Melbourne’s brimming with fabulous high tea experiences, but now there’s a new one you need to add to your rotation. Call your nan, your girlfriends, or whoever else it is you ferry along with you to fulfil your highest high tea fantasies, and get your names on the list right away.
The Melbourne Marriott Hotel on the corner of Exhibition and Lonsdale Street has announced an exquisite New York style high tea, designed to delight and bedazzle your taste buds all afternoon long. Perfect for two, the three-tied stand is offering a selection of cold and warm dishes, plus handmade pastries and desserts.
The high tea will take place daily from noon to 3pm for a limited time at the hotel’s signature restaurant, The Essence. Inspired by the hotel’s American roots, Marriott Melbourne’s head chef Swami Nanden is bringing Big Apple classics to the table and infusing them with a local Melbourne twist. Think traditional baked raspberry cheesecake, mac and cheese croquettes with sweet mustard pickle, mustard mayo, and mouthwatering pastrami and sauerkraut bagels. Swami has worked in some of the world’s most famous restaurants, Michelin-starred Benares Mayfair, Noma and Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s.
“It’s about creating delicious morsels that look and taste amazing,” Swami said. “So many people eat with their eyes – plus, we live in an Instagram age – which is why we’ve paid particular attention to detail and the aesthetic appearance of these dishes.”
Forget about exxy flights to NYC, because this dazzling array of savouries and sweets will take you there through taste. Other highlights on the menu include cucumber, avocado and cream cheese sangas on granary bread, Bahamian lobster sliders and melt-in-your-mouth chicken and leek pithivier pies. If you’re a sweet tooth, you’ll be all over the espresso martini cake, cereal milk panna cotta with cornflake crunch and mini choux pastry eclairs.
And of course, a high tea isn’t a high tea without scones, so here you’ll be served them freshly baked with strawberry jam and fresh cream. The package also includes bottomless barista-brewed coffee and leaf tea, such as green tea with lychee and ginger, rose with French vanilla, Italian almond, peppermint and more.
Per head, the experience costs $59 without alcohol, $70 if you’d like a tipple of King Valley prosecco, $75 for a glass of Yarra Valley Chandon Brut instead, or $79 for a fun New York-inspired cocktail.
Ready to get your luxe Manhattan fix? Go to the website.
