FoodieChat

French Renaissance meets hip night club is the best way I can describe this super chic unconventional high tea venue (ie not a stuffy posh hotel).  Walking up the stairs, you feel like you’re entering a nightclub. Pitch black - save for the tea light candles lining each side of the stairs. Then, when you reach the top, it opens up to an intimate, swanky nightclub/lounge like venue, with clusters of women sitting in circles on plush lounges,  antique armchairs and French style chairs.  Towers of dainty food on tiered stands appear like towers above their heads on the coffee tables interspersed with all sorts of tea paraphernalia and flutes of champagne.  

Curtains of bead strands and soft translucent fabrics create intimate funky private nooks between parties and booths provide seating for smaller parties. Reclining on your seat, you’re brought a menu of teas – from Russian Caravan, to traditional English breakfast, and a multitude of tisanes and herbal infusions. Coffee is also available for die hard caffeine addicts. Then, for $30 per person (or $35 with a glass of champagne), settle down to a tier of finger sandwiches (salmon, chicken, and 2 others whose names escape me) – pillows of soft fluffy bread with the crusts cut off of course DAARLING; a mini pink iced cupcake; a mini sticky date pudding; a yo yo; tiny florentine; a scone each (date or plain) with conserve and of course, whipped cream.  The stand in the picture is actually 3 serves – so basically, $90 worth.  It’s just enough given the richness of the bite sized delights and you’ll find that it’s pretty standard for afternoon tea.  And believe me, this is no standard afternoon tea!  

The clientele is almost 100% women.  Hen’s days, kitchen teas, baby showers, mothers and daughters, groups of friends catching up- this is no place for girls to pick up! Guys on the other hand…  At night, the Victoria Room transforms into a restaurant, lounge and bar.  But after such a lazy afternoon of sipping tea and eating these dainty heavenly morsels,  better try next time.  Marie Antoinette – eat your heart out!

Thanks to Sharon for the photo. Mental note to self – charge your camera battery if you want to use it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Sydney dining (City), Tea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.