High Tea at The Westin

Yesterday afternoon we treated ourselves to high tea at The Westin on Hay street.  I know it should technically be referred to as ‘Afternoon Tea’ as high tea was traditionally an entirely different meal, but since all of Perth has adopted the term high tea, I’m going to run with that from here in.

Firstly I’d like to say, the one thing that has always bothered me about high tea (at least in Perth) is the way it seems to be marketed heavily at women only. My husband enjoys high tea just as much as me, as do all my friend’s husbands, but it makes booking a little awkward when the tag line is always something along the lines of “get the girls together”. I know it was popularised by ladies in Victorian times, but I don’t think we should be bound to that in 2018.

With that mini rant out of the way...

We spotted the Haven Lounge at the new Westin hotel from our seat at Hadiqa bar a few nights earlier, and decided it had been too long since we’d been out for afternoon tea, so we made a booking for the weekend. The lobby and lounge were quite impressive; modern and stylish without being over the top. We opted for the standard high tea service, which comes with a choice of tea or coffee. I ordered the Assam breakfast, and my husband the Earl Grey. The staff were all very friendly but a few seemed very unfamiliar with high tea service. I suppose it’s to be expected when the hotel is still so new, but we were never offered any sugar for our tea, the food items were not explained or written down so we were left to guess what we were eating (not a huge issue but it’s nice to know) and getting our tea refilled was an ordeal in itself, at one point leaving us with 2 tea pots each and no tea cups at all. When we enquired about getting our cups back the waitress once again seemed thoroughly confused, but we got there in the end.

The food however is very good. Whatever issues the floor staff are still working out, the kitchen is clearly on the ball. Every item was flavourful and well presented. Standouts were the Proscuitto sandwich (or at least that’s what we decifered it as), the crustini topped with parfait and rare beef, and of course the scones. We all know scones are the deciding factor when it comes to high tea, and these did not disappoint. The scone texture was spot on and paired perfectly with the tart raspberry jam and vanilla cream.

All in all we enjoyed the meal. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend the afternoon and I certainly intend to come back in a few months when they’ll hopefully have any teething issues worked out.

We also spied the next venue on our to-do list on the way out...