Happy Spring Dear Readers! I feel like I can truly say it now, even though we’ve had almost a month of September as the air is now filled with the heady perfume of jasmine and other Spring flowers. Queen Viv is my purveyor of great and fantastical adventures and this sunny Spring weekend just past, we decided to go on a short little road trip down to Caringbah where we would farewell the last of the season’s Winter camellias and indulge in an afternoon tea. And long time NQN readers will know that when Queen Viv and I go anywhere, we always get lost and this was no exception…
We park outside and enter the gates and are instantly enveloped in a sweet mix of perfume from all of the flowers. To the right is the Tea House and we are shown to a table. Booking is highly recommended – Queen Viv recalls it being busy even on weekdays. There is a regular menu and then there is a high tea menu. High Tea needs to be ordered 24 hours in advance and a seating lasts for two hours. It is also very kid friendly with a “Littlies High Tea” for $15 per child and there is also a separate kid’s menu which they can colour in. On the regular adult’s menu there is a choice of breakfast, morning tea including a Yummy Mummy special with two of their flower cookies, a kid’s milkshake and a coffee or tea for $10 or a Devonshire tea for $9.50. A blackboard specials board shows the more substantial meals. Once a week on Thursdays there is poet in residence who writes and discusses poetry.
Afternoon Tea stand for two people $60 ($30 per person) plus two teas and scones
Back view of stand
But today we are here for afternoon tea! They set the tables with white tablecloth and we choose a couple of teas from the selection. We go with the T2 Girlie Grey and the T2 Lemongrass & Ginger infusion. Our three tier stand of goodies arrives and our eyes widen in excitement. “There’s also scones to come!” they tell us placing it down on the table and explaining each tier to us.
We start with the hot foods tier which has crunchy spring rolls, mini quiche Lorraines and tiny little dollhouse sized cream cheese and smoked salmon tarts with little feathers of dill. As much as spring rolls are not a typical afternoon tea fare, it doesn’t stop us from enjoying crunching on these and the mini quiches are creamy and flavoursome and just the right size. The cream cheese and smoked salmon tarts are also nice although I thought that the cream cheese could benefit from having chives added to it as it was quite thick and rich.
Our crustless sandwiches are next and there are two types where we get four quarters each. The sandwiches are lovely and fresh and the first one is a multigrain bread with ham, cheese, lettuce and a tomato chutney which really lifts it. The second sandwich is a chicken breast, avocado and mayonnaise sandwich on white bread which is also lovely and downy soft.
We try both the Girlie Grey which is quite a mild Earl Grey with a citrus twist and the Lemongrass & Ginger which is a gorgeous infusion that transports us both back to our tropical holidays past.
Now the tier to satisfy the sweet toothed in us all. The top tier features some lovely very vanilla and blueberry cupcakes topped with a pretty fondant butterfly and vanilla buttercream. There is also a rum laced chocolate truffle with a smooth, dark centre and a coconut macaron with a chocolate bottom. Lastly there is a lovely tangy but not too tart mini lemon tart with a smidge of cream and a cut of strawberry.
“Are you ready for the scones?” they ask us and we look at each other. We’d been too busy enjoying the tier stand that we’d almost forgotten to leave space for the scones. Thankfully they come out in a miniature version split and spread with whipped cream and strawberry jam. They’re a good consistency and I’m glad to see not dry (sometimes with the mini ones, I find that they can be dry) and I manage to pop one in my mouth without bursting at the seams.
Cookie selection
Needing a walk we take ourselves down the winding paths and breathe in the gorgeous aromas of the new Spring flowers. We pass by families having picnics (one with an inflatable double mattress rather unusually!), an Italian family who greet us, groups of ducklings and ducks a plenty including two enormous white ducks.
We walk past my favourite part of the garden, the incredibly fragrant Senses Gardens for the visually impaired. Here they have their most fragrantly beautiful flowers for those unable to see their beauty as well as herbs which creates a orchestra of aromas.
