There’s just something about being served tea in a gilded three-tier stand that makes it extra scrumptious (and it has nothing to do with looking good for the ‘gram.) Whatever your budget, if you’re hunting for a spot of tea around the island, here are the best places to indulge and feel good doing it.
10 Scotts
Afternoon tea at Grand Hyatt means a humble two-tier dessert packed with cupcakes, macarons and cakes—as well as a whopping “semi-buffet” spread of hams, cheese, seafood, sandwiches and sushi.
If for some reason you’re still peckish, there are hearty meat dishes too, like braised beef cheeks, Irish stew and Shepard’s Pie. It’s a little pricier at $50 on weekdays and $53 on weekends, but comes with free-flow of gourmet TWG teas and coffee.
- Service Hours: Daily 12:00pm – 2:30pm, Saturday – Sunday 3:00 – 5:30pm for high tea
Atrium
In the floating pods of Pan Pacific Singapore’s Atrium bar, have your choice of East or West afternoon tea. The English Afternoon Tea set comes with three tiers of innovative tea-time finger foods—savories like Applewood smoked salmon in a waffle cup, and roasted pumpkin on a scarlet tomato slider; and sweets like chocolate scones, pina colada cheesecake, and an addictive chilled early grey chocolate.
But it’s the newly added Peranakan Afternoon Tea we prefer, switching out the tiers for a three-layered tiffin carrier. Inside, there’s Muar Otah kueh pie tee, mutton rendang sandwiches, and Nyonya curry on French baguette. The assortment of old-school kuehs is a nice touch too. $42 per person, or $80 for two.
- Service Hours: Monday – Friday, 2:30pm – 5:30pm for high tea
Chihuly Lounge
The luxurious joint at the Ritz-Carlton offers an eight-course weekday afternoon tea set on weekdays ($49 per person) and a high tea buffet during the weekends. The latter menu changes every three months and currently includes gourmet sandwiches, pan-fried gyoza, wagyu beef, and goose liver parfait.
The dessert spread is equally extensive with banana cream pie, scones, lemon mille-feuille and an assortment of chocolate truffles. For that $58 price tag, just skip lunch and head straight here.
- Service Hours: Daily 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Saturday – Sunday 2:30pm -5:00pm for high tea
Clifford Pier
It’s another heritage-themed afternoon tea set, this time along the beautiful bay at Clifford Pier. Step back into your grandmother’s kitchen (assuming your grandma was Peranakan), and feast on Nonya chicken curry and roti jala wraps, kurobuta pork kong bak baos, chili crab baos, XO carrot cake, and wagyu beef rendang croquettes.
In-theme sweets like pandan swiss rolls, mini kopi and almond butter bunds, and even Indonesian bika ambon kuehs round up the spread. It’s $45 per person with your choice of local or Western coffees and teas; and $55 to add a glass of Primo Amore Moscato.
- Service Hours: Monday – Friday 3:30p-5:30pm), Sat-Sun (3-5pm) for high tea
Dean & Deluca
Only available at the HillV2 branch, the weekend Afternoon Tea Set comes with three generous tiers of buttery pastries, macarons, and bite-sized cakes. You’ll also get scones and sandwiches like the Smoked Salmon & Pickled Cucumber, plus tea, which isn’t a bad deal considering the set for two is $35.
- Service Hours: Saturday – Sunday, 3:00pm – 6:00 pm for high tea
Marmalade Pantry
Photo credit: The Marmalade Pantry Facebook
The beloved ION veteran might be shuttering, but once an icon of afternoon tea, always an icon. You can still head to The Marmalade Pantry at its Oasia Hotel Downtown and Novena outlets for High Tea ($38 per set).
The set is packed with egg and cress, beef and horseradish, and shrimp finger sandwiches, buttermilk scones with clotted cream, and your choice of any two of their famous cupcakes. Each set comes with two pots of Gryphon teas too.
- Service Hours: Monday – Sunday, 3:00pm – 6:00pm for high tea
Renku
A personal favorite of ours, Renku Bar and Lounge is Marina Bay Sands’ first 24-hours premium bar lounge. There aren’t exactly tiers here, but there is a custom-made gueridon trolley wheeling your treats that’s a worthy substitute. The unlimited buffet of finger sandwiches, scones and desserts is delightful, but the piece de resistance is the five-star tea service.
Pick from 13 unique artisanal blends (like the pandan earl grey black tea, or MBS exclusive jasmine tea Marina Pearls), and feel free to switch out to another pot any time throughout your meal so you can taste the full line-up. It’s $48 on weekdays and $53 on weekends, but definitely one for the tea fanatics.
- Service Hours: Daily, 2:00pm -3:30pm and 4:00 – 5:30pm for high tea
Tea Lounge
On weekdays, Regent Singapore’s Tea Lounge serves some of the most delicious scones in town, along with premium finger sandwiches like watercress crepes with Alaskan King Crab and bites of wagyu beef on rye. Coffee lovers will be stoked to know that the beverage options include pour-over coffee using beans from Common Man Coffee Roasters. The $48 price tag also entitles you to one dessert off the menu.
Come the weekend however, the tea lounge switches things up with a hefty Weekend High Tea Buffet ($65) of local and Western savory eats—like lobster laksa, dim sum, roast beef and Norway salmon confit. No tiers here, but you might be stuffed to tears.
- Service Hours: Monday – Friday, 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Saturday – Sunday 12:00pm – 2:30pm and 3:00 – 5:30pm for high tea
The Lobby Lounge at Shangri-La
It can’t get any more value-for-money with Shangri-La Hotel’s afternoon tea set for two at just $38. Inspired by Singapore’s culinary heritage, the set includes local favorites like curry and chili crab puffs, bi hiam finger sandwiches, otak otak with mantou and taro balls on the bottom-most tier. One tier up is kuehs galore, with ondeh ondeh, rainbow lapis and pandan kueh dadar; while the finishing sweets feature scones with a local twist—think gula melaka and pandan—and even a durian mousse. Every set also comes with pork satay and pulut hitam, so come hungry.
- Service Hours: Monday – Friday 3:00pm – 5pm, Saturday – Sunday 4:00pm – 6:30pm for high tea
The Knolls
At The Knolls, you can choose from the English Tea, Japanese Tea, Peranakan Tea and Nonya Tea sets, which consist of classic items like smoked salmon and egg and chive sandwiches, lemon pound cake, unagi tamago rolls, matcha profiteroles and even otak-otak sandwiches. Nothing like dining in the beautiful setting of Sentosa Island too. Tea sets start at $39.90 per person.
- Service Hours: Monday – Friday, 3:00pm -5:00pm for high tea
The Landing Point
This lovely waterside cafe offers luxe offerings like Boston lobster cornet, smoked salmon mille-feuille with caviar, pistachio-crusted smoked duck in olive bread roulade, and sakura gold macarons, served on a classic three-tiered plate. $45 with a free flow of coffee and TWG teas.
- Service Hours: Daily, 3:00pm – 5:30pm for high tea
This article first appeared on SG Magazine, the best source of lifestyle news in Singapore.
