A Spot of Tea!

On our second day in Victoria we went to experience one of the institutions of Victoria which is having high tea at the Empress Hotel. 

 

We were welcomed by our most attentive (and very tall!) server Ray, who sat us down in some nice comfy chairs and went to get our first course.  When I booked the tea, I was asked whether there were any food allergies, so I said pineapple for Craig just in case.  So when the fruit salad arrived, it was a bit disappointing to find a big chunk of pineapple in Craig's fruit salad.  Not a minute later, our server came over, most apologetic about the pineapple, and took Craig's salad back and returned with a specially made pineapple-free salad.

Next arrived the tea tray, which really was one of those "ooh...aah" moments, as everything not only looked good to eat, but was so pretty too!

Mmmmmm...sooooo good!

 

The half eaten sandwich plate.  At the front we had BC smoked salmon and cream cheese which was AMAZING, on the left at the back was chicken with mango chutney, in the middle is cucumber and horseradish and on the right is mushroom with truffle oil.  There was also a carrot and ginger and cream cheese one.

 

Golden raisin scones with strawberry jam and cream. 

 

 The top plate was sooooo good.  In the middle was a chocolate fudge cake.  Behind that is earl grey shortbreads, to the left is battenburg cake, which I hadn't had before, and really liked.  To the right were chocolate tulips filled with a chocolate ganache and an italian cherry soaked in something flammable, and in the front was lemon curd tarts with a tiny meringue swirl.

 

All in all, the tea at the empress was well worth the money.  The tea was a lovely tasting tea, the food was amazing, and the service was excellent.   Only problem is...I've just got really hungry writing this!