Burnt Orange

Like the cute button-patterned teapot they've put your orange pekoe in? You can go into the store and buy one just like it when you're done – Burnt Orange is that kind of place. It's also the kind of place where you can sit on a grand old wooden balcony and cast your eyes over Middle Harbour or the kookaburras picking at the lawn down below – both café and shop are housed in an old golf club built back in the '20s that was pretty much made for afternoon tea. Kick yours off with a glass of very cold Redbank Emily brut and prepare for a cake-and-tart onslaught. On the top tier of your tea tower, a light Moroccan orange-and-almond cake is full of citrus bite while a salted caramel and chocolate tart is salty enough to skew savoury. The chicken/tarragon finger sandwiches below are made on a crumby, almost cake-like brown bread (and are big enough to leave us wondering whose fingers they were thinking of when they made them), and a spread of scones on the bottom tier are from-your-nan's-oven perfect – though we'd have preferred simple clotted cream rather than the too-sweet vanilla bean-infused stuff they're serving. Overdosing on cake at this house with this view: there are few better sugar highs to be had.