Last Sunday, Tim and I went to The Gables at East Malvern for High Tea. The Gables is a gorgeous old house at East Malvern (close to Caulfield Station) that has been impeccably maintained. It is called The Gables for an obvious reason:
The approach to the building is via a sweeping driveway:
Crowd control is achieved by locking the doors until the time for tea has arrived. On arrival, we were shown to our table in this gorgeous bright dining room, complete with a chandelier:
Very soon after being seated, our waitress poured us each a glass of delicious bubbly - real French champagne:
Here is the high tea menu - it makes me hungry just reading it:
And here is the tea tray itself, with Tim smiling in the background:
My favourites were the chicken and chives sandwich and the fruit scone with jam and cream.
There is of course tea. You select your own tea (I chose English Breakfast) from the tea menu, and it appears in a zippy little two cup tea plunger. The cups and saucers are of a smart Maxwell & Williams floral design.
If you can fit anything else in after polishing off your tea tray (and after two scones, I struggled), there is a generous dessert buffet:
I selected these little beauties - a raspberry eclair (not the greatest), a bounty tart (very nice) and a vanilla slice (superb!):
We overheard some ladies saying that they were not going to cook that night - I assume so that they could go to town on the dessert buffet. I couldn't manage anything else and was having something of a sugar high, so that was it for me.
Overall, the food was delicious and our waitress was lovely.
To walk off some of our tea, we walked back to my place, which was surprisingly close (we had come by train).
It was a lovely way to spend a balmy autumn day.
The Gables
15 Finch St
Malvern East VIC 3145
Phone: (03) 9563 6108
8 comments:
I Have never experienced a high tea adventure before, sounds wonderful, looks like quite a spread.
That sounds like my kind of afternoon adventure. I try to go for high tea when I'm travelling - there's always something classic and something local in the experience.
Ooh I do go crazy for an afternoon tea! And hehe at crowd control. Was there a big crowd gathered? Afternoon tea is definitely something I'd queue for :D
What a beautiful place. I'm glad you enjoyed the afternoon.
What a beautiful selection - and aren't the cake tongs wonderful?!
What a nice spread! I'd be thrilled with a cup of English breakfast tea and all those yummy teatime treats (that vanilla slice is especially tempting!).
Such a lovely selection. It made my mouth water too!
The high tea looks spectacular. I have never done anything like that before...it's not something we do here in the States and I would love to try it sometime. It seems like an awful lot of food in one time in one place...and it would be difficult not to want to sample so much of it. I think the walk back was a good idea! And now you know you can walk there and summon up an appetite to eat! Very fun to see and hear about, thanks for sharing, it's all just beautiful. And so cute with Tim peeking behind the risers! :-)
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