Afternoon Tea At The Victoria Room Tea Salon, Sydney CBD
Back to the food which has just arrived. The couture high tea has three layers, all with cleverly mismatched plates on their tiers (and from taking quick look at the other tables, the tiers are all different). We start on the sandwiches at the bottom which are downy and fresh. We sigh and say to each other that there truly is a place in the world for white sandwich bread and that is with ribbon sandwiches. There are four fillings: chicken, lemon and wild herbs; smoked salmon, rocket, lemon and caper; cucumber, creme fraiche and dill and roast beef, horseradish cream and baby cress which had a nice pepperiness to it. It’s hard to choose a favourite but I think it might be the chicken one.
We head up to the top tier where we try our rose scone-served warm (but it has gone a bit cold with us entertaining Poppy or the other way around really 
). The rose flavour is represented with several edible red rose petals and Turkish delight, baked and melted on top of the scone. And pairing it with the thickened clotted cream and thick strawberry jam is a great match as rose and strawberry go so well together. Chef Joe Gambacorta tells us that they’re intending to match jams with the scones soon too!
Our final tier has four sweeties: I start with what looks to be the lightest: a finely diced fruit salad tart with a crispy shortcrust pastry shell and a thick, smooth vanilla and lemon custard which is my favourite (oh I do love crispy tart shells and creamy custard!). Next is a pistachio cheesecake which is light and moist and there is also a vanilla cupcake with a zingy, fragrant passionfruit icing. Lastly, there is a dark chocolate cup with a chocolate shell, mousse filling and a fresh raspberry inside.
Earl Grey Premium
“Would you like some sugar?” Poppy asks.
Cheddar and thyme scone filled with smoked Atlantic salmon, crème fraîche and dill $14.50
Both Christie and I are fiends for smoked salmon so we thought that this would be a good item to indulge in some as well as try one of the scones as we were curious about the savoury scones. The portion of smoked salmon is generous and it is topped with rocket and dill crème fraîche. The scone underneath is is moist and dense and with that unmistakeable cheddar flavour to stand up to the smoked salmon.
Knickerbocker Glory $12.95
By now the garden area is very full as it is lunchtime and people come in with shopping bags or in groups looking for a respite for weary sale demented feet and minds. We’re not done just yet although truth be told our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and all of this designer fashion makes one rather careful not to enjoy ourselves too much But the Knickerbocker glory is a tall, impressive looking specimen and Poppy stares at it wide mouthed.
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