Yesterday my generally low expectations for hotel afternoon teas in Melbourne was finally proven wrong when Tom and I enjoyed an excellent tea service in the lobby of the Westin Hotel.
The Westin does what they call a 'contemporary high tea' on weekends. Now, leaving aside this frequently perpetuated misnomer (a true high tea being a light and informal early evening meal served from a high table, as opposed to an afternoon tea or a 'low tea' served from low tables, such as this one was), I must say I was most impressed. This is easily the best value afternoon tea I have had at any Australian hotel, and among the best in terms of its excellent and interesting food and tea selections.
The light and airy foyer is a pleasant venue with lovely large windows looking over City Square and busy Swanston Street (there was a trapeze show happening in the square during our visit, which provided much diversion). The tea selection is quite interesting, focussed particularly in various green and other herbal Jing teas, although there are also a small selection of more traditional black teas. The teas are served in attractive glass pots and cups, to allow for appreciation of the tea's colours. The food was very good. It is based around some sort of healthy 'superfoods' theme, which is all earnestly explained in their menu. It really was a very generous serving, set out over not one but two three-tier platters: one for savouries and one for scones and sweets. As you may recall, I often think that afternoon tea purveyors neglect the savouries, which I often find the most enjoyable part of the meal, but that was not the case here. We had tasty meat and vegetable wraps, delicious roast pumpkin sandwiches, and lovely smoked salmon mini-bagels. The scones were served with a lovely fig jam and a strawberry jam, as well as a choice of cream or marscapone. The petit fours were small enough to eat daintily and were delicious. Service was attentive and friendly, yet also pleasingly relaxed and not uppity or stuffy.
At $45 with endless tea or coffee, it is among the pricier afternoon teas available, but the generous and delicious food selection and the interesting varieties of teas make it very good value. The Windsor charges about the same and I have to say the Westin is absolutely superior to the Windsor, which is resting on the laurels of its utterly undeserved reputation as "the" place for afternoon tea in Melbourne.
I had only one complaint: like so many other venues, the chairs at the Westin are absurdly deep and very uncomfortable. They are huge tub-style things that are impossible to sit in comfortably. I don't know why so many places insist of having these stupid low, deep chairs. At least the Windsor has comfortable high chairs at high tables - but that is the only aspect of afternoon tea that the Windsor does better than the Westin.
If not for the chairs, this tea would probably have been my first perfect score for an afternoon tea in Australia. As it is, I am giving it 8 out of 10 on the Scott Scale, which actually makes it my top-ranked Australian hotel for afternoon tea.
Incidentally, the current top Scott Scale rankings for afternoon tea are as follows:
SCOTT'S TOP TEN TEA VENUES (at Jan 2010)
Peninsula Hong Kong 9.5/10
Lovejoy's San Francisco 9/10
Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong 8/10
Westin Melbourne 8/10
Ritz-Carlton Singapore 7.5/10
Four Seasons Hong Kong 7/10
Hyatt Hotel Canberra 7/10
Langham Place Hong Kong 7/10
Regent Singapore 7/10
Sheraton on the Park Sydney 7/10