“Follow me” Queen Viv says and we walk inside a Weeping Oak tree. “My grandfather used to have one of these and he had a chair around the trunk. We used to love playing under it “. All I can think is how utterly deliciously magical!
So tell me Dear Reader, what is your favourite flower?
The Tea House at the Camellia Gardens
Corner Kareena Road and President Avenue, Caringbah, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9540 2018
Open: Mon to Fri 9am – 4pm
Sat & Sun 9am – 5pm
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61 Comments | Add your own
That looks a beautiful setting, and a lovely afternoon tea as well – not too modern and fancied up, but not too stuffy and traditional… might be well worth a foray down south, especially to see those lovely gardens in spring, too. Especially if there’re still some irises!
High tea is such a perfect way to spend a spring afternoon!
The vanilla and blueberry cupcakes sound delicious.
I’ve been thinking about trying the tea house at the Camelia Gardens for a while – and now I think I may just have to go
This looks like the perfect place to spend Sundays with a dear friend or your sister/mother… like you’re getting away from it all!
Sounds idyllic – I love the sound of the girlie grey tea as a twist on earl grey
It is lovely to see you ventured your way through to my local area. It is absolutely beautiful there!
I cant go past sunflowers, how could they not make you smile.
Look at the itty bitty smoked salmon tarts! So cute. Count me in for high tea any day.
That looked like a pretty substantial High Tea, how advantageous there was such pretty gardens to walk in afterwards. Roses – beauty, fragrance and the delicate flavour is there another so perfect.
Love the idea of the senses garden- what lovely shots you took! And of the little ducklings, they’re just so adorable when they’re small and fluffy. And you know what, an inflatable mattress sounds like a really good idea on a picnic- you can fall asleep with a book
Great high tea experience there, it’s a little different to the good ole tea room in QVB (I went there yesterday and still love it).
My fav flower has to be pink tulips
I love afternoon tea! This looks great. My favorite flower is jasmine, we have some growing on the trellis outside our back door and it smells heavenly. Sydney does spring so well!
What a beautiful post to start the week! Thanks Lorraine, and perfect timing also, I have been looking for a place to take my best gf too – who has been gallavanting around europe and have made it my mission to re-introduce her to Sydney’s beautiful places! Perfect girly date venue, and we’ll make sure to leave room for the scones!
Have a lovely week
Oh how I would love a lazy spring day to do high tea with good company!
I find myself falling madly and deeply in love with full, frilly peonies.
Wow that looks lovely! I want high tea now too!!
I would have to say that the cliveas look particularly spectacular this year. Is it just me, or after the long winter do all the flowers look fantastic this year???
I have driven past the gardens so many times and keep telling myself I have to go. You have given me extra incentive now because I know the high tea will be good! Thanks for another great entry.
I live in The Shire and did not even know that the tea room did these lovely teas. Must be new owners as the last time we were there we had the most dreadful sandwich and I swore I would never go back but this has changed my thought entirely, not sure if that is a good thing or not, only kidding.
Thanks for coming to The Shire.
I love the camellia gardens, or as my brother and I used to call it, ‘the duck park’! We used to play there nearly every weekend, feeding the ducks and making wishes in the wishing well (which has a pretty good success rate, please note!) So glad you enjoyed your visit.
Favourite flower is tough, but I think I’d have to go with wild fresias. Or golden-yellow roses. Or jasmine. Or violets. No, too hard after all…
As my email address states, my favorite flower is a daylily. I grow them here in Lakeland FL USA
Another shire resident here and I too have driven past the gardens many times and never gone in. The high tea looks lovely and the food very yummy.
I can’t go past Gebras, so colourful and pretty.
How beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Sorry I have been quite, but not been feeling well. Nice to see such beauty. I think I will go back and re-look at the photos. What a great post.
Ducklings!!!!!
