Last Saturday, right in the middle of a mini Cape Storm, Bjorn and I got to enjoy a relaxing & indulgent afternoon of High Tea at the Table Bay Hotel in the V&A Waterfront.

Now this hotel has always been a favourite of mine.  I’ve been there for a few events and have also been to their Camelot Spa for a little treat for myself, but their restaurant & High tea are two things I had not yet had the pleasure of experiencing.

Every time I walk into that reception hall I’m blown away by how beautiful this hotel is.  It’s got that old world charm to it, rich colours, atrium style windows, furniture with a gorgeous antique feel, the kind of space which immediately makes you you think of royalty and how they probably live…

So the challenge for the afternoon:  High Tea consisting of 3 courses, each course carefully paired with fine teas from TWG.  TWG is a Singapore based company (just so you know).  They source the best tea leaves, spices and flavour-packed ingredients from all around the world, making their tea something quite special.  Food wise you’re also in really good hands because the High Tea menu has been specially created by the Table Bay executive chef, Jocelyn Myers.

As we settled into our seats and took in the waterfront views, our waiter came to say hi:

OK OK, that didn’t actually happen.   But that would have been a pretty awesome Disney moment, right?  Our real waiter was Sergio and he was an absolute sweetheart.  He didn’t even blink an eye when I put milk & sugar into one of my teas, which when it comes to top quality tea, that’s like asking for All Gold tomato sauce at a fine dining spot…

For the first course however, I was brave and went for the Royal Darjeeling tea without any milk or sugar.  And I was really surprised.  I didn’t need to add anything because the flavour just popped.  Bjorn had the Lung Ching tea, which is a green tea and according to Sergio his top choice for that particular course.  Now courses one & two are served at your table and then for course three, they let you loose on the cake buffet.

We kicked things of with some fancy finger sandwiches:

But it doesn’t stop there, they also bring you a selection of mini quiches:

Normally I don’t really enjoy quiches, especially when they’ve got that soggy eggy texture to them. Blegh.  But these had a nice crispy crust and were totally yum.

Course number 2 is probably one of my favourite things in the world:  scones with fresh cream & preserves.  You just don’t get better than that.

This was so good, we asked for a 2nd round of scones.  Forgot to mention with course 1, you can even ask for a refill!   Paired with our scones we both opted for the French Earl Grey tea.  This is where I crumbled and added the milk & sugar.  Just because I’m used to having my Earl Grey that way.  But I think Bjorn was a bit embarrassed. hehe.

To catch our breath a bit before we tucked into course number 3, Sergio brought us some of the recommended teas for the last course to see & smell:

They all had such an incredible aroma, but I looove pink, so my choice was easy peasy:

It was at this point Bjorn let me in on his “buffet conspiracy theory”.  He was like: “You see, they fill you up with the sandwiches and scones, delicious as they were, but in the hope that you’ll be too full to overindulge at the cake table.  But they won’t get me.. I’ll show ‘em…”  I had to laugh (a lot).  The look of determination in his eyes was quite impressive.  Obviously some kind of previous buffet trauma was still haunting him.   He was very serious about this, something which was quite evident when you compared our two cake plates.  This was mine:

But this was his:

I couldn’t even finish mine, but he worked through his plate like a man on a mission.  I just had to steal this piccie from his Instagram feed to show you:

Now I was pretty full after this amazing treat.  My stomach had kinda popped out like a little pregnant belly.  But needless to say, a certain someone felt a little more uncomfortable than that… My advice:  Just pace yourself and you’ll be fine.  There’s no need to rush and also no need to panic.

A huge thank you to Sarah Prins, the PR Manager at Sun International for setting this up for us.  This was certainly a very special treat and we loved every single minute of it.

Important things to note:

• High Tea takes place daily from 14:30 to 17:30
• The cost is R185 per person
• Rather be safe than sorry and call ahead to book a table:  021 406 5988

Let them eat cake!

xxx