It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. If you don’t want it to just look like Christmas, but you want it to taste like Christmas, get on down to G&Tea at The Star for their festive high tea during December.
Wandering through the fully decked halls of the Star, we find G&T tucked away in a corner. It appears like a lush oasis. There are huge terrariums filled with deep green plants that appear to magically float from the ceiling. There is teal and pink and gold trim everywhere. We plonk ourselves on our teal plush couch ready to be ladies who lunch, or high tea rather.
The Festive High Tea Menu ($90) includes your choice of tea (of course), or coffee, a sparkling wine or a signature festive Teatail. Today’s teatail was a Christmassy looking Midori, Cointreau, Jasmine Tea and Lemon brew. Ms Ada (my teen companion), was offered a mocktail alternative and she loved her passion fruit mojito. It was crisp, on the tart side. A perfect foil for the sweet treats to come.
All those treats are made in house at the on-site pastry kitchen, under the tutelage of the Star’s Executive pastry Chef Buddika Gunawardana. The creativity, skill and patience of his pastry team is apparent in every bite of this festive feast. Every morsel is incredibly refined, and delicately crafted. Maybe there’s a little Christmas magic here too.
The duck confit croquette is flash fried to perfection. Crispy on the outside and stuffed full of tender confit, it’s a Christmas cracker of a start to our feast. The mini field mushroom and chestnut wellington took Ada by surprise. “I don’t like mushrooms but I like this!” she proclaimed. It was impossible not to like, with golden flaky pastry and deeply flavoured but delicate mushroomy insides. An elf sized double-smoked maple ham, camembert, and cranberry sandwich tastes exactly like Christmas we both declare.
Now for the sweet treats. Small raisin scones took me back to my childhood. A mince pie no bigger than a 20-cent piece is perfection. How did they make it so small.? Are there elves in their kitchen? It’s the perfect balance of lightly spiced fruit filling and buttery short pastry. It happens to be an excellent food match to my NV Chandon. I think I’ve just planned Christmas breakfast.
I could go on more about the divine cherry tart that tasted like the best version of a cherry ripe you ever had, or the Bouche De Noul with the delightfully bitter shards of dark chocolate holding together gooey chocolatey moussey insides. But there should be some surprises at Christmas, shouldn’t there be?
G&Tea at The Star Sydney, Level G, The Star Grand Hotel Lobby, 80 Pyrmont Street – https://www.star.com.au/sydney/eat-and-drink/bars-and-club/gin-and-tea
Hours: Thursday – Sunday 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Cost: $90 Add Sparking Wine for $10 or Champagne for $20 per person. Please note bookings must be made 48 hours in advance.