You have really captured the gorgeousness of both our lovely high tea and the truly beautiful gardens, another of Sydney’s fabulous secrets for food and flower lovers!
You are amazing this is To Beautiful Job well done…Where in Melb can i go for high tea And do you know Where in Perth WA…???? pls help!!! thanks..
Thank you..
How divine Lorraine and the High tea spread is utterly delicious.
My favourite flower is the Freesia, I simply adore the smell and can’t get enough of it.
My fave flower is the delightful oriental lily. But what I wanted to say was a HUGE thank you! These gardens were most loved by my grandmother and I spent many an afternoon there with the women of my family, as a child. None of us live in Sydney anymore and so you have taken me on a walk down memory lane.
I think my mum went there for afternoon tea once (when we lived in the Shire!)…
Gorgeous photos… I love ducks! Especially when they’re still ducklings…but even grown up, I think they’re cute!
The high tea looks really nice. I’ve never been to high tea before, but I’d like to go someday.
My favourite flower…hmmm…. that’s a tough one. I love the smell of jasmine and gardenia, but I love looking at frangipanis & orchids. Roses are pretty as well, because there are so many varieties! Then there are gerberas…I love the vibrant colours.
I love high teas… I absolutely love them.. so much so that I’m 100% sure in my past life I was an English heiress (or somewhere along those lines)… give me a cup of tea and some lovely hot scones anyday and I’m a happy girl
It looked Ok but what ruined it completely for me is they put a camelia on the tiered plate.
They are poisonous
Ewww.
For that alone I wouldn’t trust who was preparing the food.
Hee, must take notes….since I’m planning to throw my own tea party one day for my friends!
I love how they used different breads for the sandwiches – makes them stand out a bit from the Afternoon High Tea crowd!
It is autumn here in Italy, but I could still tuck into those delicious things.
Looks like the perfect place to enjoy a spring day. Not sure about taking a blowup mattress, but each to their own, I guess!
Gosh, I used to live in Caringbah (I can even see my old place on your map). Wish I’d known about the high tea, it looks really good (and good value).
And if you squint, those ducks look like Mother Goose without the bonnet!
This looks like a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
I could feel myself relaxing as I read your post and enjoyed your photos.
My very favourite flower is the sweet pea. The colours and scent are incomparable, so sweet and innocent.
Thanks for transporting me out of the house for a few minutes!
What a perfectly girly setting for high tea!
There’s something about the smell of gardenias that always get here. Just relocated to London and am missing the sunshine of Sydney- thanks for the vicarious walk through the gardens.
What a gorgeous setting, beautiful pics & I suddenly have the need for a nice cup of tea.
Lovely venue, and I love that they have a menu for little people
What a great selection of food! Everything looks fantastic – lucky you had just enough room for the scones.
Afternoon tea and the gardens look enchanting. My sister used to live up the road from here. She still lives in Caringbah, but closer to the water…lucky her !! My favourite flower are stocks. I just love their spicy scent. I used to work for Yates at Milperra and was lucky to be given bunches of them from their display garden.
Is there anything lovelier than afternoon tea? And what a gorgeous setting! I had tea in an apple orchard in a village outside Cambridge the other day (Granchester, where Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set used to idle away their summer days) and it was just heaven having tea outdoors!
I don’t know I could possibly pick a favourite flower, but it would have to be something beautiful and scented (probably big fat English garden roses).
Briony xx
I do love a good high tea & this one looks plentiful! Beautiful surroundings too!
My favourite flowers would probably be gardenias & jasmine
Though they aren’t typical afternoon tea fare, I wouldn’t mind some spring rolls when I have tea! Sometimes the English menu is just too boring!
I love afternoon teas. I do wish we did them here in the U.S. Not something you find very often.
Fun the way their have their tiers arranged, Lorraine. I’d say you had a good sampling of all the tea offerings.
