace.com
(High Tea is from 11am - 5pm. No booking necessary but if there's 8 people or more, you'll need to make a booking. They'll also require your credit card if there are more than 12 people)
Cost is $45 per person for their Fashionista High Tea (which includes tea or coffee and it could be either cold or hot. Please note there is no refill and ice tea is $7.50 while hot tea is $7.00 per serving). I think it's $55 if you have it with champagne.
The decors are truly gorgeous and they used lovely china & silverware, but unfortunately I thought the waitress serving us were rather unfriendly and as it's an open sitting, and not just serving high tea, there were lots of people walking and eating in the restaurant in very casual wear e.g. thongs and shorts... I truly could not get use to how 'casual' Queenslander dressed.. =(((( I'm really sorry to say this, but they do not have any sort of fashion sense here. Perhaps it's the hot weather which does not allow one to get all dressed up. Melbourne and Sydney people definitely are better dressers!!
Anyhow, I digress.. The food was very filling and fresh, but I have to say I was quite disappointed with the service. For $45 per person, I expected a bit of pampering and spot on service. Our waitress was a sour puss and we had to continuously asked for a refill for cold water.
I thought having 2 quiches and a sausage roll for 3 people were... a bit of a tightass. I believe the other two ladies had to share a quiche between them. They really should have let each person have one, or just provide 3 pieces of quiches. On the other hand, the sausage rolls and quiche were just really delicious. The pastry were flakey.. yum! The scones were also warm and so fresh. Eaten with strawberry, cherry and apricot jam (which we had to ask for as they forgot to bring them out for us) with clotted cream. Double yum!!
A friend then suggested checking out high tea at Versace in the Gold Coast (as the decor is quite stunning) and we decided to organise with some ladies in Brisbane to head out for some dainty sandwiches and pastries. There were two other girls who have also lived in London for a couple of years and this was a great way to catch up and reminisce about good ol' London. We ended with 5 ladies attending the High Tea on a Saturday afternoon..
What makes a good high tea is the atmosphere. I love watching ladies all dressed up in pretty dresses and heels, nibbling on dainty sandwiches and all the lovely fine china used.
Le Jardin @ Palazzo Versace
Main Beach
94 Seaworld Dr Main Beach, QLD 4217
07 5509 8000 or emailrsvp@palazzoversace.com
(High Tea is from 11am - 5pm. No booking necessary but if there's 8 people or more, you'll need to make a booking. They'll also require your credit card if there are more than 12 people)
Cost is $45 per person for their Fashionista High Tea (which includes tea or coffee and it could be either cold or hot. Please note there is no refill and ice tea is $7.50 while hot tea is $7.00 per serving). I think it's $55 if you have it with champagne.
The decors are truly gorgeous and they used lovely china & silverware, but unfortunately I thought the waitress serving us were rather unfriendly and as it's an open sitting, and not just serving high tea, there were lots of people walking and eating in the restaurant in very casual wear e.g. thongs and shorts... I truly could not get use to how 'casual' Queenslander dressed.. =(((( I'm really sorry to say this, but they do not have any sort of fashion sense here. Perhaps it's the hot weather which does not allow one to get all dressed up. Melbourne and Sydney people definitely are better dressers!!
Anyhow, I digress.. The food was very filling and fresh, but I have to say I was quite disappointed with the service. For $45 per person, I expected a bit of pampering and spot on service. Our waitress was a sour puss and we had to continuously asked for a refill for cold water.
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| Beautiful chandelier when you enter the hotel |
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| Gorgeous setting and looking out into their pool |
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Pretty ain't it?!
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| Top: dainty triple layered sandwiches. 3 pieces per person (1. cheese, ham & pesto chicken 2. whole grain salmon w/ cream cheese & cucumber w/cream cheese 3. alfafa!! (was the most unpopular lot ;)) there's also thinly sliced crispy like bread (kinda reminded me of plain biscotti) with dip (2 per person). Bottom: fresh mini plain and raisin scones (2 each) and 2 pieces of tiny quiche and a tiny piece of sausage roll which were fresh and warm. |
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| This 2 person serve is exactly like ours (for 3 people) - 6 pieces of dainty pastries and 2 macarons (except we got 3) and 2 cake pops (we had 3). Not too keen on the cake pops, they were pretty to look at but too sickly sweet inside. The other pastries had rave review as well.. From Top Left: mini cupcake, lamington, lemon meringue tart, coffee cream in a chocolate cup, fruit tart, cake pops, chocolate eclair and of course the macarons (which we couldn't figure out what the flavour is as the middle chocolate filling overpowered the taste) |
Had a lovely time catching up with the girls but am slightly disappointed... It's still good I guess but I can't wait to go back to London for proper high tea again!
Speaking of which, I'll need to start packing soon....
Xx
p/s Driving from Brisbane to the coast on that Saturday was a nightmare. What bad traffic! Took us an extra 1/2 hour longer to get there!
I went there yesterday and have to agree with you that service was below average. While high tea is gaining popularity in Brisbane/Gold Coast, the best one I've had so far in is Tea & Niceties up at Mount Tamborine. http://strawbeari3.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/tea-and-niceties.html
ReplyDeleteJust saw this. Thanks for your post. I will need to check it out when I'm next in Brisbane =)
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