Afternoon Tea Review: Intercontinental Singapore
Keywords: Afternoon tea - Peranakan - Local - Elegant
Month of visit: September 2020
Youtube video review: Intercontonental Singapore Peranakan Afternoon Tea | Review
Afternoon tea at Intercontinental Singapore.
The Intercontinental Singapore’s Peranakan afternoon tea is a unique twist of this traditional English themed dining. Inspired by local flavours and created by domestically sourced ingredients, this afternoon tea is one of its kind. Situated at the lobby lounge of the Intercontinental Singapore, diners can enjoy this heritage experience in a palatial setting. To add to the ambiance, the service crew wore peranakan themed face masks. The afternoon tea is available between 1PM to 5.30Pm although on weekends, it is divided into two seating to facilitate the larger crowd.
Tip: The Burpple Beyond programme offers a good discount of up to 50% on weekdays.
This specially curated afternoon tea menu includes a good range of sweet and savoury delights, accompanied by handcrafted coffee or a fine selection of TWG tea. This afternoon tea set is priced at $88++ for two guests. For those who wish to elevate their dining experience with two flutes of Taittinger Brut Champagne, this price would go up to $118++.
The lobby lounge within The Intercontinental Singapore.
After being ushered to our table, we were presented with two menus; the afternoon tea menu and beverage menu. The afternoon tea menu is fixed and they were rigid about it so don’t expect item replacements if you have dietary requirements. The tea selections by TWG were extensive, ranging from green teas to red teas. Alternatively, coffee options were also available.
Afternoon tea menu and fine tea selections at the Intercontinental Singapore.
Shortly after making our beverage choice known to the attentive service crew, our tea was served in a vintage style ceramic teapot. It took another thirty minutes before a multi-tiered wooden stand which housed our afternoon tea bites arrived.
Tea at the Intercontinental Singapore.
There is no doubt that the presentation was aesthetically pleasing, with eleven finger-sized bites distributed evenly across the multi-tiered wooden stand. The vibrancy of the food items compliments the posh backdrop of the lobby lounge.
A multi-tier wooden stand housing finger-sized bites.
The savoury selections include a deep fried chicken rendang mantou which was crispy and mildly spicy, a kale pesto crab sandwich which was flavourful and chewy and a kikorangi blue cheese strawberry crostini that had contrasting-taste ingredients which invoked our multiple taste buds although to some, it may be confusing. The selections also include a juicy five-spice kurobuta pork ngoh hiang with mango.
Savoury selections during the afternoon tea.
Part of the sweet selections included locally inspired milo and lemon scones. These came together with homemade gula Melaka coconut jam, strawberry jam and clotted cream. In all honesty, these were underwhelming. The scones were dry, hard and tasteless. The gula Melaka jam was essentially Kaya and the strawberry jam was watery. We were unsure if we got an unlucky batch of scones but they were one of the worst scones we ever had.
Milo and lemon scones with gula Melaka and strawberry jam and clotted cream.
Fortunately, the dessert selections were a lot better. The ondeh-ondeh pandan coconut mousse cake was our favourite, its soft texture and gula Melaka filling oozing out as we took a bite, was highly satisfying. The pulut hitam chiffon cake was equally delightful, topped with salted coconut cream mimicking the traditional pulut hitam dessert. Other desserts included a chewy ang ku kueh with mung bean paste, banana genoa with caramel whipped cream and a glass of chendol jelly.
Dessert selections during the afternoon tea.
To wrap up the afternoon tea, a choice of Snickers, strawberry and Thai milk tea Gelato with toppings were made available.
Snickers and Thai milk tea Gelato with Oreo crumbs.
Concluding remarks: To be honest, we were unsure of how this afternoon tea would turn out as we were accustomed to traditional English themed presentations. Our overall experience was a positive one, the palatial setting of the Lobby Lounge was relaxing, the service crew were attentive and the food was mostly enjoyable. For those who wish to experience a uniquely local-themed afternoon tea, this would be one to consider.
