Memoirs of Aleisha

I have a slew of afternoon tea blog posts to write up about. It’s not that I haven’t partaken in afternoon/high teas of recent, rather I just haven’t had time to sort through photos and do write-ups etc. This blogging business is time-consuming stuff, and this thing called “full-time work” really interferes with the blogging.

I have at least 8 afternoon tea reviews to write up about, so lots to look forward to, dear reader.
Last year, I actually didn’t do many afternoon teas in Japan at all, so most of the high tea blog posts will be international ones, so that’s pretty exciting.

Let me start off, with one of the best afternoon teas, or at least my personal favourite, I did in 2013.
This was back in Sydney in November last year. A nice father-daughter afternoon tea. Every visit home, I drag my dad along to a high tea. Secretly, he loves it. He’s done a handful of afternoon teas now. We had to do a Westie high tea though. But can I say, Westie high teas are the best. So, don’t mock the West. West is Best.

The Hills Lodge offer afternoon tea on Fridays and Saturdays only. Alas, my visit to Sydney was short and I was due to fly out on Friday morning. I would miss out on their Fridays and Saturdays only high tea offerings. However, they made special arrangements for me, and offered to do a private high tea for us on the Tuesday, for which I was extremely grateful.

Technically, the restaurant for afternoon tea was closed, but they had the chef prepare afternoon tea for us especially. This place excels in service. Firstly, they were most accommodating. I emailed the Lodge asking for afternoon tea service on Tuesday, which they did, just for us. I figured, it didn’t hurt to email them and ask. They happily agreed to serve us. We were the only guests in the whole restaurant. Had the whole venue to ourselves. And secondly, the service was outstanding. Granted, we were the only patrons there. The manager, Joel, was amazing. Super nice, friendly and attentive. It was a real treat coming here. People, service and the food was outstanding.

I was very impressed by the food here and it was a super pleasant afternoon.
The venue itself is in the Hills district of Western Sydney. The Hills Lodge is an English Tudor style lodge.

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

The whole venue to ourselves! VIP treatment.

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

The indulgence high tea is 3-tier stand of the usual treats and a piccolo of Moet champagne. Yes, please. I will never say no to bubbles:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

Looking like the lady of leisure that I am:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

Now, bring on the goodies:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

Afternoon tea for two:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

Westie food is such comfort food. Some good ol’ sanger’s and mini quiche. And you know I’m a sucker for quiche:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

Warm, tasty, mini quiche:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

A plateful of sweets:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

An assortment of 8 different sweets including some ol’ classic favourites such as lemon meringue, and a lamington (an Aussie thing).

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

Alas, there was only one of each, so we cut each in half so we could sample all 8.

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

Everything was sooo good here.

And some proper Aussies scones and chocolate-dipped strawberries. Aussie scones are hands down the best. No where else quite does scones like they do Down Under. And believe me, I’ve done afternoon in about 10 different countries.

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

All washed down with a generous pot of tea:

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

From Hills Lodge afternoon tea

I thoroughly enjoyed this special high tea by request. Big thanks to Cheryl, Joel and chef that helped make it happen. Definitely worth the trek out to the burbs for this afternoon tea. Over course of 2013, I visited about another 4-5 afternoon tea venues in the Sydney CBD, and I would have to say, afternoon tea at the Hills Lodge was the best of my Sydney tastings.

Website here.