Hello everyone! Jo here on today's topic about High Teas in Singapore! Well, my family and I really enjoy high teas and last year my mummy and I decided to go on a high tea trail. Now, one of my top 2 favourites have always been the Goodwood Park Hotel and The Rose Veranda at Shangrila. So i paid a visit to both of them in the past 2 months. And here I am now, to review the both of them.
Here's my current list of high tea places I've been to in Singapore: Intercontinnental, Four Seasons, Equinox,Sheraton,Goodwood (English and Local),Shangrila,Fullerton,Ritz carlton (but it was more of a high tea lunch thing).Gah, I cant remember anymore.
Anyhoo, let's start off with Goodwood Park Hotel's English Hi-Tea.
So, I've always enjoyed the high tea there cos of the selection of pretty canapes and food wise, I really do think it's pretty excellent.So this round, when my sister came back we headed over there for high tea. So everything was going fine,and I had my usual favourite chicken crepes. The two little rolls on the right hand side of the picture above! I didn't feel like having a hot tea that day,so I had opted for an Ice Lemon Tea instead.Now, i had finished my second cup and by that time I had wanted to change to a hot tea instead. However, to my horror the waiter told me that:"oh each customer is only entitled to 2 cups of tea." For a hot tea, we can only offer you additional hot water. Now at this time,I was fuming mad cos it is a Buffet Hi-Tea and you would think the least the could do is to actually give you a free flow of tea? And I was drinking Ice Lemon Tea which meant that there was no tea bag. My sister told me:" Jo, nevermind just order another tea".So I did, and i got charged an additional 8 dollars. whoopee! Do note, that the high tea wasn't exactly the cheapest.I think it cost about 40 over dollars. So for a 40 dollar high tea YOU CAN ONLY GET 2 CUPS OF ICE LEMON TEA! WHOOPEEE. *waves hands in the air*. They used to give free champagne too in the past, when they decided to be more generous.From a cup of champagne and free flow of tea to TA DAH. 2 cups of ice lemon tea.
So I was really quite pissed off already, so I decided to have a little "chat" with the waiter. And to my even greater horror:"This guy was so RUDEE!!!" *BISH BASH*When you make a complaint, I guess you're kinda fired up already and you want the person to be like :"oh yes, im so sorry ma'am. I'll take you feedback to the management". Woah. But this dude here, he is one champion boy! He told me very rudely:" We don't follow Shangrila and this rule has been in place for many years". and he just kept on arguing with me. And, its amazing hwo one service staff can dampen the mood of your whole day. After that very faithful day, I've struck off Goodwood Park as a place to go for high tea.
Ok, terribly sorry about that rant. Now back to the food.
Now, my favourite thing there is the canape selection!(:so everyone zoom in on that little corner! The only thing I find rather annoying is that they have little black signs, but the font is rather scribbly and tiny so I cant really figure out which canape is which, so I end up just taking the pretty ones.The finger sandwiches are just like the usual ones you get all the time during High teas. nothing spectacular.
These pictures,were actually stolen off from my sister, so that day she had taken a fancy to the foie gras canape as well as the mozeralla cheese and sundried tomato canape. They usually have a hot food section as well, which comprises of baked pasta,samosas and I think they had like tempura thingys before. For me, I steal all the chicken crepes! (: haha. I really really love the chicken crepes there.
Next up, the dessert section! Now, theres my favourite chocolate fountain!(: The good thing about the goodwood park's chocolate fountain is that the chocolate isnt runny. Instead, its like thick and luscious. Oh gosh, did i just write luscious. Who describes chocolate was luscious. hahaa. Anyhoo, yes! Their chocolate fountain is pretty good as well as the Creme Brulee too!(: I cant really review on the cakes, cos I'm not really an English dessert person but more of a Chinese dessert person. But, they really do have a great selection of cakes and desserts. So much better than the Rose Veranda's.
Ok, so summing things up. The food here is pretty good and there's a great variety as well. So if you're not really an iced tea drinker, or you enjoy sticking to the choice of one hot tea.Then,opt for the Goodwood Park's English High Tea. For me personally, I love teas. And I really enjoy trying out new and rare teas. So, their policy at teas is really quite a turn off for me.
I'm giving Goodwood Park's high tea:
out of five jellybellys!Now, Rose Veranda.
They have two seatings one is around 1130 i think till 230 and the other one if from 3 to closing time which is around 6pm.
My aunts and I usually frequent Rose Veranda, as Shangrila very generously gives us 2 complimentary vouchers each time. So, I actually just headed there last weekend and I was shocked as it's really changed alot as well. Food wise and Drink wise: NOT SO GOOD.
The sad thing about it is, Shangrila has a really good Japanese section, so you would actually expect or rather presume that the Japanese food served there would be from their renowned Japanese restaurant. Instead, the rice was hard and came out like little lumps.It tasted stale and kinda... EURGH. Now, if that wasn't bad enough the display was kinda horrendous as well.It's kinda hard to explain, but basically only one person could take sashimi and sushi at a time,resulting in a long queue.
Another sad thing, is that instead of it being a quaint high tea, it seemed to be a full lunch instead. And, it was kinda weird seeing things like steamed fish and things that are normally served for dinner. Weird.Weird.Weird. I can only remember stuffing myself with sashimi as the rest of the food was kinda bleagh. Oh yes,they had fishball soup which tasted like i could bounce them on the floor and they would bounce back. So rubbery. Terrible! The dim sum was kinda out of this world too! The siew mai , dear me.I dont even know what it tasted like. Just,not like a normal siew mai. For the Har Kau,which is my favourite! mushy prawns and saggy skin.
This is not the siew mai! But,its for the readers who dont know what a siew mai is.
I'm really sorry as I didnt take many photos, as I did not think I would be posting them for anyone to see. and the ones which I took, were kinda crappy as I had already eaten the goodies halfway. But nevertheless, I am gonna post them up still.
The dessert section:
There isn't much selection so I only had a bite of the creme brulee, bread and butter pudding and the pistachio marshmallow(it's greeeen in colour!) dipped in chocolate. Oh yes, and I took a bite of the vanilla ice cream which tasted like candle wax!
Now for the tea selection:
The Rose Veranda is renown for their selection of teas! In which, they have about 100 over teas in total! So yay to that! I drank alot of teas that day, Rose Tea, Yunan Pu Er, Sencha vanilla (my favourite!) as well as a few other teas! But, I think i drank a total of nine cups? So yay to the free flow and great selection of teas.At the same time, you can order any tea and opt for it either hot or cold!
In the past, they used to have a really great selection of Iced teas which includedthe Peach Bowle and the Fruit Bowle. These were so good, as they had fruit juices and teas mixed in together. The only one they have left now is Summer Peach, but you have to pay an additional 8 dollars. So I talked to one of the waitresses, who has been at the Rose Veranda for really long! and she told me that the fruit juices were getting expensive so now they only order fruit teas.Double BOOO HOO.):
Oh yes, the service there is really good! the waitresses are ever so prompt, and all of them are really helpful!
So, the Rose Veranda wasn't as good as I had remembered it to be. But it really does have a lovely ambience,and the great service is probably the food's saving grace.
Overall rating:
That's all for today!
Signing off,
Jo
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