“Its all very Emily Howard” says friend Teena when we sit down and look around at the room. Indeed it is quite, and though not quite as Victorian as Emily, it is undeniably girly. The room features flocked wallpaper, ornately tiled ceiling, Art Deco style chandeliers, maroon velvet chairs and Royal Albert china. In fact, looking around, there’s nary a male specimen to be seen bar for a very occasional young boy dragged along to this haven of girlishness by his parents. It seems only fitting as we’re here to celebrate Teena’s upcoming birthday with friend Gina and a girls only afternoon tea.
There are a few choices for Afternoon tea: regular $33, sparkling $38.50 or champagne $55. Bizarrely, their menu does not include GST as we learn when we receive the bill later and it must be the only establishment in Sydney not to do so. I partake of the regular and Teena and Gina partake of the sparkling. There’s a large selection of teas as well as a connoisseur’s selection (surcharge $2.20). My tea arrives along with the flutes of sparkling wine and soon after the three tiered cake stand for three persons arrives.
On the top tier are the sandwiches: salmon & cucumber; egg salad and ham, and on the second tier are the cakes and tarts with the third tier housing the scones and warm savoury pastries with the jam and cream arriving on separate plates. Its a little smaller than I expect, mainly as I had had the Tea Room’s selection at the Food and Wine Fair and it was made up of a very similar selection minus the tea and scones and that was $7.50 so I expect a little more for $30. But oh well, there’s a lot to be said for the atmosphere and dining in a chic salon rather than lining up and fighting crowds for your meal .
There are 6 sandwich fingers in total so we choose two each. I have the salmon & cucumber and egg salad. The salmon & cucumber is soft and juicy with a generous spreading of cream cheese but not a great deal of salmon. The cucumber gives the cream cheese a little more wateriness than usual but this doesn’t make the wholemeal bread soggy at all. The egg sandwich is on brown bread and is deliciously creamy although admittedly its hard to mess up an egg salad unless you use bad mayo or leave eggshell. There is a tiny egg tart on the top tier with a wonderfully earth shatteringly crispy shell and a rich creamy egg salad centre.
We go for the third tier next wanting to save the cakes for last. The savoury puff pastry morsel its not too bad albeit a little heavy on the cumin. The gigantic scones have random sultanas scattered throughout (one scone has none) and are warm to the touch which is always a good sign. Breaking them apart they are soft inside and we spread them with the cream (a little too runny, I prefer thicker clotted cream) and the jam (a blackberry flavour, also a bit too runny) and bite into them. They’re fabulously good, crunchy on the outside but soft and yielding but firm inside. They’re probably one of the nicest scones I’ve had and although I’m not usually a “bread” person I finish the first half and then slather the cream and jam on the second half and devour this too.
Last in the plan of attack is the cake tier. I’m already quite full after the scone so I greet this with a little less enthusiasm than I had for it when it first arrived. There’s quite the assortment of cakes here so choosing which to start off with is quite the dilemma. I start with what looks like a mocha choux puff but when I bite into it, it has a tangy jam inside too. Its not to my taste, they don’t need to jam at all and if anything, it tastes a little jarring compared to the silky custard cream. Next I try the brandy snap sandwich with a dot of stem ginger compote on the top. I usually love stem ginger but this has made the ginger snap soggy on where it sat so I decline to finish this. I’m not particularly hungry anymore so I’m searching more for something really rather good and this comes by way of the petite chocolate cake square. Its rich and dense and chocolate mud or sacher torte like in texture and its gone within seconds.
I’m warned that the other coconut dusted square isn’t very exciting and they’re right, its a plain sponge square filled with a thin layer of raspberry jam and is dry and dusty in texture. Next! Last is an item that they had at the Good Food and Wine show, the strawberry tart. Its crispy tart and creamy centre goes perfectly with the fresh strawberries on top. A nice note to end the experience.
The clock strikes 3pm and we realise that we’ve been afternoon tea-ing for a good three hours. How time flies when you’re indulging in the latest Hollywood news and indulging in treats!
