Review: Marriott Resort Surfers Paradise, Signature High Tea

30 June 2012 Lobby Lounge Bar Signature High Tea at the Marriott Resort Surfers Paradise

The Particulars:

Date: All year round
Time: Available daily until 3pm
Price: $27.50 per person
Minimum 2 guests.
Bookings: Phone 0755978700. Bookings essential.

The Review:

On 30 June 2012 ten members of my family attended the Lobby Lounge Bar to celebrate my Nanna’s 85^th Birthday by enjoying the Marriott’s signature High Tea.  Given the significance of this birthday and that all of the family were getting together we had high expectations of a beautiful morning.  Our booking was for 11.30am however arrived at 11.15am.  When we arrived we were seated at our table and the cream and milk were already sitting on the table.  We were offered tea and coffee initially by a waitress however when we requested for coffee the waitress did not come back to the table.  We also requested skim milk at this time and again the waitress did not come back. 

With other party members arriving by approximately 11.45am we still did not have the skim milk and coffees as requested however were now being served by a different waitress.

We again requested the coffee and milk and she attended to this.  However when someone requested early grey tea instead of English breakfast we were informed that this would be a further charge.  Given the similar costing in tea and that earl grey is a standard type of tea this was quite a shock.

We were served with our scones there was no jam on the table, and yet the cream by this time had been sitting in the sun for almost 45 mins.  When we requested jam the waitress brought out apricot conserve and marmalade.
We requested that we have strawberry jam with our scones and again the waitress went away and after delay we were provided with a basic necessity of jam to have with our hot cream and cold scones.  Furthermore, when a waitress brought out the food she was wearing a skin-coloured band-aid on one of her fingers, but what made this worse was that the band-aid was tattered and had strings coming off of it.  This was concerning given we did not know how much involvement she had in the preparation of our food.

Whilst the sun was beaming down on us through the glass windows, the finer details of luke warm tea out of thick coffee mugs, no tea pots on the table, and appalling service really ruined our day.  So much so that we wrote a written complaint.

The Food:

This high tea had all the regular favourites including finger sandwiches and scones.  You each the equivalent of two full sandwiches made up of a combination egg, salmon, turkey & cranberry and of course cucumber.  The sandwiches were fresh and there was ample filling.

The second tier was of course scones, jam and cream.  The scones were small, cold and quiet dry however there was adequate servings of jam and cream.  There was also a little blueberry friend muffin which was very fresh and a nice addition to this layer.  The top layer included all things chocolate – chocolate dipped pears, warm chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries, chocolate covered marshmallows and strawberry and white chocolate tart.

The third tier was a cinnamon scroll of which my family didn’t eat; mini chocolate éclairs, blueberry cheesecake and a custard tart.

Overall the food was quite nice.  The food however did not shine enough to distract from the poor service and attention not being paid to the things that really make high tea a favourable experience.