Showing posts with label tea room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tea room. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Erawan Tea Room @ Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok - เอราวัณทีรูม @ แกรนด์ ไฮแอท เอราวัณ กรุงเทพ

Cuisine: Thai
Price: THB400 per person without alcohol (what we paid for)
Visited: 3 May 2014
Food: 5/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Value for money: 5/10
Services: 3/10
Scale: [ 1=poor ----- 5=average/standard ----- 10=outstanding/exceptional ]

It was one fine but extremely hot Saturday that we decided to give Erawan Tea Room at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok a go. The Erawan Tea Room is located on the 2nd floor of Erawan Bangkok Mall which is the shopping part of Grand Hyatt Erawan. The place is pretty big with large windows through out the area. The inner decoration is somewhat Thai style but with fusion regime of contemporary. For me, though it at least gives comfortable and relax sense, there are still some weird feeling of unbalance mix and match. The part that we do not so in love is the fact that some tables can be so close to each other. When we say so close, we really mean it: just turning back and you can be face-to-face with the next table. Erawan Tea Room surely fails the privacy category.

To travel here is rather convenient as Erawan is just a few minutes walk from BTS Chidlom station, else driving is perfectly fine too with spacious car park. The part that we would particularly like to complaint is the service. Staffs were pretty much ignorant and unfriendly. The first impression was the bad one. We were here for afternoon tea. However, Erawan Tea Room starts serving afternoon tea from 02:30pm, we happened to arrive 15 minutes earlier. The welcoming staff did not look so happily to welcome us at all. All she mentioned was afternoon tea wouldn't be served until 02:30pm and we may return 15 minutes later. I supposed that a good service should be like offering us to take a seat and wait or order some soft drink while waiting. Anyway, let not mention the other not so impressive experience. Perhaps we were wrong to be local and Erawan Tea Room happens to be famous amongst tourists.

Erawan Tea Room @ Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok

shop front




During lunch and dinner, Erawan Tea Room serves ranges of Thai food. However, the famous part of Erawan Tea Room is obviously the afternoon tea. Afternoon tea (THB390 per person) here is different from other places in the way that range of savoury bites and desserts is not the Western style but Thai style with mix and match of some Western dishes. For beverage choice, you can choose any of tea or coffee range from the menu. For us, we went for Thai Milk Tea and Lemon Iced Tea this time. The Summer heat in Bangkok this year is pretty bad and we could not really insist for hot tea. Both Thai milk tea and lemon iced tea were still short of tea concentration. They were too light indeed. For food, they were on average, meaning enjoyable but not a must try thing. What surprise us was the scone. It happened to be better than expected. Scones in many places in Thailand are really not so nice from our point of view. The one at Erawan Tea Room was not bad at all. They were soft but chewy and tasteful. If they do serve clotted cream instead of whipped cream that would be much better.

The tea set came in 2 parts: Savoury Bites and Desserts. Here are the savoury bites part of the day we visited.

Larb Goong Sod - ลาบกุ้งสด (spicy minced prawn salad with chilli and mint leaves in cucumber cup)
Tod Mun Pla Krai - ทอดมันปลากราย (deep-fried fish fritter with cucumber and peanut sauce)
Chor Muang Sai Poo - ช่อม่วงไส้ปู (steamed flower-shaped dumpling filled with crab meat)
Mieng Kratong Thong - เมี่ยงกระทงทอง (roasted coconut, lime, chilli and ginger with betel leaves in crisp basket)
Mar Hor - ม้าฮ่อ (minced pork and peanuts on fresh pineapple)


Thai Milk Tea and Lemon Iced Tea

afternoon tea set

savouries

The range of dessert is as below. They came with the mix of Thai and Western choices. For macaron, the texture was good but the filling was strange, especiall the pandan and lemongrass. The part that we did not like was the seasonal fruit skewer. It was just fruit really and too plain in fact.

Kanom Krok - ขนมครก (crispy rice pudding with taro, corn, pumpkin or spring onion)
Kanom Bueng - ขนมเบื้อง (crispy bean crepe with sweet or salted filling)
Thong Muan - ทองม้วน (crispy sesame roll)
Chocolate Macaron - ช็อกโกแลตมากาฮอง
Pandan and Lemongrass Macaron - ใบเตยและตะไคร้มากาฮอง
Mini Organic Passion Fruit Tart - ทาร์ตเสาวรสออร์แกนิค
Khao Niew Mamuang - ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง (mango with sticky rice)
Polamai Ruam - ผลไม้รวม (seasonal fresh fruit skewer)
Look Chub - ลูกชุบ (sweet bean paste fruit shapes)
Scones with Whipped Cream and Chiang Mai Strawberry Jam - สโคนและแยมสตรอเบอรี่

Anyway, the overall taste and atmosphere was ok. Only the service that was not so great from our view. We wish they can improve on this as well as the attitude of staffs. What we feel was that the afternoon tea is not really the one must try thing, however, the range of Thai food looks not bad at all. We may perhaps find another occasion to try their Thai dishes. But no more for afternoon tea here.

