Hotel Cafe Royal ~ Oscar Wilde Style

Yesterday, we had another little midday break in our scheduling, so Molly and I ventured to the Hotel Cafe Royal for an afternoon tea in the Oscar Wilde Bar.

First of all, the room is absolutely gorgeous, with the mirrors reflecting all the gold and making it all the more impressive. Not to mention the pianist who not only serenaded us with Disney, movie and musical tunes, he also took requests from Molly 🙂

Upon the waitress’ and Molly’s urging, I did not take the masculine, Oscar tea, but I did take the golden one, inspired by the details of the room’s ceiling. I forget the name and didn’t actually see any pieces of gold, but it was delicious, even without sugar.

Our first tray that came out was full of interesting sandwiches. We started at the top and made our way down, beginning with the goat’s cheese and Gruyere muffin. The tube contains tomato juice, that we injected into the muffin. I am not a fan of goat’s cheese or tomato juice, but I still tried it, and ended up finishing it, so pretty good. Next, we had the traditional cucumber and cream cheese, this time on a red bread, and with possibly chives inside. The onion-y taste wasn’t overwhelming, and the sandwich was too good to give up on.
The second level had prawn salad in a bun, followed by a sort of hard cheesy crust thing with smoked salmon and a quail egg on top. The salmon with the egg was absolutely delicious, and reminded me of the white egg sauce my grandmother makes sometimes when we have salmon. The bottom layer had the traditional coronation chicken, which was excellent, as always, and an onion wellington thing, that I let Molly have. I assume it was very tasty, because she was really happy that I don’t like onions, and would have asked for more if she wasn’t so full.

We next got a palate cleanser, of a lovely fruit juice, paired with the most delectable little cookie.

Finally, we got the scones and the dessert tray at the same time. We both opted to eat the scones first, with clotted cream and incredibly drippy jam. It tasted wonderful, but looks slightly awkward in pictures.

For the desserts, we had a lollipop with a hazelnut chocolate cream inside, and a vanilla sponge cake on the top layer. Molly told me she wished there had been more filling, so I put some lemon curd between the slices and had the filling pouring out with each bite. The paper on the lollipops was edible, we were told, so Molly and I bit right into it 🙂

The middle layer housed the checkered fondant wrapped cake piece, which is traditional for teas, and I absolutely love, as well as the cherry flavored macaroon, complete with Hotel Cafe Royal underground logo. Not the best macaroon I’ve ever had, but it gets all the points back for style!

The bottom layer had an orange layered cake thing which was surprisingly good, since I wasn’t looking forward to the orange, as well as a raspberry treat. The gelatinous part likes to come free, so bite slowly. Its worth it.

Intermittently throughout the meal, we got to converse with a toastmaster who was in the Royal NAVY, and had been to both Montreal and California. He could also recite some Oscar Wilde, and was a pleasure to talk to.
It was a the perfect way to spend a long lunch, with a beautiful setting, yummy food, incredibly friendly staff, and I definitely hope to go back 🙂