One morning I was talking to Jill Jones-Evans, owner of the Victoria Room about scones-as you do when you’re a little bit obsessed with food. Mid conversation she casually mentioned how they had a 10 scone long scone menu at their new tea salon in the Westfields. Conversation screeched to a halt, I think I even heard the tyres screeching in the background and people may have looked around in alarm. I spluttered ”A menu with ten scones to choose from??? And you have a new tea room? Why have I not heard of this?” thinking that perhaps my sources at the afternoon tea association would have told me (ok there is no association but I thought I might have heard about it somewhere!) .
The tea salon sits nestled like a porcelain cup amongst tissue paper on the fourth floor “designer’s gallery” in the new Westfields complex. Unlike the dark, exotic and sensuous vibe of the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst, this one is bright and pink like the much younger sister. There are curved white picket fences around the outside, pink velvet covered seats, grass green velvet banquettes and exquisitely pretty china. It’s a candy pop girly dream which is a good thing because my friend Christie has brought along her appropriately attired baby girl Poppy and she loves pink.
Service is very helpful and friendly and when Christie needs a high chair for Poppy the resourceful waitress gets one from another store. The menu features a range of afternoon tea goodies with the three tier stands in standard, sparkling or couture, the latter features a glass of Moet. The noise level is higher than that of a closed off establishment but it isn’t as loud as the food court above it (which truthfully drives me a bit crazy with the noise level).
Poppy thinks everything is an iPad 
There are snacks as well as more substantial meals like terrine, ribbon sandwiches, salads, larger cakes by the slice, ice cream sundaes and the all important list of ten scones baked fresh daily. The scone list is as follows: classic (also comes gluten free); date & orange; spiced cinnamon & raisin; lemon; pistachio & currant; white chocolate & cranberry; dark chocolate chip; lavender; rose; cheddar & thyme and pumpkin & ginger. Scones can also be bought individually and served with butter and conserves or chive butter for the savoury ones. You can also choose the scone that you want to go with your high tea.
Our champagne (part of the couture high tea) comes out first and it’s a generously poured glass of Moet and Chandon. Just the thing to take the edge off a frantic day’s shopping. Or in my case, rushing to and from work meetings! And because I was doing so much running around using taxis and public transport, I brought my new camera-the Pentax Q to test out. It’s a tiny camera that I carry in my bag at all times in case of dining emergency or when I can’t be bothered taking my massive DSLR with me like today and it was a Christmas gift from my amazing Sigma distributor sponsor-thank you! It is the smallest, lightest camera with interchangeable lenses, image sensor, high ISO (6400max), flash, video and is small weighing in at a tiny 334grams with the case. And I absolutely love it! I cannot wait to take it travelling with me.
Couture high tea for one $58
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| January 16th, 2012 by Not Quite Nigella
My favourite time to eat at places with a water view is during the day. Sure the night time might be more romantic especially when you’re with your partner but unless it’s during Summer when it gets dark late, Winter and Spring dining with a view means missing out on the well…view. But during the day the vista is ablaze with colour and mood. And as much as I travel a lot, there’s no view quite like the view of home, that of Sydney Harbour.
So when Alice, Beau and I are headed across the bridge to Manly Pavilion to try out their new high tea we’re all thanking the heavens that the rain that had seemed to drench Sydney for the past week has somehow cleared up, that the clouds had exhausted the sea and given up bucketing us down with precipitation. We nab a miracle park outside the entrance and make our way down the stairs to the restaurant floor. It has been about a year since my last visit and I was smitten with the food and the Italian influence extends to the Italian High Tea or Afternoon Tea. And yes I know the difference between the two but they call it high tea here 
We order our tea and take a look at the menu. I was interested to note how different this afternoon tea menu was to a regular one. The tea is $50 for the regular tea or $70 with matched wines. Would Italianating it mean simply including panna cotta and artisan salume in the sandwiches? This one looks very different indeed with the Manly Pavilion modern Italian style in smaller portions and served on a three tier stand-I suppose it’s easier for the kitchen this way. The tiers are served with tea, coffee or Italian hot chocolate which we see too late-we’ve already ordered our tea but we make a mental note to revisit that hot chocolate before we leave.