By the way, do book in advance if you would visit Erawan Tea Room for afternoon tea during weekend. It can be really packed.

dessert 1

dessert 2

scones with whipped cream and strawberry jam

Erawan Tea Room @ Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok - เอราวัณทีรูม @ แกรนด์ ไฮแอท เอราวัณ กรุงเทพ
494 Ratchadamri Road
Pathumwan
Bangkok 10330
Thailand

Open Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Patisserie and Chocolaterie Bigot @ Amboise, France

Cuisine: French Food, Pastry, Chocolate
Price: EUR10 per person without alcohol (what I paid for)
Visited: 1-5 May 2013
Food: 8/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Value for money: 9/10
Services: 9/10

Bigot is an old patisserie that is located just right next to Chateau d'Amboise in a small town of Amboise along the Loire river. During my visit to Loire Valley, my party and I almost everyday had our breakfast at Bigot. Needless to say how fantastic this place is.

Bigot @ Amboise

simply classic setting

Bigot may not be such a big franchise such as Pierre Herme or Laduree and is still run by family but the quality is of high standard. At its 100 year of birth this year, this should prove enough of its quality. Services are as well splendid, staffs are friendly especially the lady owner, Christiane Mason, who are so lovely and adorable.

macaron

cake selection

pastry choices

I will not go into detail of each piece I tried but the picture should speak for itself well enough. Pastry are nice, Viennoiseries are crisp and yummy, and what I really like was hot chocolate which is smooth and creamy. Well, I highly recommend you to have a chill breakfast or relax afternoon tea at this place if you happen to be around Amboise.


baba

fruit tart

strawberry mille feuille

chocolat chantilly

chocolat de Grand-Mere

strawberry cake

pistachio cake

chocolat a l'ancienne

mushroom omelette

inside mushroom omelette


Patisserie and Chocolaterie Bigot @ Amboise, France
2 Rue Nationale
37400 Amboise
France

Open Hours: Tue - Fri from 09:00am - 07:30pm and Sat - Sun from 08:30am - 07:30pm

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Singapore Patisserie & Tea Room: Ah Teng's Bakery & TWG Tea Salon

Cuisine: Tea Room & Patisserie
Visited: 28-29 May 2011

During our short trip to Singapore at the end of May, we had a chance to visit 2 tea room, one being Ah Teng's Bakery @ Raffles Singapore and the other one was TWG Tea Room @ ION Shopping Mall.

Ah Teng's Bakery @ Raffles Singapore

Price: SGD9.00 per person (what I paid for)
Food: 5/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Value for money: 4/10

This Chinese style tea house of Raffles Singapore serves rather quality bakery daily. The area of this place is sharing with the adjacent Empire Cafe. We love the classic colonial decoration of this place, a bit of old fashion but look really calm and fabulous in style.

Ah Teng's Bakery @ Raffles Singapore

Menu Board

The Chinese Style Surrounding

We did not have much chance to try many different things, including the famous banana pastry, but photos were taken to share here.

Lychee Raspberry Tart

Tropical Fruits Choux a la Creme

Sacher Cake

Chocolate Banana Cake

Cheese Cake

Scone Set with English Breakfast Tea had soft texture but would be much appreciated if it was warm. It came with clotted cream that was not so rich in taste and jam was not a home-made one (5/10).

Scone Set with English Breakfast Tea

Black Forest Cake tasted rather standard. Though it was an enjoyable one but more smoothness and cherry would be preferable (5/10). 

Black Forest Cake

Strawberry Jelly Lemon Panna Cotta was just a typical panna cotta with jelly but delightful to have though (4/10).

Strawberry Jelly Lemon Panna Cotta

Ah Teng's Bakery @ Raffles Singapore
1 Beach Road
Singapore 189673

Open Hours: Sun-Thu 07:30am - 10:00pm and Fri-Sat 07:30am - 11:00pm
Tel: +65 (0) 6412 1816



TWG Tea Salon & Boutique @ ION Shopping Mall, Singapore

Price: SGD14.00 per person (what I paid for)
Food: 4/10
Atmosphere: 4/10
Value for money: 5/10

TWG is a well-known tea house of Singapore. There are a few houses around Singapore Island. We managed to go there during weekend and without surprise, the shop was packed with customers. For TWG Tea Salon & Boutique @ ION Shopping Mall, the place is rather tiny and can accommodate around 30 guests only. The decoration is elegant but we do not like the large window that allows outsiders to look through though. What impressed us was the long list of fine tea with description, there were around 100 choices of tea to be chosen (just guess ^^).

TWG Tea Salon & Boutique @ ION Shopping Mall

The Entrance

Shelf of Tea

Pile of Muffin

We chose Rwanda Express for the choice of tea. It was a light black tea with hint of caramel. This should be great with pastry that is thick and creamy. Scones came with tea jelly and whipped cream rather that clotted cream. It was dry in texture but tea jelly was interesting (4/10).


Rwanda Express

Scones Set

Raspberry Mille-feuille was wonderful. Unlike scones, this had soft and smooth filling of vanilla chestnut cream with crisp pastry. Loads of raspberry. Not so sweet on the overall (7/10).

We did also try a few macarons: Napoleon Tea & Caramel, Earl Grey Fortune & Chocolate, and 1837 Black Tea & Blackcurrant. Disappointed really but unique. Blending of TWG tea into maroons was interesting but did not go well from our perspective (3/10).

Raspberry Mille-feuille

TWG Tea Macarons

TWG Tea Salon & Boutique @ ION Shopping Mall, Singapore
2 Orchard Turn, #02-21
Singapore 238801

Open Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily
Tel: +65 (0) 6735 1837
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