High Tea at Bistro Fax, Radisson Blu

Disclosure: This high tea was provided by Groupon for my review

I love high tea and always jump at the chance to try out a new place around Sydney. The guys at Groupon offered me the chance to try out one of their current restaurants that were being offered and when I received an email advising me of a high tea at Bistro Fax at the Radisson Blu, I couldn’t wait. This particular deal was $79 for two with a bottle of French sparkling rose and was worth $175.

The Groupon process was pain free and after acquiring the deal, the voucher was emailed straight to my inbox. I then emailed the Radisson to book in my high tea and received an almost instant reply to my request and we were good to go.

We arrived at the Radisson on a rainy afternoon, the perfect weather to cozy up on the couch and eat and drink as much as possible. I presented my Groupon voucher to the hostess and we were shown to our table.

Our bottle of French sparkling rose soon arrived which was delicious.

We ordered our hot beverages, a (rather average) Vittoria cappuccino for my friend and Twinings English Breakfast for me.

Our three tiers of treats is soon brought to our table and the waiter rushes off without so much as a hint of what we have to eat, let alone plates or cutlery. We spend the next 5 minutes fervently trying to get the attention of any of the waiters, finally flagging down another waitress who brings us cutlery and plates and talks us through the tiers upon request.

On the bottom layer is a selection of cucumber dill sandwichs,  salmon toast with cream cheese, dill and capers, rare roast beef and horse radish sandwiches and curry chicken puffs. The standout was definitely the curry puffs, full of flavour and the right amount of spice.

Tier 2 consisted of a selection of plain and fruit scones, with cream and jam. The scones were lovely, the perfect texture and not too dry.

Saving the best to last, we attack the top dessert tier. My favourite was the key lemon tart with its rich and tart filling, closely followed by the strawberry Swiss roll (I’m a sucker for anything with strawberries and cream!) The passion fruit jelly pots were very tasty but unfortunately the jelly wasn’t set properly. I only managed a mouthful of both the seasonal fruit and custard tart and the chocolate walnut brownies with double cream – by this stage I was stuffed!

We noticed other tables having their wine topped up regularly, however we were left to our own devices. Overall we had a lovely afternoon enjoying wine, tea and delicious treats at a heavily discounted price – I just hope Bistro Fax makes significant improvements to their service.