My bestie’s big day is coming and to celebrate her upcoming wedding, we decided to have an afternoon tea session together. Since it is impossible for the three of us to dine outside with the current COVID-19 restrictions, we held a mini hen’s party at my place. And just so you know, I only had two visitors in my house that particular day.
Why we narrowed down to the afternoon tea set by Tea Lounge at Regent Hotel?
Scouting for a high tea or afternoon tea delivery is not too difficult because there’s only a handful of hotel restaurants and independent cafes that do afternoon tea sets delivery. The only thing that we had to consider is whether they are able to deliver during our specified timing and if they offer quality food.
Most of them only deliver during the off-peak periods, between 2 to 5 pm. There were also a few which can deliver at specific timings and one of them is Regent Hotel. They were able to deliver the tea set to my house at the specific timing which I’ve requested. In addition to that, their afternoon set is the most value for food out of all the afternoon tea sets I saw online. It’s not the cheapest but reasonable and comparable to most afternoon tea set takeaways or deliveries.
Regent Hotel’s Tea lounge also offers vegetarian and gluten-free afternoon tea sets. This is the only hotel that caters to vegetarians and people who are sensitive to gluten.
How much did we pay?
Each set costs about $90. In total, we paid about SGD 175 for an afternoon tea set catered for 4 people. We got it at a 20% discount because I was a member of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). By the way, it is free to join as a member. This also includes the delivery of $25. It works out to be about $43.75 per pax.
There were only 3 of us but we decided to get the tea set for 4 since we are having this for lunch. Besides, each afternoon set is meant for 2 people so we had to purchase 2 sets either way. It did not seem like that there was sufficient food but surprisingly, the three of us felt quite full after eating. They were even some leftovers. So what are the afternoon tea treats we had?
A Quintessential Afternoon Tea Experience
The afternoon tea set was delivered at the time slot which I’ve requested. It came in two big bags where the pastries were housed on the cardboard dessert three-tier stand. The set came with a few Gryphon tea sachets. I actually requested a few extra tea sachets in case we wanted to drink more tea. I also requested for them to print a congratulatory card for my bestie and they gladly did it upon my request.
The pastries are specially curated by Executive Pastry Chef Alex Chong from the Tea lounge. Each pastry looked so dainty and small. There were a total of 14 different pastries, both sweet and savoury, curated for each person. So in each set, there were two of each different pastries presented. And if you do the math, each pastry literally costs around $3.
They also have a specially curated playlist on Spotify where you can listen to some music as you enjoy your afternoon tea at home. But we would much rather have no background music so that we can concentrate on our conversations.
Having a fine afternoon tea at home is indeed a refreshing concept. Though I would have much rather dine at the restaurant itself, it is still quite a lovely experience to enjoy hotel-quality pastries right at the comfort of my home – in my casual wear.
What are the sweet and savoury pastries presented in each afternoon tea set?
There are three tiers and each tier has 4 compartments. Listed below are all the pastries presented. They actually list down the name of each pastry on the card tied to the dessert tier too.
Top tier
- Tahitian Vanilla Lemon Financier
- Belgium Dark Chocolate Macaron
- Passionfruit Hazelnut Choux Puff
- Ruby Raspberry Milk Chocolate Mousse Cake
Middle Tier
- Mimosa Sandwich with Avruga Caviar
- Roasted Angus Beef Sirloin Sandwich with Mustard and Summer Truffle Mayo
- Cherry Wood-smoked Duck Breast and Foie Gras Mousse in Blue Pea Flower Choux
- Dill-infused Smoked Salmon Sandwich, CaperCream Cheese and Cucumbers on Whole Grain Bread
Bottom Tier
- Parma Ham and Baby Leek Quiche
- Lemon Curd and Strawberry Preserves
- Summer Broccoletti and Ricotta Quiche
- Freshly Baked Classic Scones and Dried Cranberry Scones with Clotted Cream
My favourites
Surprisingly, the pastries were generally all quite good. The only odd pastry we had was the one with the foie gras mousse in blue pea flower choux. It tastes weird because we think that the foie gras mousse did not quite go well with the blue pea flower choux.
My favourites are definitely the Parma Ham and Baby Leek Quiche tarts and the savoury sandwiches. The scones were lovely too. It comes with strawberry jam, clotted cream and this citrus lemon curd. The other weet pastries were not too bad but I just find them to be too sweet for my liking.
Is it worth the treat?
I personally find that it is not really worth the treat in terms of its value. I would much rather have quality pastries from Tiong Bahru Bakery and cakes from Pantler. However, the service provided by the hotel is superb and the food was nicely presented. It was definitely a lovely treat for a special occasion like a birthday, wedding or anniversary celebration.
Looking back, I thought that maybe I should not have thrown the cardboard dessert tiered stand but to keep it for future use. Imagine creating your own high tea set at home? The idea of using cardboard to make a dessert stand is ingenious.
