Afternoon Tea Diaries: Ritz-Carlton Melbourne

It's time for another entry in my irregular feature of the Afternoon Tea Diaries. We love a high tea. We don't do them all the time because they are a treat but whenever we do one I like to share about it here. 

This time the location for our Afternoon Tea adventure was at the Ritz-Carlton here in Melbourne. This hotel has only been open a couple of years, and so it is very contemporary and beautifully laid out to make the most of the location, or should I saw the views! 

The setting for our tea was actually in the lobby bar/restaurant of the hotel but the restaurant area is open to both guests of the hotel and the public. The unusual thing about this hotel lobby? It's on the 80th floor of the building so all the hotel rooms are below the reception area. The building itself has no other tall building immediately near it so you end up with expansive views across the city to the bay, to Albert Park, to the mountains. There are windows nearly the whole way around the floor (except for where the kitchen is) so the views really are uninterrupted. 

Once we were seated the server bought over an envelope made from thick paper which had my name on it. Inside was the menu for our feast. It was a lovely touch which I haven't seen done in the same way before and it made us feel like it was a special event right from the outset. 

After a bit of a glitch when we had to send our water glasses back because they were full of floaties, we started with a glass of Moet Chandon and then we were invited to choose our tea from the selection that was available. The way that the tea selection was very neat and appealing although I did find myself having to pick up the actual containers in order to be able to smell the teas so they probably had to come through and tidy it all up again after I had been there. I chose White Rose and Goji tea which was very nice.

The appetiser was a delicious. It was a Spanner Crab Tartlet, Celeriac, Apple and Yarra Valley Gin Caviar that tasted as looked as good as it looked.

For me, the savoury items on the menu were actually the highlights of this afternoon tea experience. They were:

 Yellow Fin Tuna Ceviche, Romesco and Pickled Daikon 

Braised Lamb Shoulder Pithivier, Star Anise and Pomegranate Glaze 

Victorian Crayfish Butter Roll, Finger Lime Crème Fraiche, Celery Leaf 

‘Le Dauphin’ Double Cream Cheese Quiche with Shaved Winter Truffle

In particular, I loved the pithivier which was full of flavour both within the pastry and then with the glaze. Delicious!

The sweets course consisted of 

Apple Tarte Tatin with Cinnamon Cream 

Valrhona 70% Guanaja Dark Chocolate Mousse with Orange Marmalade 

Choux Mont Blanc with Blackberry Compote and Chestnut Cream 

Matcha Mille Feuille with Handpicked Local Victorian Raspberries 

The course that didn't impress me that much were the freshly baked scones which were served with Lavendar Honey Butter, Raspberry Jam and Vanilla Chantilly cream. The plain scones were quite dry and were definitely not light and fluffy, which you can even see in the photo. The fruit scones were better until I put the Lavendar Honey Butter on them. From the taste I thought that it was a savoury butter until I referred back to the menu later. Maybe I should have put less of the butter on the fruit scone. I did, however, really enjoy the warm lemon flavoured madeline, and there was a lovely touch with a chocolate each at the end. 

So, overall, it was a bit of mixed bag for me, especially given that this is probably one of the more expensive afternoon teas in the city. The servers were personable, albeit a bit slow, but they were also attentive enough to move us to a bigger table when one became available which was a postive. I can definitely see us going back to the Ritz Carlton for dinner or even brunch. We might explore some other options around the city before we go back again for high tea though.

One of the highlights of this whole experience was that we went with some friends and I am pretty sure that they will be more than happy to come on more of our Afternoon Tea adventures. We are already talking about when and where to go next!

Weekly meals

Saturday - 
Sunday - Out for dinner
Monday - Italian Meatballs
Tuesday - Out for dinner
Wednesday - Out for dinner
Thursday - Normandy pork and mash
Friday - Take away

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