I know the Conrad's Fashion afternoon tea has been and gone, but this All Seasons version ... ohhh the glamour! It comes in a wedding cake-esque tiered stand, with drawers opening out one for sweet and one for savoury for each season and is majestically crowned with a stand of scones, condiments and chocolates. Afternoon tea bliss!
The first thing to note is that this is a very generous tea - so generous that in order to keep track, my daughter and I actually got out a pen and rated each thing out of 10! There was only one thing that was a fairly hard luke-warm for both of us and there were many many 10s!
From the savouries, the clear favourites were the crab tartine which was light and absolutely mouth-watering, the beautiful-to-bite-into brie on brioche and the duck rillettes with apple slaw. Being a tomato person, I also enjoyed the tomato carpaccio with a fabulous pesto. Served on a foccacia roll, this was a dream!
I'm not normally a huge fan of jars of things with afternoon tea, mostly because they're usually just bland but the rhubarb crumble was a little pot of heaven, texturally gorgeous and my 'seconds please!' choice. I'm also really fussy about pavlova because apparently people are unable to understand the difference between a pav and a meringue. This little darling actually had a marshmallowy centre alongside its crisp exterior. Filled with good cream and topped with tart berries, we gave this 11/10!
The pictures tell more of the story but I think this is the best afternoon tea Conrad has produced in a while. The combinations of flavours, quality of ingredients and incredible finishing, put this, in my opinion at the top of teas in town at the moment.
Of all the seasons, we think we enjoyed Summer the best. Would love to hear your favourite!
AED230 per person in the Lobby Lounge | AED260 in Observation Deck
Daily 2-6PM
Call 02 811 5555 to book