Wonderful experience at The Hotel Windsor for afternoon tea. Lovely selection of sandwiches and cakes. I would thoroughly recommend the experience to others.
Kiera S.
Place rating: 4 South Yarra, Melbourne, Australia
While not as classy as I was expecting, this was certainly a fun outing. The good: The scones and tea were excellent. The Windsor morning blend was nice and strong, and the scones were of a good consistency and flavour. It was also nice to have proper cream to go with them, instead of the whipped cream concoctions that you end up with at many other places. The venue is of course another plus — beautiful historic building, with nice china and table settings. The less impressive: The service was a bit underwhelming — all very nice and polite, but generally very young, and really just not the calibre I was expecting. The sandwiches were also a bit dry. It would have also been nice if there was some sort of music playing(jazz or something?) instead of silence.
Tanya F.
Place rating: 3 Melbourne, Australia
This is billed as a must do in Melbourne and often advertised as THE place to have afternoon tea. It’s a bit barn like to be honest. Loads of people crammed in and not much atmosphere. I did not get the sense that this was classy, it was a generic experience. The food is nice and on a Sunday there is a dessert buffet. Staff are fine but take quite some time to take a tea order and the deliver it. We have been here twice now and on each occasion had drinks added to our bill that we had not ordered. An older establishment, I am wondering if it is a little tired. It is in a great location but there are better places for high tea in Melbourne. Still, if you are wanting ‘original’, then according to their marketing, this is the place.
Julian T.
Place rating: 1 東京都, Japan
According to them, they have been serving afternoon tea since 1883. $ 65 a pop for kitschy décor, rock-hard scones, stuffy old farts and musky carpets. If I have wanted all those shit, I coul dhave done a museum for free. Some things are better left in the last, last, last century.
MoMo And Coco O.
Place rating: 2 Australia
For those who have had the opportunity of taking tea at the Ritz in London, the Plaza in New York, the Peace Hotel in Shanghai, the Raffles in Singapore or the Peninsula in Hong Kong, afternoon tea at the Hotel Windsor — in MoMo & Coco’s respectful opinion — is analogous. Although one is of course, particularly mindful that these are venerable afternoon tea institutions, one is also inclined to opine that many other venues do do it better. The food offerings at the Windsor err on the conservative side, with barely any tampering with classicism. This means that it can be, in the greatest honesty, rather boring or underwhelming. However, afternoon tea at these institutions, as at the Windsor, is less about the food as it is about generally excellent service and teas, and the unrivalled opportunity to rediscover the history, tradition and architecture of a bygone era. It’s for that reason that the Windsor remains a must-do for the tourist, for the first-time afternoon tea participant, for the traditionalists, and also, for those who have become disillusioned with the increasingly carelessly-executed interpretations masquerading and cheapening the experience. For what afternoon tea could be, one would do better to visit other equally lovely, albeit not as historical, venues(see here for a selection). But, for what it should be, the Windsor is the reminder of a fine classical afternoon tea.
Hope M.
Place rating: 4 Melbourne, Australia
My girlfriends and I had been talking about getting dressed up and doing High Tea at the Windsor for years before we finally did it, so we were pretty excited when the day finally came. On arrival it was apparent we were the only people under the age of 80 doing tea that day(it was a Wednesday) but as a result I think we got extra-special attention — I’m guessing the staff get a bit sick of chatting to the olds. The service and setting were both divine, and the wee little sandwiches were fantastic! I ate about a million of the salmon ones, they were awesome. We also got scones and pastries, so it was a pretty complete meal. Generally I only drink herbal teas, so I wasn’t blown away by all their specialty traditional blends, but other tables seem to be. I had the chai which was good but had been tamed for a western palate — it was not as grainy, sweet and as strongly flavoured as the stuff you get on the streets of India, which I’m a big fan of! The Windsor does two tea sittings per day — 12 — 2pm and 2.30 — 4.30pm, but on the weekend it costs $ 20 more for the addition of ice cream. Bookings are essential. They can do vegetarian and gluten free options if you tell them at the time of the booking. They also do breakfast and dinner, and have a bar that is open to non-guests.
Deborah jane g.
Place rating: 2 Victoria, Australia
Even before I moved to Melbourne, I had heard quite a lot about The Windsor Hotel’s traditional afternoon tea. Being a fan of this tradition myself(who doesn’t want to be served bite-sized sandwiches and cake while you sip on tea) I decided that a visit to The Windsor was definitely in order. Having served this traditional afternoon tea since 1883, my expectations were high. Keeping in mind that the Windsor is known for its poised, luxurious reputation, we got dressed up for an afternoon of cucumber sandwiches and sweet bite sized morsels. We were seated promptly, our order was taken and we requested for everything — tea, food and champagne to arrive at the same time. The bubbly and three-tier gourmet finger food arrived promptly but we sat there and chatted for at least 25 minutes before the tea finally made its entrance. Needless to say I was parched by then and couldn’t understand why no one even explained the delay and when we enquired about this, the student who was serving us just smiled awkwardly and walked away. The cakes/pastries were okay(nothing to scream about) and the finger sandwiches were a little dry for my liking(this happens when bread is left out so the sandwiches must have been made much earlier). I did like the scones with jam and cream though but I didn’t appreciate having to wait yet again for my teapot to be refilled. And at $ 59 per person on weekdays and $ 79 per person on weekends — I certainly expected better and cannot see what the fuss is all about.