Last week, I was kindly invited by Zomato to an ‘Ever so girly and glamorous High Tea’ at Waipuna Hotel. This was an invitation I simply couldn’t resist so that Saturday morning, I got ready, drove to the hotel and went inside Wellington’s Restaurant and Bar where I greeted by the lovely view of Panmure Basin and Mount Wellington.

I had a feeling it was going to be a great day and I was right. To know my first high tea experience at Waipuna Hotel, click below. It was an afternoon full of good food and meeting new people too.

This is the view I was talking about.

It was a glorious summer day which made my high tea experience in Waipuna Hotel even better.

Our table was set with pretty flowers too and we had Kopiko Bay sparkling wine upon arrival.

This was the table setting. The high tea menu has three tiers. The top is for savouries, second is sweets and the third is for scones and macarons.

We started off with tea and Waipuna Hotel offers a good selection of Dilmah loose-leaf teas.

I opted for the Moroccan Mint Green Tea. Honestly, I’m not a big tea drinker but I like green tea the most.

Here’s a closer photo of the menu. I hope you can read it.

It details what’s in each tiers. The first and second tiers have four different things while the third has two. There were 10 things all up and they were enough to fill me up.

Before we got started with the actual tiers of food, we were given the amuse-bouche which is a salmon mousse in a waffle cone. This was a good start for me. This was tasty and I liked the different textures from the soft salmon to the crunch of the cone.

Then the exciting part finally came.

This beautiful tray of food arrived right in front of me. Everyone in the table got excited.

Being the foodies and bloggers that we are, there was a photo session first because any of us even started eating the food. The tiers were too pretty not to take a photo of.

The first plate/tier of food has the savouries:

The menu had: Croque-Monsieur with honey cured ham, dijon and gruyere cheese, Smoked salmon crepe, Garlic thyme roasted lamb on bruschetta and pesto, and the Louisiana Creole spiced chicken slider.

These two were my top picks from the first plate. The slider is at the front and the Croque-Monsieur at the back. These two were full of flavour and the croque-monsieur was nicely presented in the jar so you can dip it in the cheese.

The Salmon crepe was okay but it did fall apart and separated so it didn’t look as good. My least favourite was the roasted lamb on bruschetta. I found the bruschetta too hard and compared to the other things, it was the least exciting for me.

I have a sweet tooth so the second plate/tier was my favourite out of all three:

This was the beautiful display of desserts which were: Opera slice layered with butter cream ganache, Single origin heirloom choc-orange pots with chocolate and raspberry soil, Strawberry and almond frangipane tart and the Alphonso mango pudding with pure mango glaze. I truly loved this plate of food.

This Mango pudding my favourite but all the desserts were pretty good too. I love anything mango so when I saw this on the menu, I got excited. This didn’t disappoint and I actually ate two servings of this as someone gave me hers as she was too full to eat any more.

This was the Opera slice which was another great dessert. In contrast to the sweet and creaminess of the mango pudding, this had the coffee flavour without being too overwhelming. Although there were multiple layers, this was nice and light. I’m not a big fan of sponge cakes but I enjoyed this.

This was the Strawberry and almond frangipane tart. Compared to the other sweets, this was probably the simplest for me but it still tasted good.

The last one is the Single origin heirloom choc-orange pot with chocolate and raspberry soil. This was cute and great mix of textures. The orange wasn’t too overpowering for me which is good because I don’t usually like chocolate and orange mixed together. The orange bit was at the bottom of the pot.

The last plate/tier had the least items but it was still full.

It had the fresh lavender macarons and the Date and buttermilk scones with vanilla cream and strawberry preserve.

Most of us tried this plate last as we worked our way from top to bottom so by that time our scones would’ve been cold. Our lovely server came over and asked if we wanted the scones to be heated up. This was great service and it made a difference having the scones warm. The scones were light and buttery soft. I don’t like dates so I picked a few off but besides that, this is one of the better scones I’ve ever had.

As for the macaron, it tasted fresh so the menu wasn’t lying. I don’t really like lavender-flavoured things so I wasn’t overly excited to try it. However, I was pleasantly surprised as the lavender flavour was subtle. Having tried a lot of macarons, the texture of this was pretty spot on too. We were given a few macarons to take home too and my favourite was the lemon macaron. My partner enjoyed them too.

---

After trying everything on the high tea menu, I was impressed by the food and service at Waipuna hotel. This was my first high tea experience so I can’t really compare to others but when I found out the price, I was surprised by how affordable it is. I’ve searched for high teas from different restaurants before and they’re usually around $50+.

The high tea at Wellington’s Restaurant and Bar at Waipuna Hotel is $30 pp for the Classic High Tea or $35 pp for the Bubbly High Tea. For this price, I highly recommend trying this out. I think it’s well worth it. If you have a special occasion or just want a nice treat, consider having high tea with your friends or family. It’s a good reason to feel fancy or dress up too.

---

I had such a lovely time during high tea and I was able to meet new people too. What I love about Zomato’s foodie meetups is that I get to meet people that love food as much if not more than I do.

This time around, I was able to meet Kellie, Tiffany (from Heartshrooms) and Sophia (from Joy and Serenity). Across the table from me were also Samantha from PlanetBakeLife and Charlotte of Miss Charlotte Cake.

I love how us ladies dressed up for high tea. From left to right are: Sophia, myself, Tiffany and Kellie. I wore this floral backless dress from Valleygirl, white thrifted cardigan and Glassons wedges.

---

On top of it all, Zomato also had a photographer from Dean Lewis Photography who took some lovely snaps of the event. All photos from below were taken by Dean Lewis Photography.

This high tea experience would be great for a big group as well. The table setting was beautiful.

I had such a great time.

If you’re curious to know what goes on in a Zomato foodie meetup, this is it. Before any food consumption can be done, photos will need to be taken in every possible angle. Haha

---

A big thank you to Zomato for inviting me and for the staff at Waipuna Hotel and Wellington’s Restaurant and Bar for the wonderful food and service. I recommend this place if you’re after high tea that is good yet affordable.

If you’ve tried high tea somewhere else in Auckland, let me know where you recommend. I want to go again. I think it would be a great thing to experience with my sister or mum.

Instagram  |    Twitter    |    Facebook   |    Pinterest   |    Bloglovin