Memoirs of Aleisha

Afternoon tea number 2 of 5 during my week in Sydney last year.
The venue: The Westin Hotel located in the GPO building of Martin Place. It’s an architectural historical icon in Sydney, or at least I think it is. It also oozes suits. The interior is fancy!
The lucky dining companion was my older brother. No one in my family escapes being dragged around to high teas with me.

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

I really liked the concept of the traditional (heritage-style) contrasted with the new and modern. This is reflected in their menu. There are two high tea menu offerings – the Heritage Afternoon Tea and the Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea. Why choose one, when you can have both. We opted for one of each so we could each then share and sample both. Yes, all in the name of comparative research.

From Westin afternoon tea

The Heritage Tea option:

From Westin afternoon tea

The Mad Hatter’s option:

From Westin afternoon tea

Champagne:

From Westin afternoon tea

Here they are side by side:

From Westin afternoon tea

Portions are somewhat on the smaller side.

From Westin afternoon tea

This was the modern traditional one:

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

It looked pretty and fancy, but it was lacking in flavour.

The desserts were different and not your typical fare:

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

On the Mad Hatters Afternoon Tea tier:

From Westin afternoon tea

Bonus points for colour and creativity. But the flavour profiles weren’t so great. They were not the most palatable dishes. But they did make for great photos. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of icing, so all this coloured icing was a bit of a turn off for me. But how cool does it look!

From Westin afternoon tea

Alice in Wonderland represented: The watch, the hat and the Queen of Hearts.

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

There was only one of each so we had to cut each item in half so we could sample everything. This got very messy.

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

Now you can see why I am an advocate of new/fresh plates for each tier at afternoon tea. It should be standard.

From Westin afternoon tea

Splitting the salad was a lot more difficult:

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

I thought the scones here were good:

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

What I also enjoyed about this venue, is that you can have as many different teas as you like. I am pretty sure this is the only venue in Sydney I’ve been to so far that allows this. Most venues restrict you to one blend of tea. You can have as many as you can muster here. I think I only through 2 or 3 different teas here.

From Westin afternoon tea

And the tea selection from memory was quite extensive. I got a black tea of sorts, probably some breakfast blend and also got a jasmine tea:

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

The GPO Building interior is also worth checking out. It’s home to some fancy stores and dining establishments.

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

From Westin afternoon tea

I have mixed thoughts about this one. I think on the whole, it would be a positive high tea review. Unlimited tea is a definite bonus. Nice building location. And the food was pretty good. Menu definitely looks good on paper. I liked the modern touch to this place and the creativity of the menu.

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.