Stamford Plaza Auckland High Tea
22-26 Albert Street, CBD
Since the commencement of honours at the beginning of the year, I've slowly come to realise that I am weeee bit obsessed with deal websites. I think it is partly due my endless will to procrastinate. Sadly it's an expensive form of procrastination, since it doesn't help my bank balance at all (it really doesn't). I'm sensing irony here.
A month and a half ago, B3 and I both purchased the GrabOne deal offering High Tea at the Stamford Plaza - 2 people for $35. I've always wanted to try it out at least once and this was the perfect opportunity. So today B3, LaLa, Buzzy, and I had High Tea at the Stamford lobby. By the time we arrived at the lobby, I was hungry. Very hungry. So hungry, all I could really think about was that I was hungry.
Service was a bit slow, but the waitress was very polite (amongst all of her confusion, as well as ours too). We asked for a better table, which we thankfully got, since the table they originally gave us was a bit small for four people. Each of us were given a complimentary glass of bubbles (a drink at 1:45pm, yes please!) which took some time in arriving.
The arrival of the three tiers of "little food" as I like to call it, also took a bit of time. Considering that most of the food would have already been made prior to our arrival, I would have thought that the food would arrive rather swiftly. I really wanted some food to eat since I didn't want to drink on an empty stomach (don't ask me if I had a few sips before the food arrived...). The food did arrive eventually. Small as expected. Perfect size for me considering I don't really eat that much.
I assume that because of the GrabOne deal, we were given a set that was already selected for us. The bottom tier on the plate stand were the finger sandwiches. From what I recall, there were five different kinds: ham and cheese, salmon and cucumber, silverside corned beef, chicken, and a vegetarian-based mushroom sandwich. If you've read my previous posts, you'll know about my love for mushrooms. Mmmm. All the sandwiches were solid, but truth be told it's hard to stuff up a finger sandwich (or am I wrong on that one?)
The middle tier consisted of two scones per person, with double cream and jam. I found the scones a wee bit crumbly for my liking, but they were still pretty delicious with the cream and jam.
The final tier consisted of quite a few desserts. A part from the mini blueberry cake, I had to halve the other desserts so LaLa and I could taste all of the dessert selection. There was a tiny lemon meringue pie, a tiny glazed kiwifruit tart with a creme patisserie filling, and two chocolate round thingymabobs (possibly-truffles-but-could-be-something-different, wow I have a way with words). One was covered in chocolate sprinkles, the other covered in toasted shaved almonds. I really liked the kiwifruit tart, the lemon meringue pie was surprisingly okay*, and the blueberry cake was nice and moist. The chocolate thingymabobs (you must be thinking - why does this girl have a blog?) were okay, but Buzzy didn't like the taste of one of them since she said it tasted like old chocolate. Ew.
In addition to the food and bubbles, we also had coffee. Not much to say, except that Buzzy wanted a caramel latte, but they had no caramel syrup. Very odd.
Verdict: Overall, not too shabby. While only three tiers of "tiny food", you still end up feeling rather full at the end. The bubbles and coffee help of course. You kind of expect High Tea to be....well, not cheap. But part of it lies within the "experience" and the extravagance, and it was enjoyable. High Tea isn't a once-a-week thing either. Considering that we actually paid $17.50 each, it was pretty good. Would I want to pay the normal price of $35**? If there was more of a selection and all of the food was consistently good, then sure why not.
*I normally do not like lemon meringue pie. Lemon in desserts aren't my thing. Sorry.
**The normal price is $35 pp. $25pp without the bubbly.