The Tea Room
Level 3, North End
Queen Victoria Building
455 George Street Sydney
Ph: +61 (02) 9283-7279
Open 7 days
Morning Tea is served from 11am-12pm
Afternoon Tea is served throughout the day from 11am onwards
An a la carte lunch is also available
https://www.thetearoom.com.au/
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19 Comments | Add your own
hehe, you definitely needed the 3 hours, one hour for each tier
Just found your excellent site! Have to try the tea room soon
Hi Tian-the scone definitely needed an hour to digest!
Hi Andrew-thanks! Definitely and let me know how you found it
I dragged my very obliging husband here a while ago on a visit to Sydney. We were well behaved and didn’t order any food, but we felt very special having our silver service tea
Hi Nic-lucky you! I don’t think I could get my husband to go there
How was the silver service tea? I don’t know if I’ve ever had Silver service tea or not…
Its not an egg tart, it’s polenta and cheese filled.
Hi Cassie-No it was definitely egg. Egg has a distinctive taste and smell.
I want to comment on my visit to your lovely tea rooms today.
It was my husband’s 68th birthday and I wanted to surprise him with a lovely morning tea. Your tea house was recommended to me by my daughter who loved the ambiance and the service. We arrived and were shown to our seat and were enjoying the atmosphere. The coffee arrived and then we waited, and waited and waited, I asked the waitress was our sandwiches and cakes coming and she reassured me that they were. The coffee was getting cold, – it really was not that hot when it was served. We must have waited 20 minutes or more and then the beautiful food tray came. We were a bit disappointed because we had to wait so long, and we were only the third table with guests. The hall was empty. I commented to my husband, if service is this slow with only three tables, how long would one have to wait if the whole hall was full of people.
I loved the ambiance and the food, but the service was very slow and the coffee luke warm. I just want you to know so that you can possibly learn from our experience.
My daughter was very surprised when I related this situation to her. She said that she had fantastic service when she was there with her friends and it was a Sunday afternoon and very very busy.
Regards,
Mariette
I could not finish all of the tarts and little cakes- the chocolate squares were soooo rich, but the jam for the scones was delish!
Hi Lorraine. I just finished my high tea at Tea Room, QVB. Apparently the cost is now AUD $37 and it is included GST now. Yes, I did take a lots of picture and they do offer Easter High Tea by replacing scones with the cross bun, but we opted for scone instead as we have too many hot cross bun recently.
Hi MQN,
Having been to the Ritz in London which lived up to expectations, I’m always disappointed to hear that many places here do not server clotted cream with scones. Have you come across any that do serve it??
I would like to share my experience with you at the Tea Room, Queen Victoria Building.
My girlfriends and I experienced the ‘high tea’ service one afternoon at the Tea Room QVB.
We were advised when we walked in that we only had a little over an hour due to closing, and was offered containers towards the end to take away because of the time. constraint. Being woman, and not having room in our bags to carry the box, we kindly asked for a bag in which to put the containers in.
The waiter sarcastically (rudely in my opinion) suggested they did not have bags and commented:
‘what bag? we only have garbage bags here’
The audacity of him to suggest using a garbage bag to a customer! What era are we in?
One of the girls became very upset and the good time were having came to an abrupt halt!
I am deeply disappointed with this level of service attitude by today’s standards.
Surely, a place of this would have better trained staff – its not exactly McDonalds we are paying for?
Needless to say we did not tip.
Disturbed and disappointed (ex) customer
We found our experience of high Tea at QVB disappointing. The scones were like the rocks and the cream to accompany it was tired (yellow along the edges)
So many mixed reviews on the high tea. I went there on Easter Sunday and loved it! The scones were so good. I really must learn to make scones:)
Hi NQN and readers,
I know it’s been quite a while since your post about the Tea Rooms at QVB but I just wanted to add my experience at this place. I had the traditional afternoon tea which is now $39 and you’d be disappointed to know they now only serve 4 sandwiches, and the dessert selection is still ordinary.
But more to the point, a warning about the service here, because to me, service is what adds that little cherry on top when you eat decent food.
I thought the floor staff were really pleasant but the two front house managers/maitre d’s were both so rude it really left a bad taste in my mouth.
I’d taken a family member for her birthday and I came away embarassed at the way we (and it looks like many others) were treated. Such a shame because it is a very beautiful establishment…. It’s hard to overlook as its the first thing you encounter and the last as you leave. A shame…
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