The Second Antipodean Tea – Sunday 7th August 2016
The George, 216 St Georges Terrace, Perth, Australia AUD$60 for Grand Cru High Tea with a glass of French Champagne
Lucky old me! Another tea so soon after the first in Australia. My lovely friend A had arranged us another tea accompanied by her friend G, whose birthday it just happened to be and the perfect excuse for a High Tea accompanied by a glass of Mumm champagne in celebration.
Attracted by the promise of classy food, and a swanky environment we were keen to get started on this one. Service was quick and we were soon seated in a fairly noisy room at a rather plainly set table with our champagne, choice of tea from an extensive list and (you may have to sit down for this one, it’s a shocker…) ….red cream soda scones with Chantilly cream and balsamic chilli raspberry jam.
Yes! Your eyes do not deceive you, they served the scones first. Admittedly they were warm, crisp and dense and could be piled high with cream and the delicious jam, but they were tart rather than buttery and just a little disorientating given they were served first before anything else. The rest of the tea was delivered on a cake stand after we had finished the scones. Still we were on another continent and they do things differently here.
Following in the footsteps of my previous Australian High Tea there was a more generous selection of warm savouries alongside the sandwiches than is commonplace in the UK and I was happy to give them a good tasting. Again a selection to suit my vegetarian tastes had been provided (although I must admit I had also weakened on the matter of smoked salmon which I can rarely resist) and I started with a buttery croissant filled with cheese and tomato. I enjoyed the flavourful filling but A and G were less convinced with their chicken and sweetcorn as they felt it was, in fact, too sweet. We all had a puff pastry pinwheel with blue cheese and mushroom which was very nice and very mushroomy, and followed it with a gorgeous little caramelised onion and cheese tartlet which was crisp on the outside and delightfully creamy and soft inside.
Hot on their heels we tucked into the sandwiches, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. There was cream cheese and cucumber on black bread, which was the best of the three, smoked salmon and cream cheese on a bagel that tasted more like a brioche and a dainty little crostini. A and G had a chewy prosciutto, and I had a delicious garlicky tzatziki with onion marmalade which was creamy and not too vinegary.
Our final round was the bite sized cakes. Beautifully presented, some slightly ‘out there’ ingredients and looking inviting. I went with the chocolate cup filled with a white chocolate and fennel mousse first. I knew this would be the right choice as I have a slight queasiness and greenness around the gills for anything aniseedy or tasting of liquorish (and naturally completely unrelated to any student drinking episodes involving pernod). I was right. Whilst A and G decided they could not taste the fennel, I could and did not like it. The chocolate cup was nice though. Secondly I went for the macaron, of which I am usually a big fan. This was a bit strange though, too fragile and explosive, tasted of orange but not enough to overpower the almond in the macaron base. The last was a Snickers tart with popping candy, which I loved. Soft caramel, peanuts, lovely thin pastry and popping candy, what’s not to like there? This time my cake strategy worked.
I did like this tea, but left feeling a little dissatisfied. The service was a bit lacklustre, the table rather plain and there were chips in various pieces of the crockery that had to be replaced. The background music was so quiet as to be almost invisible and the overall atmosphere was really quite subdued. There were some really good points to the food, especially the savouries and sandwiches and the Snickers tart. But I am a purist with my Teas and I prefer to have my scone at the end to finish my meal and I felt that it just didn’t flow right this way.
Leaving G to work off her calories by walking home A and I strolled back to the car and drove back to her place where the men and kids were waiting for us to entertain them. We obliged.
Overall marks (out of 5 stars)
Service: **1/2 Understated and quite distant
Amount of Food: **1/2 We ate it all and were quite full at the time but were hungry later
Quality of Food: ***1/2 Savouries and sandwiches were the stars, with a special mention for the snickers tart.
Value for money: Again it is difficult to say as it is the equivalent of £35 and for the cost it does not compare well at all in the UK. However, against other Teas in Western Australia, and given that it is at a swanky hotel in the middle of a big city and includes a glass of expensive champagne, I think it is very competitively priced.
Description: ‘That tartlet was to die for’
The website is here http://www.thegeorgeperth.com.au/
They are on Trip Advisor https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g255103-d1935378-Reviews-The_George-Perth_Greater_Perth_Western_Australia.html they are also on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
And my suggested track for today’s tea is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPToAE5f3lI (but play it really, really quietly so you can hardly hear it to get the same experience we had)
helenwedgwood 