I would love to see/smell the senses gardens. What a wonderful idea! All your photos are lovely; thank you for taking us along. When I was a child we had a huge weeping willow tree (I assume it’s the same thing) and it was my first kitchen. I made all sorts of pies and cakes out of stones, dirt and sand. I loved that tree…you felt you were a world apart because nobody could see you.
Such a beautiful setting for afternoon tea!
My favourite flowers? Hard question. I’m thinking maybe peonies.
*kisses* HH
I’ve never been to a high tea!
mmm..I feel a high-tea trip coming on..looks perfect in every way.
Irises are my favourite flower. As to high tea – nothing wrong with spring rolls. Raffles does a spring roll, pork pastry, yum cha like spread as well as the traditional fare and though it has been disappointing the last few visits, the first time we did it I still recall the true delight in the spread. The enormous bowl of raspberries also impressed!!
Gorgeous, I love high teas. As for flowers … I love gerberas, and I also love roses, any kind. Actually, any flowers that have been given to me are usually pretty special. x
Damn you woman! You know I am a sucker for afternoon tea. Wish someone did them here… *drool*
And favourite flower? I love tulips and freesias. My house is full of them right now and it makes me smile.
I love afternoon tea – there’s just something about eating food off a tiered plate that is strangely appealing to me…
p.s. Am very envious of the lovely weather you’re getting in Sydney!
Nice gardens.The cupcakes looked lovely. Hope they tasted as good.
I grew up in Caringbah and would often visit the Camelia Gardens with my Mum and my Nanna as a child. I’d forgotten about it, actually, and your post has me all nostalgic. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face today!
xx
Hi Blue Penguin-Yes it struck a good balance come to think of it !
Absolutely! 
Hi Kristy-I agree! it was such a perfect afternoon!
Oh you should, I’d love to know what you think of it!
Hi Liss-Absolutely great place for that-I’m sure it’s booked months in advance for Mother’s day!
Hi Gourmet chick-Yes it was a really interesting blend!
Hi Dee-Oh great! Yes you live in a picturesque area indeed!
Yes they’re so bright and smiley!
Hi Cakelaw-aren’t they cute? I love miniature things!
Hi Linda-I know, we needed the walk trust me!
I was in heaven with those smells!
Hi Honey-Thankyou so much!
I know, they’re so cute! Hehe true true! I wonder if they did?
Hi mashi-Oh yes for your birthday!
I love tulips too!
Hi Loll-Me too!
Oh yes I’m crazy for jasmine too! It’s all in bloom now too!
Hi Gianna-Thanks Gianna!
Oh this is perfect then! You too! 
Hi Diana-yes it’s the best way to spend a sunny spring day!
Peonies are just darling!
Hi Cate-they do! I think the long winter meant that they were dying to come out!
Hi Rachael-Oh it’s great! I’d love to know what you think of it! You’re more than welcome!
Hi Linda-Oh perhaps they are new owners!
Oh you’re welcome! We really enjoyed ourselves! 
Hi leonie-hehe yes there are so many cute ducks! Oh I love freesias and jasmine! They’re so fragrant!
Hi Julia-Yes of course! I’d expect no less from you
Hi Camilla-It’s well worth a trip now that spring has sprung!
Oh yes they are so colourful!
Hi Darlene-I hope you are ok Darlene? sorry to hear that you’re still not feeling well!
Thankyou!
Hi Reemski-Yup!
Hi queen viv-Thankyou for taking me darling! x
Hi fatima-Thankyou Fatima. Have you tried Dolls at the Mount in Heidelberg? They do a fantastic afternoon tea
Hi Matilda-Me too! I had to include some in my bouquet to make it smell beautiful
Hi Jody-Oh how wonderful! I’m so glad that you were able to walk down memory lane!
Hi Liv-Ahh fabulous! I do too! I think they’re just as cute and funny when they’re big
Yes most of the ones you have chosen smell so beautiful which is what I really go for! 
Hi msihua-Hehe you and me both!
Hi Fiona-Oh right, well we are fine.