Our plates arrive along with a plate of fat bread slices and excellent olive oil. Then another bowl of bread comes and it features some crisp savoury crostini and small warm bread rolls. The menu appears more of a guide than what you will receive as from the menu there should be both parmesan and balsamic crostini but there is only one.
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| September 26th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
“So Lorraine, how has life been? Busy? ” Five year old Laura says to me earnestly, holding a wine glass full of water with both hands around the bowl to steady it. She looks at me her legs crossed wearing a pearl patterned knitted dress and diamanté bow in her hair. She along with her sisters Olivia and Eloise and their mum Liss are joining me at the Sir Stamford’s kids afternoon tea. When I was offered the chance to try the kid’s afternoon tea, I instantly thought of these three adorable sisters (who are very polite and well behaved too). In fact, rumour has it that they’ve been talking about nothing else but this ever since they found out. The kid’s tea is $32 per child and the traditional adult’s tea is $44 per adult.
Laura in a most appropriate afternoon tea dress
“This place is fancy!!” Eloise says giggling. “Yesss” Olivia says grinning widely looking around, eyes wide like saucers taking it all in. We sit down at our table and the girls are given a wine glass of ice water which they carefully negotiate towards their mouths (no spillage-well done!) and wait for their food. I adjust the gerberas that they’ve handed me, each one a different colour.
“How long till the food comes?”
“How many seconds?”
“Is it 17 seconds?”
The questions come from each girl as they prepare the food. What to a hungry child is eternity is in fact about 10 minutes in wait.
The Kid’s High Tea stand
I remember my childhood by the food that I ate. When I was six years old I visited Singapore where I tried sarsaparilla for the first time. I remember the first time I ate oysters and spat them out and the first time I ate a cream and jam sponge cake and requested it every year afterwards for my birthday. So as this is the girls first high tea I am aware of how exciting it must be. When the two three tier stands arrive, one for adults and one for the children, there is much excitement, much like a spaceship landing on the table.
The favourite layer-forget sandwiches, the sweets are where it is at! From front: Chocolate & Coconut Crackle, Fairy Cupcake with Strawberry & Sprinkles and Banana & Berry Split
Eloise as big sister makes fast work of the chocolate and coconut crackle
Laura loves her cupcake
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| July 4th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
“Chocolate naan…” Queen Viv’s voice on the other said and that’s about all that I heard apart from the words “afternoon tea”. Queen Viv’s colleague had mentioned the new concept of an Indian Afternoon Tea at Aki’s, Woolloomooloo and like I complain that Mr NQN has selective hearing, drowning out all cleaning requests with a gentle buzz, all I heard were the two words: chocolate naan.
I know, I know, high tea has a different meaning to afternoon tea and despite its lofty name, high tea was usually served to the working class, I get that, but I suspect that this high tea is not a working class affair. It’s on the Finger Wharf in Woolloomoloo and despite the sometime rainy day, there are already eager diners partaking of the afternoon tea. On every day during the month of October as part of the Crave International Food Festival in Sydney it will then be hosted every Sunday from then after.
Miss America and I take our seats at a table and we can see another table have just received their three tiered stand and are busy taking photographs of each other with their prized lunch. I secretly love it when tourists are about as I feel less conspicuous with my camera
With the High Tea menu ($45 per person), you can choose a soft drink from a choice of three: masala chai or mango, sweet or salty lassi. Then you choose a Brown Brothers Sparkling wine-either a glass of their limited release Prosecco or their NV Pinot Noir Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. In the interests of trying something different, we order one of each sparkling, a masala chai and a mango lassi.
Mango lassi, masala chai and Brown Brother sparkling wines
Our sparkling wines arrive first and then the masala chai which is a strong black tea made with Indian darjeeling masala tea with cardamom and milk. The mango lassi is a mango flavoured buttermilk yogurt drink which is just the right consistency.
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| October 13th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella
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.
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| September 27th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella
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