Monday, August 25, 2014

Alkaff Mansion High Tea

 Went to Alkaff Mansion for a lazy brunch on a Saturday afternoon. I was glad that I was seated indoors, and not in one of those outdoor tents.
 Starter of iced tea (apparently English breakfast, though it was too sweet for me to taste anything else) and bruschetta. The pasta was from the semi-buffet station - cream and bacon penne with a dash of truffle oil.

 Crepe Suzette
I know that crepe suzette is cooked with orange juice and liqueur , but it was all ready made, and just warmed up in the pan. I don't really have issues with that just as long as they serve it warm. However, when I requested for them to just warm up the crepe alone without all the orange juice, the server refused. Seriously it's not as if it'll be a fire hazard. I don't see why they are so inflexible.
 Condiments - jam and butter
The three tiered tea set (not refillable)
Bottom Tier:
The smoked salmon sandwich was sad and dry - so dry that I knew after eyeballing it that it had been left out for too long.
The other sandwich was a beef loin, with tuna, which I didn't eat.
There was a weird foie gras pate with apple compote and some weird dry bread which was yellow in colour (that no one ate). There was also a filler of a skewered piece of ham with a small chunk of pineapple.
Middle Tier: 
Some cupcake which looked rather plain and sad
Some berry (vague 'berry' - the waitstaff didn't know what kind of berry it was) cupcake
Blackberry-pseudo macaroon - custard- lookalike thingy
Macaroon
Top tier:
Scones (didn't try, the others said it was average)

The high tea includes a small buffet spread of the pasta (seen above), crepes, and some small cakes/bites.

The whole time, it was an amazing challenge to get the waitstaff to explain what was on the tiers. Even the manager didn't know what flavour macaroon it was (probably came out from a box, so can't really blame her). I have never felt such absurd difficulty getting them to explain the dishes to me. Ever. This was the first.

Plus, initially we ordered 3 pots of Gryphon tea (to share amongst 4 people) - one of which was the White Royal Peony (white tea, apricot, English rose), which I really liked. Somehow after about 4-5 pots of the same tea (I did try some of the other teas, but didn't particularly fancy them), they gave me a new pot of White Royal Peony, which was a totally different colour (dark brown instead of a light yellow) and taste. Assuming that they might have made a mistake, I informed the server, who said that he would check to confirm.

He brought back a supposedly new pot of tea, which was the same dismal brown colour, and insisted that this was the white peony tea that I had been drinking the whole afternoon. I didn't touch it after that.

At $47 nett, and with such a wide selection and unlimited changes/refills of tea, I suppose it sort of made it more worth it, though their food selection and service has lots of room for improvement. The dining area is really quaint, there was live music (violin + cello), and there was no worry about expiring carpark coupons and carpark fees. If the food and service was up to par, I would have strongly recommend this place, but it definitely wasn't and I doubt that I would be back anytime soon. Which is a great pity cos the ambience is really nice.

Go at your own risk:
Alkaff Mansion
10 Telok Blangah Green Singaproe 109178
Tel: 65103068

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