21 Feb High Tea at The Waiting Room, Southbank

For $55, The Waiting Room offers a daily afternoon tea with Jing Tea and Vittoria Coffee and featuring the usual categories of hot savouries, sandwiches, sweets and scones.

We started with the top tier of crab and leek vol-au-vent and ricotta cheese filled zucchini flowers. The zucchini flowers were well received and it was a bit of a shame there weren’t more warm savoury treats to enjoy.

Egg And Chive Salad Spinach Bread; Smoked Salmon And Herb Crepe Roulade; Cucumber And Cream Cheese On Tomato Bread; Chicken And Walnut on Malted Bread

Of the sandwiches I liked the flavour of the smoked salmon roulade the best, though the cream cheese was very viscous and rich, making it necessary to savour slowly. The other sandwiches were not too bad, though the breads were a little dry.

Spiced Dense Chocolate Cake And Ganache; Violet And Cassis Éclair; Velvet Green Tea And Red Bean Mousse; Mango Curd Tart w. Tahitian Vanilla Cream

The green tea flavour of the creamy mousse was very subtle and some couldn’t taste it, though I quite liked it. The rather pretty mango curd tart had a coconutty case and was decorated with egg-shaped dollops of vanilla cream. The violet and cassis eclair provided some tanginess, which was a nice relief from the richness of the chocolate cake.

Traditional Raisin And Butter-Milk Scones, Homemade Jam And Whipped Cream

These scones were my favourite of the offerings in this high tea. I preferred the plain ones, which to me had a nicer texture and went better with the jam and whipped cream. They were baked to order so we had to give the kitchen 10-15 minutes notice, after which they arrived at the table deliciously warm, crusty and moist. The gluten free alternative to scones was a selection fruit. There was a variety of fruit there, though admittedly not a particularly impressive one.

The final course was the raspberry sorbet. It was very sweet, though not as sweet as the gluten-free pear sorbet. It had a surprisingly dense texture, perhaps because of the raspberry.

The Waiting Room has quite a good reputation but I couldn’t help but feel a little underwhelmed, particularly with the sandwiches. I did quite enjoy those buttermilk scones though; they were the nicest scones I’ve had in a long time.

The Waiting Room
Ground Floor, Crown Towers Lobby Crown Casino
8 Whiteman St
Southbank, VIC, 3006
(03) 8679 1800
http://www.crownmelbourne.com.au/The-Waiting-Room-Bar