Received the pleasure of a gift voucher for afternoon tea at The Windsor as a gift voucher and eagerly anticipated my visit there. The voucher itself was a beautifully presented gift, like a credit card, iit sat within a red and embossed gold card within a matching envelope, very elegant.
The card warned that booking for a Sunday needed to be well in advance so I did as instructed and booked about three months in advance.
We arrived about 30 minutes early to find we could only be admitted 5 minutes before service started so we had 25 minutes to spare. It's a pity the Windsor does not have a lobby bar as we could happily have settled with a glass of champagne, but did not quite have enough time to comfortably go to the Cricketers Bar next door. It was very crowded in the lobby as it was Open House weekend in Melbourne and the hotel was open for free tours. This did sort of ruin the exclusive ambience we expected as did the queue at the door to get in.
The queue did move quickly once they started showing people to their tables. We had a lovely table for four in the window. Our waiter was outstanding, offering excellent advice about how to pace your self during the service, avoiding others at the chocolate fountain and avoiding the hens parties in the ladies room. He also offered great advice on the tea menu.
We started with the included (complimentary?) pink sparkling which I think was a moscato, nice but a little too sweet. They brought out the savory tiered stand, ribbon sandwiches on the bottom, hot savouries in the middle with a lovely pumpkin pastie, a tiny chicken pot pie and an onion tart, with scones on the top tier. Being starving the savory pastries were demolished in seconds, quickly followed by the sandwiches.
The desert buffet was sensational, if you couldn't find something you liked here then you just dont like sweets. If eating the Creme brûlée eat it early on as they can go a bit watery if left to stand too long. The fresh made crepes were a highlight and the apple crumble smelled divine.
My only concerns were the scones weren't great, even though you didn't really need them with all the other options, they seemed a bit heavy which was further exacerbated by the fact they were glazed rather than floured.
The service went for about 90 minutes, you wouldn't have wanted any longer as you would have felt I'll in the end. All in all a truly lovely birthday gift and a great occasional experience.