We enjoyed our afternoon tea on the covered terrace, while at the ground level the wedding was on full swing.
Georgetown is abundant in historical places with divine food such as renowned Eastern & Oriental Hotel and its boutique rival Farquhar mansion, as well as the transformed Macalister Mansion. Wild & Free love for afternoon tea drove us away from UNESCO Heritage Centre to the Suffolk House. A short drive took us closer to colonial times, maybe even closer than we hoped for, but you’ll find more about that later in this Suffolk House afternoon tea review. For a start, you can rest assured the Suffolk House unique garden with century-old trees is perfect for stress management.
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We can describe our afternoon tea at the Suffolk House terrace as very peaceful, with a sense of the passing time. After all, the building has about 215 years and the colonial spirit is there. Open terrace has an unspoiled view over the giant trees where catching a glimpse of a flying bird is easy. Maybe even more precious is to hear them sing after they land on the century-old branch. Even though our gaze was aimed towards the garden, we couldn’t ignore the need for some renovation. Especially off-putting was the table setting with laminated menus and the dripping teapots. Other than that, we must admit that despite the worn-out furniture, we felt rather cozy in the middle of the shabby rustic environment.
Let’s start this Suffolk House afternoon tea review with Ronnefeldt tea selection. A modest number of high-quality tea types covers the just ultimate basics. Meaning you’ll find herbal infusions with calming effects as well as a few flavored tea samples with boosting properties on the menu.
We can say that the tea menu needs an update just like the terrace, given that the Jungpana is the new Darjeeling Summer Gold. Still, the Darjeeling’s second flush picked from June to August cleaned our pallet with a slightly bitter finish and pleasing muscat notes. Second loose tea of our choice, Rooibos Cream Orange didn’t make it to our table. Instead of it, we got the vanilla rooibos, which is always a good option.
All four scones at Suffolk House had the perfect souffle shape with a crisp exterior and soft middle. Chef added some dried fruit to the dough to slightly sweeten the scones and encourage us to appreciate them before digging into the jam. A great triumph here was home-made jams. The strawberry jam before the tomato jam worked perfectly for us.
Here we must point out that tomato jam felt almost like it’s made of goji berries or something with a similar flavor. The golden medal for pineapple jam still belongs to the E&O hotel, but that doesn’t mean Suffolk’s wasn’t tasty. It was more straightforward and went wonderfully with the butter, and the same goes for the apple jam.
Both of us got four pieces of good old classic afternoon tea snacks, all were freshly prepared and tasty, but more about them in the lines below.
Let’s start with the hottest bite of this Suffolk House afternoon tea review. Once we got the tea set on the table, the pie was smoking hot and gave us just enough time to eat scones first. Cutting into it revealed big chunks of meat and mushrooms, plus some of the vegetables for more complex taste.
This one-bite tart wasn’t the cutest one but it was our favorite for another aspect. We loved the crisp texture of a one-minute beetroot pickle with a refreshing taste. It was delicious on top of cream cheese and puffed pastry.
Both cucumber and salmon sandwiches were freshly prepared, moist, and tasty. In case of a mild cucumber sandwich, we wished for a thicker slice of the star, mostly for firmer crunch, even though the existing piece delivered lots of taste. With the second sandwich, Chef added some chili jam to put smoked salmon into the spotlight. In the end, it heated the bite and provided some extra moisture. Lovely sandwiches!
Traditional pastry at the Suffolk house didn’t satisfy our sweet tooth due to the lack of any other flavor than the sugar. We’ll not get into the details because there is no point; all we want to say is the “to die for sweets” are off the table. Even the most fundamental item, the cookie, left us empty inside.
We can’t go past the dripping teapots, laminated table mat, and uninterested service, which gave us a sloppy impression. There is a lot of room for sweet bites improvement, and for keeping it up with all afternoon teas in Penang, that is mandatory. After all, at Suffolk House, there are many weddings, so I bet they know what good dessert should be.
We love the idea of a century-old building with equivalent Victorian afternoon tea. As a matter of fact, the Suffolk House is more than perfect for it. In addition to the large garden, the island has plenty of warm sunny days that are more than suitable for the lavish garden afternoon tea party. Of course, the large terrace does the job well, but it needs a helping hand with a few adjustments. My opinion is they should reinvent the sweet part of Suffolk afternoon tea and make it in a terrace style – lavish!
If you are looking for the best high tea in Penang, don’t miss out on our article and find out which is the best afternoon tea in Penang in our opinion.
Set for two comes for 23$ and is served with a tea of your choice. If you would like to give them a visit, here is a link to a location for easier navigation. You have a taxi and even the bus option, directly from Georgetown center.
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