Hi sophia-Oh now that would be fantastic!
Hi Hannah-Yes I do appreciate a good sandwich. It’s the Liz Lemon in me!
Hi Debra-I’m so glad we’re in Spring now! I’ve had enough of cold!
Hi Conor-Hehe I know, I’m sure they were very comfortable!
Hi Bel-hehe really?! It’s great value! Haha yes they do!
Hi Karen-it was indeed!
Hi InTolerantChef-Oh I’m so glad!
You’re more than welcome! 
Hi Jen-Isn’t it just?
Hi Tori-Oh you’re more than welcome! Aren’t gardenias gorgeous? So elegant!
Hi Anna-Isn’t it! hehe me too!
Hi Ladybird-I know, I wish I were a kid sometimes!
Hi Anita-I know, I couldn’t really fit them in but I had to!
Hi Cathy-Oh you must really know your flowers then!
Perhaps when you visit her an afternoon tea is in order 
Hi B-I know! Isn’t it just divine! That sounds brilliant. Ahh yes real scented roses are divine!
xxx
Hi Phunk-It was really filling!
They’re both beautiful I agree!
Hi catty-Yes I must say that we enjoyed them!
Hi Barbara-Oh I didn’t realise that. perhaps it’s more of an English thing
You’re more than welcome! hehe what a gorgeous memory Barbara! 
And I know exactly what you mean! 
Hi Heavenly Housewife-Ahh yes so pretty!
xxx
Hi Blond Duck-Oh really? No way!
Hi steph-Great idea I concur!
Hi Ellen-Oh I didn’t know that. A big bowl of raspberries would be very impressive indeed! I’d like to dive right in!
Hi Bronnie-hehe me too!
yes the best flowers are the ones that are given to you! 
Hi Kelley-Haha well you’ll just have to come here then! I love the smell of freesias!
Hi Su-yin-I know what you mean, it’s so girly and fab!
We’ve been waiting so long for this weather! 
Hi Portuguese Kitchen-they were great!
Hi Amy-Oh how fantastic! I’m so glad! You’re more than welcome! xxx
I love tulips. Nice to see you reviewing a place done my way.
The Camellia Gardens are not new to me. I have been taking Joshua there since he was 4 (now 18) is a great place for kids. We are actually off to have high tea there in a couple of weeks time with my BF, her 4 year old and Josh to celebrate a birthday. Nice timing on the post Lorraine
That looks like a totally spiffing high tea, no wonder they are always so busy.
oh man… I live like 5 mins away from this place and didn’t know about it until now..
My friend and I are very big fans of High Tea and have been to many. We are always looking for the next one to try and after reading your review we made a reservation and went today to the Camellia Gardens. Unfortunately we were quite disappointed. We didn’t get scones with ours which we thought was very odd, and after re-reading your review it’s clear we were supposed to but looks like they just forgot. We thought only having 2 different flavoured sandwiches wasn’t enough, especially considering 1 of the flavours was salmon and neither my friend nor I like salmon. We did however like the chicken sandwich. Every other High Tea we have been to we have found staff very attentive and we are always offered water and always given extra teapots of boiling water to top up our tea but didn’t receive anything like that here. We also found it near impossible to catch the attention of staff so we just gave up. We were glad we tried it but wouldn’t recommend it. If you are a fan of High Tea there are countless places in and around Sydney that do it much better. In the next few weeks we are going to Aki’s for High Tea at Wooloomooloo, hopefully we will enjoy this more.
Have to say I visited here for high tea today with a friend and we were quite disappointed. For $30 I thought it was not good value. We only got two sandwich fingers – one was chicken and the other was a salmon mix. The savoury options and sweets were OK but not as good as I have had elsewhere. Was very disappointed that we didn’t get scones – I thought scones were a standard at high tea. It was a very basic high tea with very basic service – I think if they are going to charge $30 for a high tea they really need to improve their quality and service.
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