andy & shaya

As part of our Memorial Day weekend, Andy took this lucky lady on a day trip to the beautiful city of Victoria, BC. After a long, lazy ferry ride that included machine-made beverages,

…a tour of a Scottish castle (at least, the owner who built it modeled it after one in the 1800′s)

…and the hunt for the best made latte in Victoria (side story: Andy did some research and found that an award-winning Canadian barista had opened his own cafe in the downtown area. With great expectations of a really good cup of coffee, we went in to find that although the super-barista himself was working, he was training two new, incredibly clueless employees who were the ones that made our drinks. And they weren’t very good unfortunately.),

…we finally made it to the ‘crown jewel’ of our little day trip, tea at the historic Empress Hotel!

After we were seated in the lavishly decorated dining room (and the host draped our napkins on our laps after holding out the chairs), a very well-trained and polite tea attendant came and took our order. Andy and I chose the signature Empress Blend for our tea, which happened to be a nice, mild, fragrant black tea much like an earl grey (don’t put your faith in me, though, because I really am not a tea expert).

First, a little goblet of mixed fruit was served to each of us as an appetizer. Soon, our food came out on it’s pretty silver tray. **Before I continue the review, I’d just like to say how disappointed I was not to be able to modify anything on the menu. What you see was what you got, and I really wish i could have had more of a choice in what was served, as entitled as that sounds. I was, of course, ready to let the supposed experts at the Empress impress me as they saw fit.

Anyway,

…looks good doesn’t it? Here’s the menu, and I’ll review as I list:

Bottom tray–

Sandwiches:
Smoked Salmon Pinwheel ~ moderately tasty, nothing special
Mango and Curried Chicken ~ andy doesn’t like curry, but they were good
Carrot and Ginger (cream cheese) ~ mmm actually good
Cucumber with light Horseradish Mayonnaise ~ love cucumber sandwiches!!
Multigrain Crostini topped with mixed Mushroom Pate, drizzled with Truffle Oil (open-faced) ~ the last thing I’d ever eat but andy was RAVING about these

Middle Tray–

Warm Raisin Scones served with Strawberry preserves and Devonshire Cream ~ thumbs down for the raisin scones, they were bland and I really don’t like the raisins, but the preserves and the cream were both fantastic!!

Top Tray–

Pastries
Battenburg-Vanilla and Chocolate Sponge Checkerboard wrapped in marzipan ~ bleckh
Chocolate Cake-Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Butter cream, topped with Ganache ~ not bad
Lemon Tart- Lemon Curd with Berry Garnish ~ mediocre
Shortbread- Earl Grey Tea ~ I don’t think either of us tried these, they didn’t look too good
Marble Chocolate Tulip- a cherry hidden under milk and white
Chocolate in a Chocolate Tulip Cup ~ Andy liked but I HATE liquidy cherries stuck in the middle of chocolates, there is just no good way of spinning this

So that’s it. Overall, I wasn’t totally enthralled by the food that was served- especially for the price of about $45US per person. To tell the truth I felt like it was all somewhat underwhelming and a little disappointing. HOWEVER, the atmosphere, the setting, the service, the company, and the tea itself, with one lump or two, all contributed to us having a fantastic time and leaving feeling a lot like this: