It’s a cloudy Sunday afternoon and Perth cannot find it’s female population…
I visited The George on St Georges Terrace in Perth one afternoon with my lady friends for a goodbye high tea. Here… I found 90% of Perth’s ladies.
The George is a classy venue, filled with ladies from all over the City enjoying tea beneath their towering stands of afternoon delights presently neatly on a three-tiered stand.
As I curiously sneak peaks at everyone’s table to see what they have ordered, I soon realise that everyone has identical tables, as the high tea menu is the same for all.
The sweet aroma of tea leafs waft through the dimly lit room, draped with curtains, comfy couches and neatly set tables with the wafting smell of cooked delicacies.
Now came the most important part - tea ordering time!
We were told the selection of teas were from T2 and I chose the Choc Chip Chai tea.
I love a nice authentic chai tea, so I thought a spin off the original could be very interesting...
The Choc Chip Chai had a beautiful aroma, smelling sweetly of that cinnamon, star anise and spices that I know and love. The choc chip flavour wasn't hugely there, I smelt a hint of cocoa but that was mainly it.
The tea itself wasn't very strong. It was like they were running out of tea leaves and only half filled it, as the tea leaf flavour itself was missing.
I added sugar and milk to mine as Chai's are meant to be sweet and milky. I thought considering this was a choc chip chai, it was a cause for even more sweetness!
The overall, tea itself was enjoyable and many others on the table seemed quite satisfied with their tea too. I did get a few more comments on the strength of tea leaves in each of our pots however...so maybe this was a common issue at The George?
Out came our three-tiered stand of gourmet treats!
I was given a "vegetarian version" of what was on the High Tea menu.
I had a quince scroll, a spinach and fetta quiche, a bagel with a sweet beetroot chutney and another with olives, goats cheese and mustard. The sweet selection was a lemon lime tart and a rich chocolate mousse tart.
The rest of the table had the same pastries as me, but on their bagels were beef, and another with smoked salmon and capers with cream cheese. I absolutely love smoked salmon, so I found declaring myself a vegetarian and opting out of the salmon bagels was a rookie mistake.
Luckily I was able to sneak a salmon bagel from the communal stand and swapped one of my olive bagels as I'm not a huge fan of olives.
The three-tiered stand below with sweets and pastries on top, scones in the middle and gourmet bagels on the bottom.
The scones were delicious!
Although I've been spoilt for years with pumpkin and date scones and all varieties, I normally shy away from the plain scone as they seem rather boring to me. These however, were a nice surprise. Light and fluffy, and despite being plain in flavour, this was made up by the fact I could team it with the Vanilla Bean Cream and Chilli-Raspberry jam.
The vanilla bean cream was ever so light and fluffy and balanced out that rich, sweet raspberry jam in which had no hint of "chilli" that I noticed. So in actual fact, the raspberry and vanilla with the plain scone was a lovely touch.
Overall, the service was fantastic; the tea tasty but but not strong; and the food sweet, small and rich.
Highs: An enjoyable sunday afternoon occasion to spend with the girls.
Lows: Paying $40 for a meal which left you a little underwhelmed. However I'm more one for getting a nice filling nutritious meal when I pay $40.
Will I return? Probably not. Nothing against The George, but High Tea really isn't my thing.
Overall: 4/10
