So if there’s anything you should know about me, it is that I LOVE tea. It is very British of me but I just feel after a good, hot cup of tea you can be transported to this parallel universe of comfort and happiness – there’s nothing quite like it haha. So afternoon tea for me is one of my favourite things to do and when I saw the high tea at Grand Pacific – it looked delicious and I knew I HAD to try it!

So apparently high tea is different from afternoon tea as it was originally brought about (in like the 19th century) as more of an evening, supper type meal that people had after work whereas afternoon tea is more sandwiches and scones as a late afternoon meal. High tea usually consisted of heartier dishes which were more than just tea and cakes as workers needed this after a long day of hard labour. Lol okay – history lesson over.

The place.

Firstly guys, this place is so lavish. By far one of the prettiest places I have EVER visited. The decor is gorgeous and everything about this place is just so grand. I took a few snaps but they don’t do it justice – it was beautiful.

The service.

So when we first arrived nobody was at the reception area so we made our way upstairs and waited at the bar and nobody really approached us. I asked one of the barmen if we could be seated (we had a reservation) so he went and checked and said that they would be with us in two minutes. Literally a minute after us two other people came in and a waitress came and seated them straight away – I was so pissed off. I waited a few minutes then actively went and asked if we could be seated – they could sense I was annoyed – so they sat us down and the waiter apologised for the miscommunication and not seating us sooner. They attended to our needs and changed our tea when there was a mix up and I’d say overall the service was good –  not amazing, but good.

The food.

We asked for the Pescatarian option as their meat was not halal and they brought out the sweet and savoury options out separate which was nice because it gave a nice break in between courses rather than feeling like you had to have  it all at once.

Savoury options:
So for the savoury option we had crumpet With Cornish crab butter, Forbidden rice Arancini with goat’s cheese, Salmon & Tuna Lomi, Smoked Salmon Potato Cake, Egg & Mustard Cress Sandwich (lots of these as we couldn’t have the chicken sandwiches) and Eccles Cake With Creamy Lancashire Cheese.

The Arancini was really good – they were basically these crispy riceballs – I had these with the salmon and tuna Lomi (which is basically a Hawaiian side dish) as a dip on top of it. This was my favourite part of the tea and it was real tasty. I found the crumpet quite standard but the crab butter wasn’t for me and I personally did not like the consistency of the salmon potato cake – it was all slimy and I just could not take it haha. I didn’t like the fact they had Eccles cake in the savoury section as it was sweet and didn’t go with  the rest of the tea.

Sweet options:
So for the sweet tea we had Mango & Passion Fruit Brûlée, Jasmine Tea Bread With Rose Jelly & Cream, Lamington Lollipops, Mini Pavlova and a fruit salad. We couldn’t have their sherry trifle or chocolate truffle as they contained alcohol. We were apparently meant to get lemon tart in the high tea too but we weren’t provided with this.

I always feel like when I go for afternoon tea the place either does better at the sweet or savoury and I feel with  Grand Pacific – it was maybe the savoury? I just feel the sweet options were a bit basic and I don’t like fruit cake so I didn’t really eat a lot of the things. The passion fruit was so good though – I have never had it before and LOVED it.

The tea:
I always get English Breakfast when I go for afternoon tea (I know – so boring right?) but my friend got Mango and Passion fruit tea and we were expecting it to be really sweet and tasty but it was SO bitter and terrible haha. Even after two sugars it tasted like washing up liquid so yes – always stick to English breakfast, you can’t go wrong.

Overall…

Overall, I think I would rate this place a 7.5/10 in terms of service and food. I think compared to some afternoon tea places it was quite nice but I feel they could have had some better substitutes in place if you could not have the meat/alcohol options. The place overall was so beautiful and I would definitely go again for dinner maybe but I think for high tea – it’s nice and a lovely experience, but I have had better.