Hello and welcome back to all foodies and travelers around the globe. As you might know, we are perfectionists and always look only for the best. All reviews on our blog deserve to be here and if you are wondering what we do with bad reviews... We simply try to forget about them and notify the place about their fails. However, this time we came across one marvelous place with very much potential, but sadly with so bad execution. We will skip high tea review, but rather make a blog post on how location is not everything. Here are our thoughts about Dalat Palace high tea.
Atmosphere
When we were asking students of Dalat tourist high school what is their dream place to work at, we got always the same answer, Dalat Palace. So this must be the high end of hospitality here around and with a reason! To point out, heritage palace silently speaks for herself in a language of gracious elegance based on French baroque. Palace warmly embraces every guest with polished tops and shiny thrills, dating to the French colonial era. Bright Le Rabelais Restaurant fascinated us with its snow-white walls and golden ornaments. Best of all are large windows that breathe life to the stunning wooden floors and open the view. Yes, the terrace comes first, but eyes can easily travel from the large garden to the Xuan Huong Lake and the mountains. Prepare for some treats!
Tea
Our choice of tea at Dalat Palace was part of their collection, no loose tea just bags. Even though we don’t know what brand they were, we liked the taste of green tea and artichoke tea. Green tea had all the desired characteristics one wants, including the energy boost. One could say that artichoke herbal tea is a must-try in Da Lat because artichokes thrive in this environment. Throughout history, artichokes enjoy the status of herbal remedies for all kinds of health issues. We can say that just sniffing its sweet floral aroma with deep earthiness felt good. Drinking it was even better because of the subtle sweetness and earthiness. Hey, this afternoon tea is going well so far...
Dalat Palace Afternoon Tea
Expectations are high and saliva is ready to take down everything you through at us. And then out of nowhere, a wild high tea set, best described as the texas chainsaw massacre among tea culture. What in the world is going on? First thing first not all was bad, savouries were passable. Fresh bread, a good amount of filling, although presentations were dull and we would like at least one more piece.
We hate to be bitchy about failures because who doesn’t have a bad day… but it makes us very disappointed when our sweet tooth is left sour. There were situations when savory was meeh, but then boom sweets straight out of the last row like a phoenix.
Sweets made us angry so let’s keep it civil and say only that most of them were old and chewy. I swear, we were looking around if this was a hidden camera or a test like "let's test out these wannabe food critics. Who has the best idea of how to mock them? Nguyen: I know, let's make one of the desserts literally a can cream with Maraschino cherry on top. Nguyen2: That's f***** brilliant, they are gonna lose it". And we did!
We were hotel guests and for our stay, we haven't tried any other food except breakfast here. And that is sad, especially when you stay at a grand place like this. Congratulations to the hotel management... However, more about our Dalat Palace review, next time.
Final Thought
The afternoon tea menu at the Dalat Palace is changing and we are happy about this fact. I hope they will change it thoroughly, with the staff and philosophy as well. Are we mad? Yes, because it could be perfect. They have everything and more, great location, history, heritage, ambiance, fresh local ingredients, even a local touristic school. Despite all the swank, suitable to any grand palace we felt quite down.
For us, food comes before housing and good food sends us in seven heavens. Well, that wasn’t the case here. It saddens us to admit that if we would go for a humble cup of tea instead of the afternoon tea, we would have a better memory of the Dalat Palace.