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Afternoon tea at Ritz-Carlton can be related to fumbling awkwardness, soothing harp music, the best fruit tea I've ever had, 'atas-ness' and a relaxing atmosphere. Just like how tea time should be.
Indeed tea time at Ritz-Carlton's lobby lounge is an event of its own.
I know that sounds like the ending of a blog post but every time I think about my tea time experience, I feel like I'm floating. Honestly.
Ritz-Carlton KL's website can be found here while a review can be found at augustdinersfoodblog.
Tea sets are RM68++ It's enough for two though. The bill came up to about RM40 per person. But it was worth every cent.
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| A photo of a perfectly crafted tea cup with a harp in the background. |
Let's start with the ambiance and the atmosphere...
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| White cornices giving the effect of high ceilings without real height. |
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Plush chairs with dim lighting. |
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Elegant white doily like patterns on the walls |
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Gold, brown patterns to match the earthy tones of the place |
The surroundings very much reminded me of an English tea house. The architecture, the lighting and the music. A relaxing atmosphere was created for maximum enjoyment of what their tea set had to offer.
Moving on to their very authentic tea sets and table setting.
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Matching tea pots, tea cups and saucers |
The tea pot sits on a metal platform with a candle inside to keep the tea warm. I was honestly surprised that one small candle managed to keep our tea warm for so long. Porcelain must really circulate heat well.
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Pretty cloth doily! |
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The tea table where they have a tea set sample and where they refill their hot water |
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Sugar pots that Ezel found very fascinating |
Atmosphere √
Table setting √
To perfect the checklist, we now look at the food.
We were first asked to select our tea. There was easily about 20 types to choose from, ranging from black tea, green tea to fruit and flower teas.
There are small vials of tea for you to sniff at before selecting. Raspberry Royal appealed to me.
After being left for about 3-4 minutes, it was ready to drink. The reddish hue may be a slight turn-off but really now, what color do you expect raspberry tea to be? It was very fragrant, a lot like eating the fruit itself.
Then, the adorable 3 tier finger food arrived.
Right on top were the pies, pastries and scones. I can't quite remember what pie and pastry there were but I do remember the flaky crust and the nice buttery taste in my mouth. But I can't remember what was the filling. Go me!
The scones were a normal scone and an apple scone? Something like that. I don't know how scones are supposed to be like but these had a hard crust on the outer side and was oh so soft and fluffy on the inside. Yummy!
The scones were served with clotted cream and butter that's to die for! The clotted cream was a creamy, milky substance that had the consistency of fluffy whipped cream. Absolutely delicious ♥
Of course there's jam as well. There were 3 flavors - strawberry, raspberry and orange. None of us touched the orange but the strawberry and raspberry ones were almost cleared out. Tee hee.
Sadly these jams cannot be found on the shelves of supermarkets or any stores out there. So is their tea. It is only supplied to hotels and restaurants but are not for sale. Why??
The 2nd tier is bread. That's a cucumber sandwich, smoked salmon on a piece of baguette and chicken ham on an unidentified piece of bread.
I don't eat any form of salmon - cooked or otherwise. And I've tried smoked salmon before and my common response is that it tastes like raw salmon/sashimi. There's just no 'smoked' taste.
And hallelujah! FINALLY! I found smoked salmon that ACTUALLY tastes smoked! And I quite liked it. The rest on this tier was just so-so.
The final tier is my favorite for obvious reasons. Cake and sweets! There's a strawberry cheesecake, berry tart, an eclair, a macaron and a mango cheesecake.
The cheesecakes were very nice, the berry tart and macaron slightly meh and the eclair was... alright. I was disappointed in the macaron because I excepted an awesome tasting one like Shangri-la's. Hopes were too high. The cheesecakes made up for it all though :D Soft and yet strong cheese flavors.
And hence, my review comes to an end. It was a memorable experience. It's not only the food that's important but the ambiance and atmosphere plays an important role in tea time. (But that sounds so atas!)
Do come for tea at Ritz-Carlton for the experience, the food and the excellent service.