The Bar and Alfresco

Hello!

I'm still very much in the holiday mood and I persist in being ignorant about work but I realise that this self-indulgence has to come to an end soon =S So I shall make most use of the last few days of unbridled freedom before 2013 (and work) comes!

If there is one thing that I like and dislike at the same time about dining during the festive period, it is the ubiquitous festive menus! It can get quite frustrating when all you want is to eat something that you normally would be able to get but I guess it's also quite a nice change from the usual if you are 'forced' to have festive dishes. A few days ago, we went to Four Season's Bar and Alfresco for their Classic Afternoon Tea, which came up to $50/pax after taxes. Pardon the rather dark photos. Lighting was low and we were seated at a corner so there was even less light, hence some of the rather dark photos.

Tea begins at 1pm and ends at 5pm so you drop by anytime in between though I would highly recommend that you call to make a reservation, especially during this busy festive period, lest you end up not having a table! We managed to get an indoor table so I was quite thankful because I didn't want to be battling the afternoon heat (it was extremely sunny when we went!). That day, I tried the Jade of Africa decaffeinated tea and it was surprisingly nice! (: The waiter had recommended it so I thought to give it a shot! I think it's my first time drinking decaffeinated tea and I don't think it tastes very different from normal tea. 

This was our refillable three-tier high tea stand! (: I think it's only refillable if all parties at the table choose to have the hightea set. Otherwise it'll be non-refillable, which I guess makes economic sense.

On the top tier, we have festive cookies and fruit cake, which I didn't really like because they tasted like the things we could get from Cold Storage or other supermarkets that sell these =S I wish they didn't serve these but I guess they had to since it adds to the 'festivity'.

The second tier was made up of their signature chocolate desserts and red velvet cupcakes. Comparatively, these were much better than the festive cookies and fruit cake but if I were to compare these with other chocolate desserts that I've had, I don't think these were anything special. I guess the most 'outstanding' would have to be the kumquat-chocolate rounds (on the far right of photo) which I thought was something interesting, but other than that, the rest were just so-so.

The last tier was the savoury tier that had excellent egg and smoked salmon dishes. They were actually quite good so we ordered a second helping of only these two items! The rest - the cucumber sandwich, the ham and sunflower seeds nibbles, some turkey loaf (?) - were merely average. I must say that the BEST sandwiches still come from Goodwood Park's L'espresso! So these definitely couldn't hold a candle to those.

Thankfully, the plain and pumpkin scones saved the day! They were well-baked, not too crumbly, not too dense and were actually aromatic! (: We also ordered a third pair because we liked them so much! (: I actually prefer to eat the pumpkin scones plain, without clotted cream or jam, because it is quite sweet by itself.

And that was how we spent one languorous afternoon! Eating and drinking tea at The Bar and Alfresco (: (: (: How indulgent!